AI and Product Architecture
Co-founder and Fractional CTO at Kovaad, designing conversational AI systems with LangChain, Pinecone, Firebase, Redis, Kong, OpenAI/Gemini APIs, and observability through LangSmith.
About
Forward deployed AI engineer and fractional CTO — from requirements through production, without handoff loss.
I sit with founders and business teams, understand the real problem, design the architecture, and build the system. One accountable loop from discovery to working software.
Profile
One person, the entire stack — requirements to running software.
I collapse the traditional project pipeline into one continuous, accountable loop. On any engagement I gather requirements with stakeholders, design the system architecture, build the AI and product layers, and ship — without handing it off across a BA, solutions architect, and dev team.
When the person who understood the requirement is also the person designing the system and writing the code, there is no translation loss. Across 21+ years I have delivered AI platforms, digital banking products, workflow automation, and enterprise systems in this model.
- Forward deployed AI engineer — embedded from discovery through production.
- Co-founder and Fractional CTO experience in conversational AI platforms.
- Head of Engineering experience across 70-120 member teams and 3M+ digital banking users.
- Fintech, SaaS, enterprise mobility, SAP, cloud, analytics, healthcare, and generative AI background.
- PMP, SAFe 6 Practice Consultant, ISB GMP, and Google Cloud ML fundamentals.
Experience
Where the experience comes from.
A mix of hands-on architecture, product delivery, engineering leadership, and advisory work across startups and enterprise environments.
Digital Banking Scale
Head of Engineering at Tonik, leading 70-120 engineers across mobile, backend, QA, and DevOps for digital banking products used by 3M+ users in Southeast Asia.
Fintech and Agent Banking
Head of Development at Wave Money, leading Wave Agent and Wave Pay delivery for wallets, OTC transfers, withdrawals, bill payments, and agent-network workflows.
Enterprise Mobility and SAP
Co-founder of VASPP and earlier SAP enterprise mobility lead, delivering SAP Fiori, SAPUI5, SAP Mobile Platform, Sybase Unwired Platform, and Qatar Government HCM workflows.
CRM and Enterprise Delivery
Program Director and Senior Technology Manager at Innominds, managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM offshore delivery, enterprise customization, performance optimization, and multi-team execution.
Analytics and Modernization
Advisor for manufacturing cost and sales analytics work, digitizing Excel-heavy workflows into clearer data flows, dashboards, and decision-ready operational insights.
Education and Certifications
Formal training behind the delivery experience.
M.Tech. Computer Science, Keshav Memorial College of Engineering / JNTU Hyderabad, 2026.
General Management Program, Indian School of Business. 2023
Creating Successful New Products, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. 2013
Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute. 2024
Certified SAFe 6 Practice Consultant, Scaled Agile. 2022
Google Cloud Big Data & Machine Learning Fundamentals. 2025
The Future of Payment Technologies, University of Michigan. 2021
Digital Competition in Financial Services, Copenhagen Business School. 2021
Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, Padre Conceicao College of Engineering / Goa University. 2004
Technical Range
I stay close enough to the code to make practical architecture decisions.
AI and Data
OpenAI APIs, Gemini APIs, LangChain, RAG, vector databases, Pinecone, prompt engineering, BigQuery, SQL, ETL, analytics automation.
Product Engineering
React, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, FastAPI, NestJS, Node.js, Java Spring Boot, Firebase, PostgreSQL, Redis.
Cloud and Delivery
AWS, GCP, Docker, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, AWS CodeBuild, Terraform, GitOps, CI/CD, observability, release automation.
Mobile and Enterprise
Android, iOS, React Native, SAP Fiori, SAPUI5, SAP Mobile Platform, Sybase Unwired Platform, Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Client questions
Clear answers for founders and business teams evaluating a forward deployed AI engineer.
These are the questions I hear most often before a first engagement, answered in plain language so founders and business teams can qualify fit quickly.
How can a fractional CTO help a startup?
A fractional CTO helps a startup turn business intent into a buildable technical plan. I clarify product outcomes, users, workflow, system boundaries, current architecture, team capacity, and the highest-risk assumptions. From there I shape roadmap, stack choices, integration plans, hiring sequence, delivery checkpoints, and governance so the team can ship without creating brittle architecture or avoidable rework.
What makes an AI project practical instead of hype-driven?
A practical AI project starts with the workflow, not the model. I map the business decision, input data, user action, retrieval needs, validation rules, fallback behavior, and success metric before choosing tools. Then I design guardrails, evaluation, observability, and human review where needed so the system can be trusted in production instead of behaving like a demo.
How do you choose a maintainable technology stack?
I work backward from product requirements, integration constraints, data model, team capability, hiring market, hosting needs, security boundaries, and expected change rate. I prefer boring, proven foundations where possible: clear APIs, understandable database models, testable services, observable deployments, and frontend tools the team can maintain after launch.
What services do you offer?
I work as a forward deployed engineer and fractional CTO. I take projects from business requirement discovery through technical scope, architecture, UI, backend, AI workflows, integrations, deployment, and shipping. That includes MVP builds, RAG pipelines, internal tools, workflow automation, dashboards, architecture reviews, and delivery leadership for startups and businesses that want end-to-end ownership without managing a large team.
How do I work with you, and what is the process?
Start with a call. I run a short scoping session to understand the problem, constraints, current systems, users, timeline, and business outcome. Then I come back with an approach, risks, rough estimate, and delivery path. Most engagements are project-based, and some advisory or ongoing execution work fits a retainer.
Can you build both the frontend and backend, or do you specialize in one?
I can work across frontend and backend. My strongest value is usually connecting the pieces: business requirement, product scope, architecture, UI, backend, AI workflows, integrations, deployment, and delivery so the system fits the business instead of becoming disconnected features.
What's your experience with CI/CD?
I have used GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, AWS CodeBuild, Docker, Terraform, GitOps, and observability practices to automate build, test, and release workflows. I have led release automation that cut deployment time from multiple hours to about 10 minutes on a large banking platform, with test coverage tied to tools such as Playwright, Jest, Selenium, JMeter, and Appium.
Can you share examples of similar projects you've built?
Yes. I have worked on AI and LLM platforms, fintech wallets, banking systems, SAP enterprise mobility, manufacturing analytics, procurement workflows, healthcare analytics, CRM systems, and startup MVP planning. This site includes public case studies and project summaries, with LinkedIn and GitHub linked in the footer for additional public context.
Do you work alone or do you have a team?
I can work alone as a fractional CTO, hands-on architect, or delivery lead, and I can also bring in a trusted team of experts when the project needs it. I am connected to VASPP for SAP expertise, Kovaad as co-founder for AI conversational systems, and Vindago Innovations LLP for app development and GIS solutions.
Do you offer maintenance and support after launch?
Yes. Support can include bug triage, release planning, monitoring, roadmap planning, team handover, and ongoing architecture guidance. I recommend defining a post-launch support window and severity process before release so ownership stays clear.
Working Model
I can work alone across the full stack, or bring the right team around the problem.
Depending on the engagement, I can act as a forward deployed AI engineer, fractional CTO, hands-on architect, advisor, or delivery lead. I am connected to VASPP for SAP expertise, Kovaad for AI conversational systems, and Vindago Innovations LLP for app development and GIS solutions.