Junaid Ahmed

Program & POR Ownership: Owned and protected plans of record for parallel SoC/ASIC programs—covering schedules, >USD 2M budgets, resources, dependencies, risks, and milestones—from initiation through qualification and handover; upheld plan integrity under scope pressure and managed multi-country suppliers at 98% reliability.

Cross-Functional Execution & Governance: Led end-to-end execution and structured program governance (design reviews, milestone gates, steering committees) across architecture, design, lab, ATE, reliability, and operations; resolved hardware–software interface conflicts and ensured alignment of scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

Post-Silicon & ATE Delivery: Directed post-silicon validation, characterization, and JEDEC reliability; owned ATE program development and transfer (wafer, post-bump, final test) to UTAC and OSATs, optimizing coverage, yield, and cost while supporting AEC-Q100 Grade 1 and ISO 26262 compliance.

Foundry & Partner Management: Acted as primary interface to TSMC, GlobalFoundries, SMIC, and OSAT partners across Europe and Asia; aligned deliverables and timelines, reduced NRE costs by 15%, and accelerated cycle times by 20% through agile execution.

Stakeholder Leadership & Decision Support: Served as central interface across R&D, product, operations, quality, finance, and Tier-1 customers; translated complex technical status and risks into executive-ready insights, resolving cross-domain conflicts and sustaining delivery amid evolving requirements.

PM Excellence & Continuous Improvement: Advanced PM maturity by implementing JIRA and automated reporting (−20% analysis effort), standardizing KPIs and stage-gates, and codifying an NPI playbook (−10% ramp-up time); implemented early risk management surfacing 50+ risks pre-impact, safeguarding five major programs from overruns.

• Certifications & Capability Building: Six Sigma (Oct 2025) — process optimization, KPI-driven improvement, and data-driven root-cause analysis; Consultative Sales & Negotiation (Feb 2026) — value-based stakeholder engagement and executive communication frameworks applicable to u-blox's customer-integrated program model.

• PMO Governance Advisory: Engaged with technology organizations on portfolio transparency, stage-gate discipline, and executive dashboarding — stress-testing and refining POR governance models beyond a single organizational context while maintaining active engagement with semiconductor and IoT ecosystem trends.

Threading App — Independent Product & Programme Management Project

▸ Conceived and led full product definition for a cross-platform iOS + Android app; applied end-to-end PM disciplines from concept through pre-launch: PRD authorship, QA strategy, risk register, go-to-market plan

▸ Authored complete PRD (v1.3, 20+ sections) covering functional & non-functional requirements, E2E encrypted cloud sync architecture, freemium monetization model, and GDPR/CCPA compliance design

▸ Defined QA test strategy: 9-area coverage matrix, release gate criteria, 8-device validation plan, and CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions, Maestro YAML, Python asyncio simulator engine)

▸ Overseeing development and test execution using AI-assisted tooling; targeting App Store + Google Play launch 2026

• Semiconductor Security Program Management: Managed on-chip security certification programs including SoC integration (multi-core processors, peripheral subsystems) into set-top box platforms; conducted structured architecture reviews for global chip vendors assessing firmware/hardware compliance.

• Agile Transformation: Introduced and embedded Scrum ceremonies as Scrum Master for firmware security team, accelerating certification timelines; served as Product Owner defining security feature backlog and bridging customer requirements to engineering execution.