Ravi Kumar J
Director of engineering
Bengaluru
Summary
Experienced Senior Engineering Leader with a 21+ year track record driving cloud-native innovation, AI/ML adoption, and leading high-impact engineering teams. Skilled in aligning technical strategy with business objectives, modernizing legacy systems, and fostering cultures of TDD/BDD excellence. Committed to solving complex challenges through the development of scalable, secure, and customer-centric architectures.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
3
3
Certifications
Work History
Director of Engineering
SAP Labs India
01.2012 - Current
- Azure Cloud-Native Migration: Orchestrated migration of 8 on-prem data centers with 100+ app server types to Azure and GCP using Terraform, Kubernetes, reducing operational costs by 30%
- Architected and developed reporting/auditing tool (Qcert) to certify across data centres, enabling standardization of builds and deployments
- This tool validated compliance across all layers of data centre (Network, storage, VM, A & A policies, applications) in adherence to SAP security policies and standards
- Resulting in 1000 Manual days
- A recurring audit time by 70% savings
- Event-Driven Architecture: Transitioned legacy monoliths to Kafka-based microservices, enabling real-time data processing for HR analytics
- Migration: Led migration of 30,000 Custom RDF Reports from Oracle to HANA platform across 1500 customers
- AI/ML Integration: Piloted GenAI tools for report generation in SAP Analytics Cloud, cutting manual effort by 35%
- Headed QA org and Release management for Onboarding product and Automated CI/CD Pipelines - into build processes, slashing build failures and production defects by 30% and accelerating release velocity through real-time feedback loops
- Boosted Customer Experience- Drove a 5-point NPS increase by prioritizing end-to-end testing, defect prevention, and reliability enhancements in onboarding product journey
- Built strong teams through selective recruitment and post-hire mentorship of junior engineers.
- Evaluated emerging technologies to identify opportunities for integration into existing systems or develop innovative solutions.
Lead Engineer
Symphony Services
01.2010 - 01.2012
- Pioneered multi-tenant cybersecurity SaaS platforms on IBM cloud
- Redesigned Rapid7 NeXpose into Multi-tenant architecture, supporting 200+ concurrent tenants with IBM based scalability
- Recruited and led a 15-member team, establishing Agile practices that accelerated release cycles by 20%
Lead Engineer
Vendio
07.2006 - 03.2010
- Lead a team in delivering Next gen E-Commerce Seller centric Inventory management product integrating with various E-Commerce platforms (Amazon, eBay, Shopzilla, seller’s Internal stores)
- Headed Lister product Quality delivery and SRE team adoption in its transition to Lister2.0 product rewrite and upgradation integrated with CI/CD pipelines
- Assessed scope and requirements to assist with project design determinations
Engineer
McAfee (Consulting)
12.2005 - 07.2006
Engineer
Monsanto
07.2003 - 12.2005
Education
Bachelor of Engineering -
BEC
01.1999 - 01.2003
Skills
Azure
Terraform
Kubernetes
Docker
GitHub Actions
Jenkins
Strategic planning
Scalability strategies
Performance optimization
Security best practices
DevOps practices
Continuous integration
Technical leadership
Certification
Generative AI & Adoption (SAP Certification)
Accomplishments
- Azure Cloud & DevOps Leadership, Led migration of 16 on-prem data centers (8 Primary and 8 DR) to Azure/GCP via Terraform automation, adopting modernizing architecture with microservices and Kubernetes-driven deployments to reduce infrastructure costs by 30% while ensuring zero downtime.
- Product-Technical Synergy, Partnered with SAP SuccessFactors Product Managers to unify HR analytics (SAC) on a single cloud platform reducing 30% development time, delivering real-time compensation/performance insights through RESTful APIs.
- Security & Compliance, Achieved GDPR compliance for critical products, mitigating $2M+ in compliance risks through rigorous threat modelling aligned with OWASP guidelines.
Core Expertise
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Platform & Product Strategy
- Startup Agility
- Team Building & Talent Development
- Architectural Modernization
- Large-Scale Platforms
- Azure Cloud-Native Platforms (Terraform, Kubernetes)
- Infrastructure Reliability
- SRE/DevOps Transformation
- TDD/BDD Advocacy integrated with CI/CD pipelines
Timeline
Director of Engineering
SAP Labs India
01.2012 - Current
Lead Engineer
Symphony Services
01.2010 - 01.2012
Lead Engineer
Vendio
07.2006 - 03.2010
Engineer
McAfee (Consulting)
12.2005 - 07.2006
Engineer
Monsanto
07.2003 - 12.2005
Bachelor of Engineering -
BEC
01.1999 - 01.2003