I build the infrastructure that makes products work at scale — from distributed systems and cloud architectures to the APIs and data pipelines that power great user experiences. I care deeply about engineering quality, product thinking, and teams that ship.
Currently building
A cloud-native media processing platform
About
I approach engineering as a craft — not just writing code that works, but building systems that last, teams that grow, and products that matter.
A backend engineer with a product engineer's mindset. I've spent the last few years designing systems that are reliable, scalable, and maintainable — and I get genuine satisfaction from solving hard infrastructure problems elegantly.
Cloud-native backend systems, event-driven architectures, REST & GraphQL APIs, data pipelines, and the DevOps scaffolding that keeps it all running. I'm comfortable owning the full backend stack from database schema to CI/CD.
Building things that work reliably in production, not just in demos. Obsessing over observability, writing code that's easy to delete, and making sure engineers on my team have what they need to do great work.
I've led technical initiatives end-to-end — scoping, architecture, delivery, and retrospective. I believe the best engineers are force multipliers: they raise the engineering bar around them, not just their own output.
“The best engineers I've worked with all had one thing in common: they were obsessed with the problem, not the technology.”
Something I try to
live by every day.
Capabilities
Years of backend engineering across the full infrastructure stack — from API design to cloud operations.
The core of what I do
Work
A selection of systems I've designed and built — from cloud-native platforms to developer tools and data pipelines.
Cloud-native video processing platform at scale
A fully distributed video ingestion, transcoding, and delivery platform handling thousands of uploads per day. Built to be cost-efficient, resilient, and observable from day one.
Real-time price tracking and alert engine
A price intelligence platform that scrapes, normalizes, and alerts on product prices across 50+ e-commerce sites. Includes a clean dashboard and configurable alert rules.
Analytics dashboard engine for SaaS products
A configurable analytics backend that lets SaaS products embed powerful dashboards without building their own data infrastructure. Customers define metrics, InsightBoard handles computation and delivery.
Internal developer platform for self-service infrastructure
A lightweight internal developer platform that lets engineers provision databases, queues, and services through a clean CLI and web UI — no DevOps ticket required.
Experience
A timeline of the roles, projects, and leadership experiences that have shaped how I build and think.
Your Current Company
Designing and owning backend systems for [product area]. End-to-end ownership from architecture to production monitoring.
Previous Company
Full-stack contribution to [product]. Shipped features used by 10K+ users and improved backend performance.
University Tech Summit
Led the technical committee for a 2000+ attendee national-level tech festival. Managed a team of 20 student engineers.
Philosophy
The principles that guide how I approach system design, team collaboration, and building products that actually work.
Good systems don't just work today — they're designed so tomorrow's problems don't become emergencies. I think about capacity, failure modes, and growth from the first whiteboard session.
Clever code is easy to write. Simple, obvious code is hard. The best engineering decisions are the ones that make the next engineer's job easier, not harder.
Understanding what users actually need — not what they asked for — changes the kind of systems you build. I start from user problems, not technical capabilities.
Uptime, latency, and error rates are product features that users feel. I treat observability, graceful degradation, and incident response as first-class engineering concerns.
The best feedback loop is production. I prefer incremental delivery over big-bang launches — smaller releases mean faster learning and much less risk.
The best architecture in the world fails with the wrong team dynamics. I invest in communication, documentation, and shared context because systems are built and maintained by humans.
Social proof
Feedback from colleagues, managers, and mentors I've had the privilege to work with.
“Ajay has this rare ability to translate ambiguous product requirements into concrete, well-scoped technical proposals — and then actually ship them. He's the engineer you want in the room when things get complex.”
Priya Menon
Senior Product Manager · Your Current Company
Worked together on [Product]
“As an intern, Ajay impressed everyone with how quickly he went from understanding the codebase to proposing and shipping meaningful improvements. He thinks like a senior engineer.”
Rahul Sharma
Engineering Manager · Previous Company
Managed Ajay during internship
“The architecture reviews Ajay runs are some of the most valuable engineering sessions we have. He asks the right questions and helps the team avoid mistakes before they become production incidents.”
Arjun Nair
Backend Engineer · Your Current Company
Engineering peer
Get in touch
I'm open to backend engineering roles, consulting projects, and conversations about distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, or anything you're building.