Hilkiah Okula

1. Aug 2023 – Present (current)

   Senior Network & Infrastructure Engineer / Microsoft 365 Consultant

   Independent consulting / contractor · Hybrid

   • Designed and delivered scalable multi-site WANs using OSPF, EIGRP and BGP, with MPLS L3VPN (VRFs, MP-BGP), DMVPN and GRE/IPsec for secure branch connectivity, documented through HLDs, LLDs and operational runbooks.
   • Cut configuration-deployment time by about 75% by automating provisioning, validation and drift detection with Python, Ansible and REST/NETCONF/RESTCONF APIs, backed by version control and CI/CD for network IaC.
   • Led RF and Ekahau surveys, AP placement and channel planning for a two-floor bank WLAN, with segmented guest access and Cisco ISE (RADIUS/TACACS+) integration.
   • Designed hybrid AWS and GCP connectivity: VPC architectures, subnet segmentation, route tables and site-to-site VPNs, provisioned with Terraform and Ansible.
   • Delivered enterprise systems engineering on contract: FortiGate IPsec remote-access VPN for FortiClient endpoints, firewall web-filter change management, VM migration to Hyper-V including FSMO role migration, and a Linux reverse proxy for an Oracle Fusion project.
   • Advised SMEs on Microsoft 365 adoption and led tenant migrations with minimal downtime, implementing SSO, MFA and RBAC, and delivered Windows Server Hybrid Administration (AZ-800/801) training to practising IT engineers.

2. Sep 2021 – Present (current)

   Founder / Principal Engineer (part-time)

   camelOne Renewables Ltd

   • PV system design and energy-yield studies using PVsyst, with a related working paper on scalable solar deployment.

3. Nov 2023 – Oct 2024

   Microsoft 365 Administrator / Technical Support Engineer

   Microsoft (via Upwork Global Inc.) · Remote · EMEA, US & Canada

   • Diagnosed identity, DNS, hybrid-connectivity and Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive failures for enterprise customers: 1,400+ incidents with 95%+ CSAT and SLA compliance.
   • Configured SPF, DMARC, DKIM and DNS records for 150+ business domains.
   • Advised 100+ businesses on Conditional Access, MFA, IAM and Zero Trust to prevent recurring issues.
   • Carried out Active Directory to Entra ID migrations and hybrid identity models (pass-through authentication, password hash sync) for large enterprises.
   • Maintain open-source support documentation on GitHub.

4. Oct 2023 – Nov 2023

   IT Systems Administrator (Infrastructure)

   Kasi Cloud

   • Deployed and supported email, Teams and office productivity software and the office wireless network.
   • Provisioned and supported Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices, both company-owned and BYOD.
   • Installed and configured data-centre switches, routers and servers for a Point of Presence at the Lekki data centre.

5. Jan 2023 – Jul 2023

   Cloud Solutions Architect, Networks and Infrastructure

   Unitellas International Limited · Lagos, Nigeria

   • Architected Zadara Edge Cloud IaaS solutions (compute, storage, networking) to customer requirements and SLAs across multiple data centres.
   • Commissioned HP ProLiant servers, Cisco 40G/100G switching and Fortinet NGFWs, including on-site deployments in the Eko Atlantic region of Victoria Island.
   • Configured multi-tenant isolation and traffic segmentation, and validated SLA compliance and high-availability configurations.
   • Managed Microsoft 365 tenants for customers and mentored interns and junior engineers on cloud, network and systems architecture.

6. Jul 2022 – Dec 2022

   Microsoft 365 Technical Engineer (L2)

   Tek Experts (now Teknowledge)

   • Resolved 95%+ of complex Exchange Online, Entra ID, Purview and hybrid-connectivity tickets, sustaining 95%+ CSAT and SLA compliance with a 1-minute initial response target.
   • Streamlined SPF, DMARC, DKIM and DNS configuration for 150+ North American businesses.
   • Ran phishing-simulation campaigns and recommended Conditional Access, MFA and Zero Trust controls.

7. Jan 2021 – Jan 2022

   Embedded Systems Engineer

   Clusterwink (InCleair) · United States (remote)

   • Designed the ATmega32/64 sensing and communications stack for a networked indoor air-quality product (Capsule / Insight).
   • Contributed to the team entry that placed 3rd in the ekipa & tesa Innovative Challenge Against Indoor Air Pollutants (Germany, 2021).

8. Jun 2018 – Oct 2020

   IT Systems Administrator

   Watchtower · Nigeria

   • Supported multi-branch routing, switching and firewall infrastructure at 99%+ uptime, with monitoring and alerting through Zabbix and UptimeRobot.
   • Recovered $110,000+ through SLA and warranty enforcement, including $10,000+ in ISP downtime compensation and $100,000+ in HPE hardware warranty claims.
   • Managed asset lifecycle and full deployment of desktops and laptops for branch and remote users, and provided L1–L3 support.
   • Trained and mentored staff to take on operational responsibilities.

9. Mar 2018 – Jul 2018

   IT Manager, Network & Systems Infrastructure

   University Preparatory Secondary School · Nigeria

   • Designed and deployed a multi-vendor campus LAN/WLAN (Cisco, MikroTik, Ubiquiti) for 1,000+ users, with QoS prioritising computer-based testing traffic.
   • Reduced latency and raised throughput by about 35% and maintained 99%+ network uptime.
   • Taught Scratch programming to 100+ students.

• Sep 2024 – Sep 2025

  MSc, Advanced Computer Networks

  Birmingham City University, United Kingdom · Distinction

  • Dissertation: Agentic AI in Network Engineering: Leveraging MCP Mechanisms, LLMs and Agents for Autonomous Network Management and Intent-Aware Auto-Remediation. Grade A; Bronze Medal, Post-Graduate Expo (PGXPO) Summer 2025.
  • Modules: Advanced Enterprise Networks; Wireless Communication Networks; Software-Defined Networking; Network Automation & Orchestration; Applied Machine Learning; Advanced Ethical Hacking; Research Methods and Project Management.

• Sep 2012 – Oct 2017

  BE, Electrical & Electronics Engineering

  University of Benin, Nigeria · Second Class Upper (2:1)

  • Dissertation: Design and Implementation of an LPG Detector Using a GSM Module to Automate Cut-off of LPG Supply (2017).
  • Modules: Embedded System Design; Computer Architecture; Telecommunication Systems; Digital Computer Systems and Circuitry; Electric Power Systems; Engineering Mathematics.

• Agentic network operations

  Intent-aware, self-healing operations using large language models, MCP tool-use and autonomous agents, linking agent reasoning to programmable network actions: configuration, validation and remediation loops. Recognised with a Bronze Medal at PGXPO 2025.

• Developing

  Trustworthy energy-constrained infrastructure

  Protection and control for inverter-dominated systems, where fault current collapses and conventional overcurrent logic fails, and integrity at the grid and IoT edge on real-time embedded nodes and FPGAs. Independent projects include learning-based adaptive protection for microgrids simulated in DIgSILENT, an FPGA AES-256 engine in VHDL benchmarked against ARM software, and a FreeRTOS multi-sensor fusion hub on Cortex-M.

Publications

• A Design Science Approach for Agentic AI in Network Engineering: Autonomous Network Management Using AI Agents, Large Language Models (LLM) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) MechanismsResearchGate preprint · Under review ↗ (opens in a new tab)
• The Era of AI Agents for Network Engineering: Intent-Aware Auto-Remediation for Network Disruption or Failures Using AI Agents, Large Language Models (LLM) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) MechanismsResearchGate preprint · Under review ↗ (opens in a new tab)

• Evaluating Feature Selection Techniques for Optimizing IDS Systems to Detect DDoS Attacks in IoT Networks Using the UNB CIC IoT 2023 Dataset on WEKA and Scikit-Learn

  Manuscript · Under review

• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP Enterprise), ENCOR / ENARSI aligned2026
• Cisco DevNet / CCNA Automation2026
• Cisco SD-WAN for Enterprise and Cloud2026
• Fortinet Certified Associate in Cybersecurity; Fortinet NSE 32026
• Linux Foundation LFS162: DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering2026
• Microsoft 365 Administrator Expert (MS-102)2025
• Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate2025
• Cisco: AI Solutions on Cisco Infrastructure2025
• Linux Foundation LFS250: Kubernetes and Cloud Native Essentials2025
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate2023
• Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)2023
• Linux Foundation LFS201: Linux System Administration2023
• (ISC)² Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)2022
• Google Cloud Certified – Associate Cloud Engineer2021
• Microsoft Teams Administrator Associate (MS-700)2021
• C Programming with LinuxDartmouth College (via IMT)

Specialisations

• Battery TechnologiesArizona State University
• Semiconductor CharacterizationArizona State University
• Embedded Firmware EngineeringCoursera
• Solar Energy for Engineers, Architects and Code InspectorsUniversity at Buffalo

Routing & WAN

OSPF · EIGRP · BGP · IS-IS · MPLS L3VPN · DMVPN · GRE / IPsec · PBR · Multicast (PIM) · QoS · HSRP / GLBP / VRRP

Switching & campus

VLANs & trunking · STP · EtherChannel · MEC · VSS · Inter-VLAN routing · Campus LAN/WAN design

SD-WAN & SDN

Cisco SD-WAN · Meraki SD-WAN · Cisco SD-Access · SDN

Wireless

WLAN deployment · RF planning · Ekahau site surveys · Secure guest access · Meraki Wireless

Security & identity

FortiGate · Cisco ASA · NGFW · F5 BIG-IP / WAF · Cisco ISE · TACACS+ / RADIUS · NAC · Entra ID · Active Directory · SSO / MFA / RBAC · SPF / DMARC / DKIM

Cloud & infrastructure

AWS VPC · GCP VPC · Azure VNets, ExpressRoute, Virtual WAN · Hybrid & multi-cloud · Windows Server 2022 · Hyper-V · VMware ESXi · Proxmox · Dell / HPE servers · Veeam

Microsoft 365 & Workspace

Exchange Online · Teams · SharePoint · OneDrive · Intune · Google Workspace

Automation & programmability

Python · Bash · PowerShell · Ansible · Terraform · Nornir · Netmiko · pyATS · Batfish · Jinja2 · REST / NETCONF / RESTCONF · Git · Jenkins / CircleCI / GitHub Actions · Docker · Kubernetes

AI & agents

LLMs · MCP · Agentic AI · n8n · scikit-learn · WEKA

Observability

Grafana · Prometheus · Azure Monitor · Log Analytics · Sentinel · PRTG · Zabbix · Wireshark · SNMP

Embedded & hardware

AVR / ATmega · PIC16 · UART / SPI / I2C · KiCad · C · GSM / IoT sensing · FPGA (familiar)

Platforms & vendors

Cisco IOS / IOS-XE / IOS-XR / NX-OS · Junos · FortiOS · Meraki · MikroTik · Ubiquiti UniFi · Aruba · HPE

Labs & documentation

Cisco CML · GNS3 · EVE-NG · PNET Lab · Visio · draw.io · HLD / LLD · Runbooks

Delivery

Agile · Scrum · PRINCE2 · Change management · Incident response · Stakeholder management

Awards & affiliations

• Bronze Medal Finalist

  Post-Graduate Expo (PGXPO) Summer 2025, Birmingham City University

• 3rd Place

  Innovative Challenge Against Indoor Air Pollutants, ekipa & tesa, Germany (2021)

• IEEE

  Graduate Member; Member, IEEE Young Professionals

• Best Graduating Student

  St. Michael's College, Delta State, Nigeria (2011/12 session)

• Senior Prefect & Vice President, Science Student Association

  St. Michael's College, Delta State, Nigeria (2011/12 session)

Teaching & mentoring

• Instructor, Windows Server Hybrid Administration (AZ-800/801)

  Training for practising engineers at a commercial bank in Lagos (2024)

• Mentor

  Interns and junior engineers on network, systems and cloud architecture (2023)

• National Youth Service Corps (NYSC)

  Completed national service in Nigeria (2022)

• Teacher

  Computer Science and Chemistry, St. John's Academy (2021)