Résumé
Kellen Butler
Principal RAN Design Engineer · Product & Platform Builder · Oklahoma
Summary
Principal RAN Design Engineer and product-minded builder with 14+ years at AT&T — where I’ve grown from hands-on RAN engineering into owning the standards, platforms, and tooling behind nationally adopted 5G design. I turn complex engineering problems into practical platforms, tools, and product decisions, and increasingly my focus is product: shaping what gets built, why, and how it earns long-term adoption. Outside work, I ship independent products with a bias toward usefulness and restraint.
Experience
Principal RAN Design Engineer — HQ RAN Design Standards
Mar 2024 – PresentAT&T · Oklahoma City, OK
- Own the platform and tooling requirements for nationally adopted RAN design standards, acting as the primary liaison between RAN engineering, internal platform teams, and external partners.
- Define roadmap inputs, prioritization, and success metrics for large-scale tooling initiatives — including efforts targeting a 50% reduction in engineering cycle time across multiple workflows.
- Led the national rollout and adoption of standardized RAN design tooling now used by 200+ engineers, with measurable gains in workflow efficiency, data integrity, and design confidence.
- Guide platform evolution toward performance-sensitive, simulation-driven design workflows by defining requirements for data fidelity, scalability, and system integration.
Principal RAN Design Engineer — Arkansas/Oklahoma Market
Nov 2021 – Mar 2024AT&T · Oklahoma City, OK
- Led and mentored a team of 10 engineers, setting technical direction and ensuring consistent, high-quality RAN design across the market.
- Drove market-level tooling and automation end to end — identifying pain points, defining requirements, prioritizing features, and guiding adoption.
- Delivered custom automation that cut manual data entry by roughly 75%, freeing engineers for higher-value design and decision work.
- Established market-level design standards and data-quality practices that improved consistency and confidence in network planning.
RAN Design Engineer — Progressive Roles
Aug 2011 – Nov 2021AT&T · Oklahoma City, OK
- Advanced through roles of increasing responsibility across UMTS, LTE, and early 5G, contributing to complex RAN design decisions, market-wide standards, and large-scale deployments.
- Built deep expertise balancing network performance, deployment constraints, and cost — while supporting increasingly critical projects and mentoring junior engineers.
Research & Development Intern
Feb 2010 – Aug 2011Strategic Solutions International · Stillwater, OK
- Designed and built a web-based time-tracking system supporting federal compliance for grant-funded projects.
- Developed scalable data collection, processing, and visualization software (Java, PostgreSQL) for real-time monitoring.
Graduate Research Assistant
2008 – 2011Oklahoma State University · Stillwater, OK
- Researched SAW filters for chemical-warfare detection and ran image-quality experiments, co-authoring a conference paper.
- Mentored student design teams end to end and designed embedded hardware, including schematics and PCB layouts.
Education
M.B.A., Business Administration & Management
University of Oklahoma — Price College of Business2015 – 2017M.S., Electrical Engineering
Oklahoma State University2010 – 2014B.S., Electrical Engineering
Oklahoma State University2006 – 2010Skills
Wireless & networks
Product & platform
Engineering & automation
Hands-on & hardware
Ways of working
Selected Projects
Practical Tools for Complex Engineering Work
Tools, automation, and workflow improvements that moved repetitive, data-heavy work into reliable systems — so engineers could spend their time where it actually mattered.
YardLedger
A domain-specific product that helps homeowners — from total novices to seasoned lawn enthusiasts — get the most out of their lawns, as simply as possible.
Thinknest
A calmer children’s app, built in response to how many kids' apps lean on ads, dark patterns, and upsells. The goal: something simple, trustworthy, and quiet.
Water Softener Monitor
An ESP32 and ultrasonic sensor that watches the salt level in a water softener and reports over Wi-Fi to Home Assistant — a small build that hints at a bigger idea around quiet household monitoring.