Naveen Awasthy

Experience

• 

  Motorola Solutions

  Aug 2004 - Mar 2007

  Firmware Developer

  • Collaborated with the Multimedia (MME) Group at Motorola India Electronics Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, contributing to the development of Audio and Video codec parsers. Formulated payload for feeding DSP and efficiently handled interrupts. • Gained valuable experience during a brief tenure at Cranes Technologies and Cognizant Solutions from July 2003 to July 2004.

• 

  HP

  Mar 2007 - Oct 2021

  In a pivotal role within the Firmware organization, I spearheaded a convergence project that yielded remarkable results, reducing R&D costs by 40% and enhancing development efficiency by 200%. This achievement translated into an impressive annual savings of approximately ~400M for HP's bottom line. Key accomplishments and responsibilities include:• Devising and executing an execution strategy to develop a unified core firmware stack as a horizontal platform. This approach ensured streamlined operations and maximized synergies across business domains.• Playing an active role in architectural design decisions, identifying opportunities to leverage the converged platform across multiple business domains.• Promoting the adoption of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to harness the collective expertise of teams spanning five geographical sites. This involved prioritizing and finalizing product definitions stemming from the converged platform.• Tracking critical program releases, managing associated risks in terms of schedule and quality, and taking ownership of program budget allocation to strategically enhance program efficiency.Through these efforts, I not only achieved substantial cost savings and improved development efficiency, but also drove architectural alignment and fostered collaboration across diverse teams. This resulted in increased operational effectiveness and positioned the organization for sustained success Show less Managed FW development group in the Consumer Printer Business Segment, providing leadership to three teams consisting of approximately 50 individuals• Product Delivery Team: Successfully delivered complete product firmware for a highly strategic offering in the Printing portfolio, the "HP Desk Jet 2700 All-in-one." This product holds a 51% market share in the $0-$79 price band and represents 57% of HP's overall share. It contributed approximately $100M in revenue with a gross profit margin of 18%. Key achievements include a 10% increase in sales compared to its predecessor, a 5% reduction in BOM cost through firmware optimizations, BLI certification as the easiest printer to set up and 40% faster than competitors and receiving five-star customer satisfaction ratings. Notably, the team's focus on agile development and quality enabled the shortest end-to-end development cycle.• Common Componentry & Platforms Team: Led the Mechanical firmware team responsible for delivering firmware across a range of home print products, priced from $39 to $150. This team played a vital role in supporting factory builds across the home product line.• Performance & Productivity Team: Developed an end-to-end scalable automated product delivery pipeline, revolutionizing the development flow. Achievements include the creation of a QEMU-based Simulation/Emulation platform that replaced real hardware, resulting in cost savings of approximately $100M. Additionally, the team established a CI/CD system for the development phase and an Automation execution system to support the validation phase. By employing the Yocto toolchain, leveraging Docker for emulation, and adopting a microservice-based architecture for both on-premises and private cloud environments, the team achieved a remarkable 50% reduction in PDLC time, an 80% improvement in the quality of deliverables (reduced post-release bugs), and a 67% increase in engineers' efficiency measured by feature throughput increment. Show less Played a pivotal role as a core member of the R&D Lab, contributing to the development and evolution of the HP Future Smart firmware—an embedded software powering Enterprise class printers. This innovative firmware serves as a dynamic framework, enabling the creation of intelligent devices that self-upgrade as technology advances. Key accomplishments include:• Spearheaded the firmware release process, ensuring a seamless quarterly cadence. As a result, HP Future Smart firmware consistently delivered enhanced functionality and performance to meet evolving customer needs.• Successfully established and led a new engagement in India, growing the team from just 2 members to an impressive strength of 120 individuals. By fostering a collaborative and high-performing work environment, we achieved exceptional outcomes and accelerated development.• Implemented effective cost optimization strategies, reducing the expense of quarterly releases from $20M to $6M—a remarkable 70% reduction in development costs. This achievement not only improved financial efficiency but also ensured the continued delivery of top-tier firmware solutions.Through my contributions to the R&D Lab, I played a pivotal role in shaping the evolution of HP Future Smart firmware, establishing a robust team, and driving cost efficiencies. This allowed us to deliver cutting-edge capabilities and maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving enterprise printer market. Show less

  • Senior Manager

    Jul 2018 - Oct 2021

  • Senior Project Manager

    Jul 2015 - Jun 2018

  • Project Manager

    Mar 2007 - Jun 2015
• 

  Dell Technologies

  Oct 2021 - now

  Senior Engineering Manager

  Accomplished senior leader with a strategic leadership style and a proven track record of driving business success through innovative product strategies and end-to-end delivery. Building and leading an OS engineering team in Bangalore, I collaborate closely with Microsoft and Linux distribution vendors to enable the Dell ecosystem. Our focus is on delivering Bios and OS level solutions for Dell's premium and commercial platforms. Specifically, I am responsible for:• Leading a team of senior Architects and Program managers to drive Bios and OS solutions, ensuring the seamless integration of hardware and software for Dell's platforms.• Spearheading the delivery of a bare-metal modernization engine in the Pre-Boot environment. This engine accelerates the development of end-to-end customer experiences, enabling business use cases in the Edge and 5G domains. It provides comprehensive HW access for platform diagnostics, OS backup & restore, OS deployment, firmware updates, and offers containerization and virtualization infrastructure for hosting services using existing hardware.• Fostering a culture of innovation by encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and supporting new ideas for innovative solutions and services. Leveraging the capabilities of next-gen chipsets and OS distributions, we continuously push the boundaries to deliver cutting-edge offerings.By combining my leadership expertise with collaboration and a focus on innovation, we are driving advancements in the OS engineering space, enabling Dell to provide exceptional customer experiences and stay at the forefront of the industry.Utilized SaaS/PaaS platforms and technologies like Kubernetes, BIOS & UEFI, Yocto, QEMU, and QT to deliver innovative solutions and drive product differentiation.Leveraged AI and ML algorithms to develop a digital twin model of products, recreating customer feedback and issues. Enhanced product development strategies through data-driven analysis Show less