Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Languages
Websites
References
Timeline
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Ambuj Agrawal

Ambuj Agrawal

Bangalore Urban

Summary

Dynamic technology leader with a proven track record at ELSA, Corp, specializing in AI integration and platform modernization. Expert in strategic coaching and team leadership, I have driven significant outcomes, including a 29% increase in delivery velocity. Passionate about fostering innovation and achieving measurable growth through cross-functional collaboration.

Overview

24
24
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Secretary General

Council of Fractional CXO
02.2024 - Current
  • Facilitated collaboration among senior professionals from diverse backgrounds to promote knowledge sharing.
  • Leveraged collective intelligence to formulate discussions and policy recommendations addressing socio-economic issues.
  • Raised awareness of fractional roles, emphasizing their differences from freelancing and consulting positions.
  • Highlighted the commitment level of fractional roles, demonstrating their potential for significant impact.

Advisor to the CXOs of Y-combinator startups

Confidential
01.2024 - Current
  • Provide strategic coaching to CTOs and CEOs of Y-combinator startups, enhancing leadership capabilities.
  • Resolve interpersonal challenges to foster a collaborative team environment, driving innovation.
  • Develop tailored technical and product strategies that align with business goals, resulting in measurable growth.
  • California

Head of Engineering and Cybersecurity

ELSA, Corp
12.2023 - Current
  • Spearheaded transformation of engineering, platform, and security for global AI-driven EdTech platform.
  • Delivered impactful outcomes in infrastructure, AI integration, platform modernization, and enterprise readiness.
  • Re-architected product delivery with EPIC workflows, achieving 29% faster lesson release cycles and 45% reduction in AI scenario creation time.
  • Directed seamless migration from Classic to Nova platform with zero downtime, ensuring unified UX and operational continuity.
  • Integrated AI-powered conversation modules across onboarding and programs, enhancing user engagement by 25%.
  • Achieved 100% resolution of critical vulnerabilities while leading ISO 27001/27701 and SOC 2 compliance initiatives.
  • Reduced infrastructure costs by 21% through asset decommissioning and EC2 right-sizing strategies.
  • Migrated key dashboards to Looker for real-time metrics on content, learner, and AI performance.

Fractional CTO | Deep Learning & LLM Tech Specialist

Freelance
Bangalore
11.2023 - Current
  • In my role as a Fractional CTO, I specialize in Deep Learning and LLM (Language, Linguistics, and Machine) technologies. My work encompasses:
  • Guiding companies that leverage Deep Learning for groundbreaking solutions, including strategic development of groundbreaking application with a prominent NLP (Natural Language Processing) model along with a global team.
  • Successfully delivering results for clients in India and Europe, understanding and addressing unique market challenges.
  • Sharing expertise through guest lectures and collaborating on engineering-focused blogs and contributing insights to podcasts.
  • My career journey is defined by a passion for staying at the forefront of tech trends, fostering innovation, and driving trans-formative change for my clients.
  • Feel free to connect with me to explore opportunities, industry insights, or to join the conversation on the future of tech.

VP Product & Engineering | Banking

Zeta India
Bangalore
08.2019 - 08.2023
  • As Zeta’s VP of Product and Engineering, I have led several groundbreaking projects in banking technology. With a team of over 200 experts, I have delivered cutting-edge solutions that have revolutionized the financial industry. Some of my achievements include:
  • Creating Neo Banking Originations Platform: I created and led an AI-powered, cloud-native, API-driven origination solution that transformed fintech projects and banks’ origination processes. It delivered a 50% NPS increase and 40% churn reduction; a 70% reduction in manual errors, 60% lower operational expenses, and 50% increased staff productivity; and an 80% rise in frictionless AH applications, 90% increase in onboardings, and 100% surge in product utilization.
  • Launching HDFC’s Payzapp App and Expanding SaaS Customer Base: I onboarded HDFC, one of India’s largest banks, onto our platform and launched their Payzapp app in CUG, serving over 2,000 daily active users. I also integrated with five leading Indian banks and 18 fintech clients, processing over 200,000 transactions daily (6 million per month). (Link: https://the-ken.com/story/hdfc-rescue-mission-gives-wings-to-zetas-banking-tech-ambitions/)
  • Crafting Robust Identity & Access Management and Fraud & Risk Management Systems: I designed and developed a robust identity and access management system comprising IAM, Sandbox, HSM, and PEP components, ensuring high security and availability for millions of users and transactions daily. I also pioneered a fraud and risk management system leveraging rule-based and ML techniques, achieving an 80% reduction in fraud losses, 50% increase in operational efficiency, and enhanced customer experience through NLP responses (experimental).
  • I take pride in my team’s dedication, innovation, and customer-centric approach. Our journey is defined by delivering cutting-edge solutions and driving growth for our partners and clients in the financial industry.

Head of Engineering | Ola Play, Ola Electric and FoodPanda

Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd)
Bangalore
10.2017 - 08.2019
  • As the head of engineering for Ola Play and FoodPanda, I have led several innovative projects in the mobility and food tech domains. With a team of 90+ experts, I have delivered cutting-edge solutions that have redefined the user and driver experience. Some of my achievements include:
  • Scaling Ola Play to over 50k cars across 7 major Indian cities, transforming the in-car experience with content and media delivery, telematics and IoT, AI and ML, and third-party integrations.
  • Leveraging Microsoft Azure cloud platform, we built Ola Play’s connected car platform, offering captivating in-car entertainment and connectivity features. The microservices architecture ensured high availability, scalability, security, and reliability.
  • Harnessing big data insights from GPS, IMU, OBD, and other sources, we implemented driver scoring, predictive maintenance, rash driving detection, road conditions analysis, bad network zones identification, and accident detection.
  • Utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as Azure DevOps, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Data Lake, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Machine Learning Studio, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, MongoDB, MQTT, Presto, AWS-S3, Hive, ElasticSearch, and Grafana.
  • Achieving high user and driver satisfaction, retention, and engagement rates with personalized and contextual recommendations, offers, and social media integration. Our platform collects and processes up to 10 million events per minute.
  • Managing the fleet of connected cars through a cloud-based dashboard, providing real-time vehicle status, location, and performance insights. Remote configuration and troubleshooting empowered seamless fleet management.
  • Leading FoodPanda and other food tech initiatives since March 2019, aiming to disrupt the food tech market with innovative technology. Our focus is on implementing market-leading supply and demand algorithms and advanced technology solutions for restaurants.

Head of Engineering

NNNow.com & Creyate.com (Arvind Internet Limited)
Bangalore
04.2015 - 03.2017
  • As the Engineering Leader at Arvind Internet Limited (AIL), I led the creation of NNNow and Creyate, two innovative platforms that transformed the retail and custom clothing domains. With a dynamic team of 60+ engineers, I delivered cutting-edge solutions that reshaped shopping experiences for 30+ global brands across 600+ stores and warehouses. Some of my achievements include:
  • Rapidly prototyping Creyate.com, a revolutionary custom clothing platform that empowers users to design their clothes in a 3D virtual interface and have them tailor-made and delivered. We automated processes for the factory, stores, home visits, and the B2C website, fostering Creyate’s success and expansion into global markets.
  • Architecting and deploying NNNow.com (later Omuni), an entire omnichannel/multibrand e-commerce system from the ground up in less than six months. With approximately 60 loosely coupled microservices, we achieved seamless interactions through an API gateway, ensuring stateless and infinitely elastic operations.
  • Leveraging cloud-native architecture, AI-driven analytics, hybrid data architecture, and intuitive user interfaces to enhance scalability, security, performance, inventory optimization, shrinkage reduction, user adoption, and project delivery.
  • Setting stringent engineering standards, mentoring and coaching the engineering team, embracing continuous learning and innovation, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to align technical requirements.
  • Driving a substantial increase in customer engagement, resulting in a 35% rise in customer satisfaction; reducing post-release defects by 40%, server downtime by 60%, and employee turnover by 75%; boosting application performance by 50%, team productivity by 50%, and user adoption by 45%; optimizing inventory by 30% and reducing shrinkage by 20%; processing 1GB of data daily; and onboarding 150 stores and warehouses.

Principal Engineer, Tyco Retail Solutions

Tyco Fire & Security
Bangalore
02.2012 - 04.2015
  • TrueVUE + Cycle Count Tier
  • I re-architected the core of the TrueVUE platform, a vital part of the company’s retail intelligence solutions. The old codebase hindered scalability, needing costly high-end servers. I planned to modernize it with minimal production disruptions.
  • Enhanced Horizontal Scalability, Performance & Cost Optimization: I transformed the legacy monolithic architecture into a scalable, cost-efficient, and high-performing distributed system. The optimized system achieved high throughput and response times, enhancing customer experience. We reduced resource consumption and operational costs while increasing processing speeds.
  • Accelerated Delivery: In 2 quarters, my team and I delivered the re-architected TrueVUE core, overcoming challenges and ensuring timely completion.
  • Seamless Deployment: The Cycle Count Tier project resulted in streamlined inventory management, minimized stock discrepancies, and elevated store efficiency for retail partners.
  • Traffic Intelligence
  • I led the implementation of a traffic prediction model to enhance the company’s retail analytics capabilities. The goal was to forecast store footfall and customer traffic accurately, aiding retailers in decision-making.
  • Cutting-Edge Traffic Prediction: Collaborating with data scientists and analysts, we designed and implemented a prediction algorithm with 96% (±4) accuracy, outperforming traditional approaches.
  • Data Processing Efficiency: I innovated a batch processing module that processed massive amounts of data efficiently. The module handled 10hrs X 365days X 3Yrs of data for 1000 stores (with 10 devices each) in less than 6 minutes, using Future, ThreadPool, and Reentrant Locks.
  • Seamless Integration: I integrated the new prediction model with the existing TrueVUE platform, providing clients with real-time, data-driven insights for optimal store operations.

Technical Architect/Manager

FICO
Bangalore
05.2008 - 02.2012
  • Designed and coded SaaS software products and advanced analytics solutions for fraud detection and decision management: FICO Falcon Fraud Manager and FICO Blaze Advisor.
  • FICO Falcon Fraud Manager was a cloud-based product that monitored transactions across multiple channels and payment modes, such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, digital payments, account-to-account transfers, and wire transfers. It used AI and machine learning analytics to detect and prevent fraud, reduce fraud losses, and enhance customer satisfaction.
  • FICO Blaze Advisor was a cloud-based product that enabled business users to author, test, deploy, and manage decision logic for various business scenarios, such as risk management, customer segmentation, pricing optimization, etc. It used a powerful rules engine and a graphical user interface to create and execute decision strategies that incorporated predictive models and business policies.
  • Used Java, C++, XML, and SQL for developing the backend logic and data processing of both products.
  • Used JSP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX for developing the frontend user interface and web services of both products.
  • Integrated both products with various data sources, such as databases, flat files, web services, etc. and various external systems, such as simulation tools, reporting tools, CRM systems, etc.
  • Leveraged the data access layer tooling that I developed to create and manage the data access layer components for both products that had pre-baked concerns of multitenancy, encryption (asymmetric and symmetric), audit logs, log management, and data schema upgrade control.
  • Tested, debugged, documented, and maintained both products using various tools and techniques, such as unit testing, code reviews, version control, bug tracking, etc.
  • Collaborated with other developers, testers, analysts, and customers in an agile environment to deliver high-quality software solutions that met the business needs and customer expectations.

Senior Consultant (SMTS via Interra Systems)

Texas Instruments
03.2006 - 05.2008
  • Designed and coded two software tools for Verilog and VHDL design verification and validation: Smart Scan and Smart View.
  • Smart Scan was a tool that scanned the design files and matched them with various inbuilt rules and any runtime customizable thresholds. It generated a report of any abnormalities or violations found in the design or the log outputs. It also provided suggestions for fixing or improving the design quality.
  • Smart View was a tool that converted the design into an XML representation and rendered it into an abstract 2D space using graphical elements. It allowed users to review the various parameters of the chip such as voltages, currents, temperatures, etc. when a certain activity was being performed such as playing an MP3 or rendering a video. It also provided interactive features such as zooming, panning, rotating, selecting, etc.
  • Used LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and object-oriented Perl for developing the backend logic and data processing of both tools.
  • Used XML, Perl/TK and Core Java for developing the frontend graphics and user interface of Smart View.
  • Integrated both tools with popular simulation and synthesis tools such as ModelSim, Synopsys, Xilinx, etc. and enabled them to run as standalone tools or as part of a design flow.
  • Tested, debugged, documented, and maintained both tools using various tools and techniques such as unit testing, code reviews, version control, bug tracking, etc.
  • Collaborated with other developers, testers, analysts, and customers in an agile environment to deliver high-quality software solutions that met the business needs and customer expectations.
  • Texas offices in Bangalore and France

Senior Consultant (SSE via Cybage)

athenahealth
07.2003 - 02.2006
  • Worked directly with Ed Park (former COO and CTO of athenahealth) and Brady Richards (Senior Director of Engineering at athenahealth) on athenaCollector, a web-based medical billing and practice management solution that simplifies scheduling, claims management, revenue cycle optimization and more for over 12k healthcare providers.
  • Used LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and object-oriented Perl to develop a regex-based record ingestion system that processed >10 GB of semi-structured data from various sources such as EHRs, labs, pharmacies, etc. Leveraged Oracle’s Advance Queue (AQ) and Microsoft’s MSMQ for streaming data ingestion, Perl DBI for database interaction, and Regex::Engine for pattern matching and extraction.
  • Achieved a significant improvement in the data ingestion efficiency and accuracy for athenaCollector, enabling the onboarding of hundreds of new healthcare providers within a few months . Reduced the average data ingestion time by 50%, increased the first-pass acceptance rate of claims by 20%, and eliminated 90% of manual errors and interventions.
  • Demonstrated a great understanding of coding, SQL writing, database and infra scaling, as well as best practices for data security, quality and integrity. Performed data analysis, performance tuning, testing, debugging, and documentation for the record ingestion system. Ensured compliance with HIPAA and other industry standards and regulations.
  • Collaborated with other developers, testers, analysts and stakeholders in an agile environment to deliver high-quality software solutions that met the business needs and customer expectations.
  • Cybage - Pune Area, India

Independent Information Technology Consultant

S K Enterprises
05.2001 - 01.2003
  • Collaborated with other developers, testers, analysts and stakeholders in an agile environment to deliver high-quality software solutions that met the business needs and customer expectations.

Education

Bachelor's of Engineering - information technology

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University
Agra

Skills

  • Strategic coaching
  • Technical strategy development
  • AI integration
  • Platform modernization
  • Security compliance
  • Project management
  • Team leadership
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • Data analysis

Certification

  • Sun Certified Java Programmer
  • Cloudera Certified Developer for Apache Hadoop
  • AWS Architect

Languages

English, Hindi

References

References available upon request.

Timeline

Secretary General

Council of Fractional CXO
02.2024 - Current

Advisor to the CXOs of Y-combinator startups

Confidential
01.2024 - Current

Head of Engineering and Cybersecurity

ELSA, Corp
12.2023 - Current

Fractional CTO | Deep Learning & LLM Tech Specialist

Freelance
11.2023 - Current

VP Product & Engineering | Banking

Zeta India
08.2019 - 08.2023

Head of Engineering | Ola Play, Ola Electric and FoodPanda

Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd)
10.2017 - 08.2019

Head of Engineering

NNNow.com & Creyate.com (Arvind Internet Limited)
04.2015 - 03.2017

Principal Engineer, Tyco Retail Solutions

Tyco Fire & Security
02.2012 - 04.2015

Technical Architect/Manager

FICO
05.2008 - 02.2012

Senior Consultant (SMTS via Interra Systems)

Texas Instruments
03.2006 - 05.2008

Senior Consultant (SSE via Cybage)

athenahealth
07.2003 - 02.2006

Independent Information Technology Consultant

S K Enterprises
05.2001 - 01.2003

Bachelor's of Engineering - information technology

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University

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