RAHUL BAJAJ
Head of Engineering @ CognitiveBotics
Hyderabad
Summary
Engineering leader with 16+ years of experience driving scalable product development across FinTech, EdTech, and enterprise platforms. Currently Head of Engineering at CognitiveBotics, leading AI/ML-powered eLearning solutions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), integrating adaptive learning with clinical expertise.
Previously served as Senior Director at Centime Inc., managing global teams, multi-release agile delivery, and cloud-native platform architecture. Proven track record in building high-performing teams, delivering secure, SOC-2 compliant infrastructure, and leading end-to-end engineering across development, DevOps, and production support.
Known for strategic execution, technical depth, and mentoring talent to build innovative, resilient, and user-focused technology solutions.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
16
16
years of post-secondary education
4
4
Languages
Work History
Head of Engineering
CognitiveBotics
10.2024 - Current
- Led the end-to-end development of AI-powered eLearning solutions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), merging therapeutic expertise with cutting-edge machine learning to deliver highly personalized, adaptive learning experiences.
- Directed a high-performing cross-functional engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, ownership, and continuous improvement through structured mentorship and talent development.
- Streamlined engineering workflows and implemented agile delivery models, improving team velocity and reducing development cycle times by over 25%.
- Collaborated with therapists, behavioral scientists, and UX teams to integrate evidence-based strategies into the product stack, ensuring clinical efficacy and user engagement.
- Architected and deployed a real-time data feedback system to personalize content dynamically, improving learning outcomes and platform stickiness among ASD learners.
- Conducted system audits and implemented architectural optimizations that led to long-term cost savings and increased platform scalability.
- Introduced rigorous quality control and CI/CD practices that reduced production defects, improved platform stability, and increased customer satisfaction and retention.
- Defined and executed the product and technology roadmap, aligning engineering goals with the company’s mission to create accessible, inclusive learning environments.
- Championed the adoption of emerging technologies such as NLP, reinforcement learning, and computer vision to enhance cognitive and behavioral interventions at scale.
- Represented the company in key strategic partnerships, research collaborations, and industry forums, reinforcing CognitiveBotics’ position as a leader in AI-driven inclusive education.
Senior Director
Centime Inc.
01.2023 - Current
- Company Overview: Provided end to end Program leadership including Technology Delivery, People/Partner/Vendor management, Finance, Recruitment and Competency development. Developing and managing product roadmaps in alignment with product line or customer journey. Currently managing multiple initiatives simultaneously in Centime. Own and Manage Development, Support, Build/Release & Change management Team for Centime. Build and Manage 16–7 Platform Support from India. Manage end to end delivery of 8 quarterly release cycles from India following agile.
- Provided end to end Program leadership including Technology Delivery, People/Partner/Vendor management, Finance, Recruitment and Competency development. Developing and managing product roadmaps in alignment with product line or customer journey. Currently managing multiple initiatives simultaneously in Centime. Own and Manage Development, Support, Build/Release & Change management Team for Centime. Build and Manage 16–7 Platform Support from India. Manage end to end delivery of 8 quarterly release cycles from India following agile.
Director
Centime Inc.
02.2020 - 12.2022
- Company Overview: Built a high-performing team with architecture and emerging tech capabilities. Experience in managing co-located FTE and Vendor based teams. Developing and articulating the product goals, framed in customer value. Drive the implementation of the Centime roadmap by collaborating with all the Product Owners to discuss top work items, cross team impacts or any other issues the teams are facing. Led the team to develop multi tenancy scalable architecture with micro-services, design common framework and SDKs for ApiCalls, Exception Handling, Response Schemas, Logging. Led the team to Design and Implement Security service for Authorisation and Authentication of Users and APIs. Led the team to Designed and Implemented Notification service in reactive Spring, SSE and kafka. Developed highly scalable and fault-tolerant data pipelines between QuickBooks and RDS with WSO2. Implemented CI/CD pipelines for microservices using Gradle, Docker, and Jenkins. Developed & Managed Product/Technology strategy for Centime. Manage end to end delivery of 8 quarterly release cycles from India following agile.
- Built a high-performing team with architecture and emerging tech capabilities. Experience in managing co-located FTE and Vendor based teams. Developing and articulating the product goals, framed in customer value. Drive the implementation of the Centime roadmap by collaborating with all the Product Owners to discuss top work items, cross team impacts or any other issues the teams are facing. Led the team to develop multi tenancy scalable architecture with micro-services, design common framework and SDKs for ApiCalls, Exception Handling, Response Schemas, Logging. Led the team to Design and Implement Security service for Authorisation and Authentication of Users and APIs. Led the team to Designed and Implemented Notification service in reactive Spring, SSE and kafka. Developed highly scalable and fault-tolerant data pipelines between QuickBooks and RDS with WSO2. Implemented CI/CD pipelines for microservices using Gradle, Docker, and Jenkins. Developed & Managed Product/Technology strategy for Centime. Manage end to end delivery of 8 quarterly release cycles from India following agile.
Systems Development Engineer
Wells Fargo
03.2018 - 02.2020
- Company Overview: Ensured design and end to end development of various applications which were compliant with SOA based architecture. Direct daily project execution activities related to requirements; functional specification design; solution architecture; software development; change management; systems implementation; unit, integrate and user testing; and production support. Work with executive business stakeholders, to implement enterprise solutions for various consumer lending functionality. Lead system and architectural design and obtained Architecture Committee approvals. Lead and support more than 200– web service APIs within PVSI Credit Card Business Services. Successfully modernised and migrated monolithic code base into 39 project modules. Leading Technology Health Refresh ‘THR’ effort for identified applications to meet regulatory and compliance needs for multiple Safety and Soundness initiatives including tech refresh, .NET Framework 4.6 upgrade, Java 8 upgrade, Fortify Integration and enterprise software compliance including Enterprise Jenkins, Enterprise Artifactory, UDeploy, JIRA, and Confluence etc.
- Ensured design and end to end development of various applications which were compliant with SOA based architecture. Direct daily project execution activities related to requirements; functional specification design; solution architecture; software development; change management; systems implementation; unit, integrate and user testing; and production support. Work with executive business stakeholders, to implement enterprise solutions for various consumer lending functionality. Lead system and architectural design and obtained Architecture Committee approvals. Lead and support more than 200– web service APIs within PVSI Credit Card Business Services. Successfully modernised and migrated monolithic code base into 39 project modules. Leading Technology Health Refresh ‘THR’ effort for identified applications to meet regulatory and compliance needs for multiple Safety and Soundness initiatives including tech refresh, .NET Framework 4.6 upgrade, Java 8 upgrade, Fortify Integration and enterprise software compliance including Enterprise Jenkins, Enterprise Artifactory, UDeploy, JIRA, and Confluence etc.
Apps Systems Engineer
Wells Fargo
08.2015 - 02.2018
- Company Overview: Led design, development, testing, and application performance optimizations, improving response time by over 300%. Spearheaded Blaze to Drools Business Rule Engine migration and Tomcat migration projects, enhancing system efficiency. Managed team charter, resource allocations, and workload, ensuring timely project execution and quality management. Drove technical analysis and enhancements for a large infrastructure, supporting 150– web services across 16– clustered domains. Investigated and resolved production issues, ensuring robust web services operation. Achieved 100% code and test coverage, impacting business outcomes with automation and API migration strategies.
- Led design, development, testing, and application performance optimizations, improving response time by over 300%. Spearheaded Blaze to Drools Business Rule Engine migration and Tomcat migration projects, enhancing system efficiency. Managed team charter, resource allocations, and workload, ensuring timely project execution and quality management. Drove technical analysis and enhancements for a large infrastructure, supporting 150– web services across 16– clustered domains. Investigated and resolved production issues, ensuring robust web services operation. Achieved 100% code and test coverage, impacting business outcomes with automation and API migration strategies.
Technology Specialist
Wells Fargo
03.2014 - 07.2015
- Company Overview: Lead requirements engineering, functional design, and application implementation, development and support of STRADA services, LG Framework build and HEQ Services. Lead requirements engineering, functional design, and application implementation and was directly accountable for 20 UI applications and more than 300 batch jobs. Classic to flex migration of 14 STRADA services. Delivery of certification upgrades, SHAW migration. Constantly focused on improving application performance, environment tuning and ensuring SLA's are met by coordinating customized stress testing. Worked in Build and deployment on Lending Grid team for 6 months.
- Lead requirements engineering, functional design, and application implementation, development and support of STRADA services, LG Framework build and HEQ Services. Lead requirements engineering, functional design, and application implementation and was directly accountable for 20 UI applications and more than 300 batch jobs. Classic to flex migration of 14 STRADA services. Delivery of certification upgrades, SHAW migration. Constantly focused on improving application performance, environment tuning and ensuring SLA's are met by coordinating customized stress testing. Worked in Build and deployment on Lending Grid team for 6 months.
Technology Analyst
Wells Fargo
05.2012 - 03.2014
Senior System Engineer
Infosys Technologies Pvt. Ltd
06.2009 - 05.2012
Education
B.E - Computer Science
UCE, Osmania University
01.2005 - 12.2009
Inter - MPC, Intermediate
Sri Chaitanya Jr College
01.2003 - 12.2005
SSC - Schooling
Sarveshwar Vidya Mandir
01.1996 - 12.2003
Skills
Technical Leadership
Delivery Management
Software Development
Product Development
Program Management
Project Management
People Management
Team Management
End-to-End Planning
Execution
Client Interaction
Requirement Gathering
Maintenance
Application Support
Architecture
Emerging Technologies
Server-less Architecture
Event-based Architecture
Scalable Architecture
Microservices
AWS Cloud
Infrastructure as Code
Automated CI/CD Pipeline
Jira
Maven
Gradle
Jenkins
UDeploy
Security Controls
Monitoring Processes
SOC-2 Compliance
Fraud Protection Framework
Kafka Streams
CDC-Debezium
Risk Management Framework
Identity Fraud Solutions
Device Fraud Solutions
Vulnerabilities Mitigation
External Threats Mitigation
Governance Process
Communication Skills
Presentation Skills
Interpersonal Skills
Team Spirit
Technology integration
Strategic planning
Domain
- Banking & Finance
- Credit Card, Home Equity, Consumer Lending
- Insurance domain
- Securities
- Process Automation
Timeline
Head of Engineering
CognitiveBotics
10.2024 - Current
Senior Director
Centime Inc.
01.2023 - Current
Director
Centime Inc.
02.2020 - 12.2022
Systems Development Engineer
Wells Fargo
03.2018 - 02.2020
Apps Systems Engineer
Wells Fargo
08.2015 - 02.2018
Technology Specialist
Wells Fargo
03.2014 - 07.2015
Technology Analyst
Wells Fargo
05.2012 - 03.2014
Senior System Engineer
Infosys Technologies Pvt. Ltd
06.2009 - 05.2012
B.E - Computer Science
UCE, Osmania University
01.2005 - 12.2009
Inter - MPC, Intermediate
Sri Chaitanya Jr College
01.2003 - 12.2005
SSC - Schooling
Sarveshwar Vidya Mandir
01.1996 - 12.2003