I left Xerox ODPG to take the role of software architecture lead with Tektronix broadband telecom test.
At Tektronix broadband telecom test I worked as the manager of the software architecture team. I managed a team consisting of myself and two other highly talented software engineers and we were responsible for maintaining and extending the software platform that supported the modules that implemented the various compact PCI modules that contained the actual test hardware.
This was a Windows XP Professional based system programmed in C++ with MFC and ATL for the user interface (and a modular user interface using ActiveX controls for each installed instrument). The system core was heavily threaded and the device drivers for our modules were written by the local team as well.
We provided manufacturing test equipment for Sonet/SDH OC-192 telecommunications equipment when the telecom market was booming.
In the end, the telecom crash of the early 2000’s caused Tektronix to decide to exit the market for telecommunications test equipment and we were sold to a smaller company called Digital Lightwave.
I found a position with Groove Networks in Beverly, MA (yes, a rather unpleasant commute, but very interesting technology).