Raffi has been involved in the IT field for the past 35+ years. He started his career at Bechtel Corporation as a software engineer and has led large and small groups of software developers at such companies as SQRiBE Technologies (now Oracle), The Walt Disney Company, Candle Corporation (now IBM), DeskTalk (now HP), SeeBeyond (now Oracle) and Xdrive (now Verizon).

Raffi has managed more than 65 large-scale projects and has launched more than 20 different products from enterprise to online solutions. A strategic thinker with strong management skills and emphasis on building teams and relationships; communicating effectively; driving results; inspiring creativity and innovation; championing change and exhibiting professional excellence.

Raffi has taught software programming courses at CSUN and UCLA since 1987. He has also done software consulting and training at Northrop Grumman, UCLA, Paramount Pictures and numerous startups. Raffi holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Math/Computer Science from UCLA and an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University.

Currently, Raffi is the Program Director for UCLA’s Epicenter for Action, where he is developing a series of programs to professionally prepare students for the workforce in collaboration with industry partners.

Raffi has a passion for teaching and sharing his experience with students. He is currently teaching “Fundamentals of Project Management” to UCLA students in the Master’s in Quantitative Economics program. He also founded and launched UCLA’s ““Project-Based Technology Bootcamp for Social Impact”“ program for undergraduate and graduate students utilizing the Google Ventures Design Thinking framework. Due to their popularity, the tech bootcamps are now offered as a 4-unit UCLA Engineering course with Raffi as the instructor.

Raffi is also an Advisory Board Member for UC Riverside’s Extension Design Thinking Executive Program as well as Advisory Board Member for the Armenian General Benevolent Union’s (AGBU) Innovation Studios program. Raffi is an Emerging Tech Consultant at Los Angeles Community College (LACC) where he launched LACC’s Emerging Tech Bootcamps in Summer 2022. In Summer of 2023, Raffi traveled to American University of Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) launching their inaugural Design Thinking Tech Bootcamp.

Raffi is keen on workforce development focusing on the areas of Digital Skills, Business Skills and Human Skills. He helps companies recruit college students who have already completed the “Design Thinking” tech bootcamps and become certified as “professionally ready” in the areas of ideation, critical thinking and problem solving.

To learn more, visit Raffi’s portfolio at https://raffi-simonian.notion.site