MOHAMMAD SALEEM NEZAMI
Network Engineer
Sacramento,CA
Summary
Principal Network Engineer & ICT Director with 9+ years of experience designing, securing, and scaling mission-critical infrastructure for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) partners and global enterprises. Certified expert in Cisco, Azure, Zero Trust, and NIST/ISO 27001 compliance. Relocated to Sacramento, CA, with a proven track record of 99.9% uptime, 60% breach reduction, and $5M+ cost-optimized projects.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
5
5
years of post-secondary education
4
4
Certifications
3
3
Languages
Work History
Senior Network Engineer
Mahaal Star ICT & Business Solutions
Kabul,Afghanistan
12.2021 - 07.2023
- Network Infrastructure Management: Optimized enterprise-grade networks for diverse clients, including routers, switches, firewalls (Cisco, Palo Alto), and servers, ensuring 99 uptime
- Data Center & Remote Operations: Oversaw network deployments across hybrid environments (on-premises/cloud), resolving critical outages within SLA-defined timelines and ensure the all data center is runing well
- Client Training & Knowledge Transfer: Delivered on-the-job training for 20+ customer engineers, enhancing their proficiency in network troubleshooting and security protocols
- Security Compliance: Enforced firewall policies and VPN configurations to align with ISO 27001 standards, reducing vulnerabilities by 25%
ICT Director & Principal Network Architect
Ministry of Transport and Aviation
12.2017 - 08.2021
- Oversee all technology operations and evaluate them according to established goals
- Devise and establish IT policies and systems to support the implementation of strategies set by upper management
- Achieves operational objectives by contributing information and recommendations to strategic plans and reviews; preparing and completing action plans; resolving problems; identifying trends; determining system improvements; implementing change. Between employees and Creating a yearly plan for the implementation of the new system based on 5-year strategic plan
- Analyze the business requirements of all departments to determine their technology needs
- Liaising with other departments to determine and address their IT needs and requirements.
- Inspect the use of technological equipment and software to ensure functionality and efficiency
- Identify the need for upgrades, configurations, or new systems and report to upper management
- Coordinate IT managers and supervise computer scientists, technicians, and other professionals to provide guidance
- Assist in building relationships with vendors and creating cost-efficient contracts
- Oversees security of systems, networks, and enterprise information systems and networks
- Facilitates IT security audits or investigations.
- Develops and maintain relationships with external IT vendors and service providers.
- Coordinates multisite IT systems via enterprise resource planning (ERP).
- Analyzes IT infrastructure and systems performance to assess operating costs, productivity levels, upgrade requirements, and other metrics and needs.
- Monitor all Datacenter, Network Services, and MISs services as organization work of scope
- Performs other related duties as assigned.
- Attending MCIT and CIO weekly meetings
Senior Project Manager for L3Harris Project
L3Harris Technologies
08.2015 - 12.2017
- Delivered projects on time, within scope, and budget across 32 Afghan provinces, managing risks, resources, and stakeholder alignment (MOD, MOI, vendors).
Monitored and configured the entire network infrastructure, ensuring seamless operations, security compliance, and minimal downtime for Harris systems.
Oversaw technical workflows, troubleshooting network issues, optimizing device/platform performance, and directing engineers/FSRs across 32 provinces.
Coordinated internal teams and third-party vendors for network deployments, including hardware installation, software updates, and system audits.
Developed and maintained network improvement plans, tracking performance metrics, and generating daily reports to resolve bottlenecks.
Managed end-to-end Harris project systems, from configuration and testing to post-deployment support, aligning with MOD/MOI requirements.
Trained new engineers and FSRs on network protocols, monitoring tools, and troubleshooting techniques to ensure system reliability.
Led weekly technical alignment meetings with MOD/MOI stakeholders, addressing network performance gaps and escalating critical updates.
Created network diagrams, process maps, and documentation to standardize operations and streamline audits.
Conducted financial and technical analysis to optimize budgets, resource allocation, and risk mitigation for network-related projects.
Senior Network Administrator
Green Zone LLC
Kabul,Afghanistan
11.2013 - 08.2015
- Company Overview: US Army CJ6 Subcontractor
- Network Optimization: Designed high-availability Cisco ASR/ISR backbone for the Ministry of Interior (MOI), reducing downtime by 30% through QoS and VRF-Lite segmentation
- Automation: Streamlined VMware Horizon VDI deployment for 500+ endpoints, cutting provisioning time by 50%
- US Army CJ6 Subcontractor
Adjunct Professor, Network Engineering
Edrak University
11.2015 - 08.2021
- Company Overview: Afghanistan
- Curriculum Development: Authored courses for Cisco CCNA/CCNP, with 85% of students earning certifications and 40% hired by Fortune 500 firms
- Afghanistan
Education
MSc - Computer Science (Networking)
Bakhtar University
Kabul,Afghanistan 01.2019 - 01.2021
BSc - Computer Science (Network Security)
Kabul Education University
Kabul,Afghanistan 01.2010 - 01.2013
Skills
- SD-WAN
Sophos Firewalls
- VoIP
Routing ans Switching
Leadership and Mangment
Websites
Certification
Cisco: CCNP Enterprise, CCNA Security, DevNet Associate
Accomplishments
- IT Leadership Award 2020: Recognized for modernizing Afghanistan’s largest transportation network (Ministry of Transport).
- Top 1% Performance Rating: Across 3 US Army-funded projects (2015–2017).
Core Competencies
SD-WAN, Cisco Nexus/Arista, Palo Alto Firewalls, BGP/OSPF, VoIP, Azure Virtual WAN, AWS Direct Connect, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, Zero Trust Architecture, SIEM (Splunk), IDS/IPS, NIST 800-53, FedRAMP, Scaled teams of 210+ engineers, ITIL, Vendor Negotiations ($1M+ budgets)
Education Credentials
- MSc Computer Science (Networking), Bakhtar University, Kabul, 01/01/19, 12/31/21, Zero Trust Adoption in E-Government Systems: A Case Study of E-Tazkira
- BSc Computer Science (Network Security), Kabul Education University, 01/01/10, 12/31/13
Technical Profile
Principal Network Engineer & ICT Director with 9+ years of experience designing, securing, and scaling mission-critical infrastructure for U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) partners and global enterprises. Certified expert in Cisco, Azure, Zero Trust, and NIST/ISO 27001 compliance. Relocated to Sacramento, CA, with a proven track record of 99.9% uptime, 60% breach reduction, and $5M+ cost-optimized projects.
Timeline
Senior Network Engineer
Mahaal Star ICT & Business Solutions
12.2021 - 07.2023
MSc - Computer Science (Networking)
Bakhtar University
01.2019 - 01.2021
ICT Director & Principal Network Architect
Ministry of Transport and Aviation
12.2017 - 08.2021
Adjunct Professor, Network Engineering
Edrak University
11.2015 - 08.2021
Senior Project Manager for L3Harris Project
L3Harris Technologies
08.2015 - 12.2017
Senior Network Administrator
Green Zone LLC
11.2013 - 08.2015
BSc - Computer Science (Network Security)
Kabul Education University
01.2010 - 01.2013
Cisco: CCNP Enterprise, CCNA Security, DevNet Associate
Cloud: Azure Network Engineer (AZ-700), AWS Certified Advanced Networking
Cybersecurity: CEH, CompTIA Security+
Project Management: PMP (In Progress), ITIL 4
Similar Profiles
Olu M POPOOLAOlu M POPOOLA
Senior Scrum Master at All Star Business SolutionsSenior Scrum Master at All Star Business Solutions
Black EdwinBlack Edwin
Software Engineer at ICT Star Group Myanmar (ISGM)Software Engineer at ICT Star Group Myanmar (ISGM)
NyiNyi ZinNyiNyi Zin
Building Automation at ICT Star Group MyanmarBuilding Automation at ICT Star Group Myanmar