Open to opportunities

GRACE IRUNGU

@graceirungu1

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Photonic systems engineer specializing in optical transport and fiber infrastructure.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I seek hands-on roles combining optical systems engineering and research, with cross-functional, field-to-analytics responsibility, opportunities for technical leadership, and projects that impact large-scale fiber infrastructure.

I am a photonic systems engineer with seven years deploying coherent optical transport systems across East and Central Africa and current MS research in optical devices at Northeastern University.

I have managed over $102M in submarine fiber financing, executed Africa's first 1,400m deep-lake bathymetric survey at Lake Tanganyika, and designed multi-node OTN/SONET networks from topology to protection switching.

As a researcher and engineer I build the analytical layer on top of infrastructure, having developed GlitchWitch — a Python-based VR network performance analysis tool — and performed live network packet capture studies characterizing thousands of flows.

I thrive on end-to-end systems work: from route survey, cable landing, splicing and commissioning to investor-facing documentation, cross-country team coordination, and hands-on failure diagnosis at 2am when networks go dark.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Independent Researcher

Current

Northeastern University

Sep 2024 - Present (1 year 5 months)

Designed and executed live-environment packet capture analysis of VR/AR sessions, capturing 1,229+ flows across 982 devices and built GlitchWitch, a Python tool for PCAP parsing and performance dashboards.

PCAP Python Wireshark VR AR Networking DiffServ Classification Data Visualization

Senior Program Manager

Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group

Jan 2019 - Dec 2024 (5 years 11 months)

Led end-to-end deployment of submarine fiber systems across Kenya, Tanzania, DRC, and Burundi; secured $102M+ in project financing and executed Africa's first 1,400m deep-lake bathymetric survey to define viable fiber corridors.

Bathymetric Project Finance OSNR Analysis

Network Operations Engineer

Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group

Jan 2017 - Dec 2019 (2 years 11 months)

Monitored and troubleshot optical transport networks (SONET/SDH, Ethernet), diagnosed span degradation and equipment faults, and authored NOC runbooks that reduced mean-time-to-diagnose.

SONET NOC Runbooks Network Monitoring

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Northeastern University

Master of Science, Telecommunication Networks

Grade: 3.7

Activities and societies: Research Assistant, IEEE Member, IEEE Photonics Society

Pursuing an MS in Telecommunication Networks with coursework and research in optical transport systems, DWDM, OTN, communication theory, and ML foundations; Research Assistant in XR Immersive Media Lab.

Kenyatta University

Bachelor of Science, Telecommunication & Information Technology

2012 - 2017

Completed a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunication & Information Technology covering telecommunications fundamentals and practical network engineering.