Summary

Overview

Work History

Education

Skills

Core Skills and Competencies

Timeline

Surya Venkatapathi

Engineering Manager

Chennai,TN

Summary

Engineering Manager with 12 years of software development experience and 5 years leading SaaS product engineering teams. Strong background in building cloud-native, customer-facing applications using React, Next.js, Node.js (Express, Fastify), with additional experience in PHP (Symfony), .NET, and Python workflows using Airflow. Experienced in designing and operating systems on AWS and Azure, with a focus on scalable architecture, reliable delivery, and engineering best practices. Known for leading accountable teams and collaborating closely with Product, QA, DevOps, and business stakeholders to deliver high-quality software.

Overview

years of professional experience

Work History

Engineering Manager / Project Lead

Talentship

01.2022 - Current

Managed two product engineering teams responsible for the end-to-end delivery of enterprise SaaS platforms.
Developed and maintained detailed execution plans, including sprint schedules, milestones, and resource allocation.
Monitored project progress using delivery and productivity metrics, ensuring on-time delivery and transparency to stakeholders.
Identified delivery, technical, and operational risks early, and implemented mitigation strategies to minimize impact.
Conducted regular performance reviews, provided structured feedback, and drove measurable improvements in individual and team performance.
Enhanced overall team productivity with continuous training and mentoring of junior engineers.
Improved engineering processes by streamlining workflows and implementing efficient project management techniques.
Fostered a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and engineering ownership.
Reviewed and validated technical designs, high-level architecture (HLD), and implementation plans for scalability and maintainability.
Guided teams in solving complex technical problems, ensuring adherence to engineering best practices, and clean architecture principles.
Worked closely with Product Management, QA, DevOps, and Support to ensure alignment, smooth execution, and high-quality releases.
Coordinated with distributed teams across multiple time zones, maintaining clear communication, and delivery rhythm.
Interfaced directly with customers and internal stakeholders to understand technical requirements, and translate them into actionable engineering tasks.
Provided technical insights during customer discussions and reviews, strengthening trust and satisfaction.
Improved system reliability through enhanced observability, and reduced MTTR via proactive monitoring and alerting.
Achieved approximately 25% cloud cost reduction through infrastructure optimization and performance tuning.
Introduced AI-assisted development practices to improve developer productivity, review turnaround time, and documentation quality.

Technical Lead

Learnship

01.2018 - 01.2022

Led technical execution for multiple commercial SaaS products in a product-driven, Agile environment.
Translated business and customer requirements into technical architecture, HLDs, and detailed implementation plans.
Mentored junior developers through regular 1-on-1 meetings, providing guidance on best practices, coding standards, and career growth opportunities.
Coordinated with cross-department teams like QA, DevOps, and Support to ensure seamless end-to-end software delivery process.
Drove code reviews and architectural governance, ensuring consistent quality and maintainability.
Collaborated closely with Product Owners to support planning, estimation, and delivery commitments.
Supported customer-facing initiatives by providing technical clarifications and solution walkthroughs, when required.

Senior Software Engineer

GlobalEnglish

01.2013 - 01.2018

Contributed hands-on to back-end and front-end development of enterprise SaaS platforms, serving 10,000+ active learners across global enterprise customers.
Designed and implemented 30+ REST APIs and scalable data models, supporting core learning workflows and third-party integrations.
Improved application performance and API response times by 35% through query optimization, caching, and refactoring of critical code paths.
Played a key role in modernizing legacy modules, reducing technical debt, and improving maintainability, leading to approximately 25% fewer production defects.
Participated in production support and on-call rotations, resolving high-priority customer issues within SLA, and contributing to a significant reduction in repeat incidents.
Conducted root cause analysis for 15+ production incidents, implementing long-term fixes that improved platform stability and reliability.
Collaborated with QA and Product teams to deliver on-time releases, with minimal post-release issues.
Supported enterprise customers by troubleshooting complex issues and providing technical explanations, improving customer confidence and satisfaction.

Education

Bachelor of Engineering - Computer Science And Engineering

DMI College of Engineering

Chennai, India

04.2001 -

Skills

System Design & ArchitectureSystem Design, HLD, Architecture Validation, Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Microservices

Frontend & Backend EngineeringJavaScript, TypeScript, React, Zustand, Redux, Nextjs, Nodejs (Express, Fastify), ORM - Prisma, Redis, SQL - Postgres, MySQL, MS-SQL, MongoDB, PHP (Symfony), Net - ASPNet, Core, MVC, WCF

Cloud & DevOpsAWS, Azure, CI/CD, Performance Optimization, Cost Management

Engineering PracticesCode Reviews, Scalable Architecture, Reliability, Maintainability

Core Skills and Competencies

Engineering & People Leadership

Engineering Management • Performance Reviews • Career Development • Hiring & Team

Building

Project Execution & Delivery

Work Planning & Scheduling • Resource Allocation • Risk Identification & Mitigation •

Agile/Scrum • Milestone Tracking • Delivery Forecasting

Stakeholder & Customer Engagement

Product Collaboration • Customer-Facing Technical Discussions • Distributed Team

Coordination