Apr 2020 – Oct 2022 · 2 yrs 6 mos · Pune, Maharashtra

• At TomTom, we are mapmakers, providing geolocation technology for drivers, carmakers, enterprises and developers.
• My team’s mission is to build highly accurate maps and deliver them in real time by removing human touch in the map making process with pervasive use of AI/ML, use of open data, feedback loops and contribution from partners & community.
• I led the Standard Definition Maps teams (200+ FTEs) to deliver location content for Search (POIs, EVs, Geocoding) and Navigation products by leveraging Content Mgmt and Delivery Platforms.
• I led product engineering and operations unit of multi-million euros operating & capital staff, and technology budgets including global partnerships and service partners. A purposely organisation built for speed, flexibility and innovation by hiring more than 95+ talent including Deep Learning & NLP Engineers.
• With the goal of better, fresher and cheaper maps, I delivered with my team's re-engineering of the GIS based tools and processes to Software as a Service (SaaS) on 15+ data producing flows. Achieved higher degree of automation using AI/ML and computational geometry, microservices, event driven, observability, etc. on AWS and Azure.
• I am involved in crafting 1-Year Plan and Long Term Financial Model (LTFM), technology roadmaps to set purpose and direction, including identifying new investment areas and funding innovation to have product led growth. Product prioritisation is based on user experience metrics (availability, freshness, geo accuracy etc.) considering where users are and what they do through Navigation applications.
• Led the key strategies on Automation KPI, End User Metrics and Unified Architecture by transforming the organization towards data orientedness and automation first mindset. Outcome is improved user experience, top line and bottom line for TomTom’s Consumer, Enterprise, and OEM Automotive businesses with a total user base of 800+ million customers and annual revenue of ~700 million euros p.a.

Mar 2018 – Apr 2020 · 2 yrs 1 mo

• At HERE, our mission is to enable a digital representation of reality to radically improve the way the world moves, lives and interacts.
• I led multiple teams (80-125 engineers) of empowered product teams, self-organized and self-directed scrum teams within core map engineering having accountability and responsibility of building new products like HERE Lanes (Lanes everywhere and ADAS), HERE Road Sign Service using SDO, Natural Guidance, Outdoor, LiDAR As A Service etc., enterprise product formats, building validation rules for map features with complex algorithms, instrumentation and computer assisted web tools for digitization of maps.
• In 2018, I started on a mission to “Automate Creation of Location Content Without Human Touch” with multiple teams of Deep Learning Scientists, ML Engineers, Computer Vision experts, Cloud and Big Data Engineers, focused on developing state-of-the-art map attribute extraction and confirmation techniques from sources like Satellite Imagery, Aerial Imagery, Street Level Imagery, SDO, probe and dashcam, to generate map content and layers. Goal was to achieve a high degree of automation (both high recall and high precision) with KPI of 80% (actuals is 75%) and deliver innovative capabilities on parking lot geometry, Incremental training (save cost and time), data augmentation to accelerate labeled data sets, contextual text extraction from imagery etc.
• I am providing strategic execution (Engineering, Technology, Innovation & Research) and vision/roadmap for building next generation location content creation tools/products, processes, and platform by using relevant modern technology stack. This results in growing top line and bottom line while spearheading operational improvements to drive productivity, operational efficiency and reduce costs. We were multicultural and a global experience teams generating 1B+ in revenue to become #1 location technology company.

Mar 2014 – Mar 2018 · 4 yrs

• Apart from above responsibilities on business side, I am working as a site leader.
• I headed the Engineering Center in India for HERE Technologies and grew their Mumbai center to 600+ engineers (from 175+), specializing in niche and cutting-edge technologies. I also built a data science team from 0 to 1 consisting of 40+ engineers in the area of deep neural nets, computer vision and NLP through an internal up skilling program and external hiring.
• I worked over 6 years as site leader to make HERE Mumbai as a world class Engineering Center by having consistent employee experience, increasing the pace of innovation and IP, raising the bar of talent and leveraging co-location with the production center. This also led to recognition of HERE India as Great Place to Work (GPTW) in top 50 and at 17 in best technology company to work for in India (2018).
• I am working with HERE’s world class production center in Mumbai to leverage co-location in order to upskill, co-innovate and co-hack the location solutions by acting as mentor and sponsor for many of the programs. Also worked with IT and HR processes to bring synergy and automation with business units.
• I pragmatically worked towards HERE brand building, brand recognition, and hiring the top engineering talent by leading the various initiatives which includes hackathons with Techgig and Hacker Earth, engaging with startups in Mumbai for adoption of HERE XYZ platform and collaborating with NASSCOM via industry partnership program, 10K startups, and big data and analytics special interest group.

Dec 2007 – Mar 2014 · 6 yrs 3 mos · Pune Area, India

• Led an engineering team of 30+ engineers in a highly matrix organization for building middle ware platform “Collaboration Environment” in the space of unified communications and contact center applications. Supports multi-channel communications (voice, video, text, email) and collaboration.
• Led the strategy, system engineering, technical architecture, design, implementation, deployment of NMS/EMS for switches Communication Manager, Messaging, Gateways, and IP Office.
• Provided vision and shape to some of the complex business requirements and hired and trained highly productive engineering and QA team to deliver business outcomes in time.
• Ensured products follow a well-defined, extensible, and re-usable solution, common and unified user experience that can be leveraged across various Element Managers.
• Created an ecosystem that fosters innovation with relevance by having constant flow of ideas leading to high patent submissions (10+ patents by team).
• Developed mobility strategy for building management applications on Android and iOS.
• Consistently shown high engagement results, low attrition along with managing and navigating ambiguity successfully.

Dec 2000 – Dec 2007 · 7 yrs

• Led a team of 40 team members by rolling out multiple major releases for product OMC-H – EMS for USDS (Universal subscriber data system – HSS and HLR), OMC-PS - EMS for packet switch network (SGSN/GGSN/CGF) and OMC-RAN - EMS for CDMA network.
• Manage the multiple products requirements, design, development (UI/UX and backend) of NMS/EMS/OMC's functional components for various cellular networks to manage FCAPS.
• Played central role in ground up design and implementation of scalable Integrated Element Management System (iEMS) and integration of various communication protocols.
• Worked with product management and architects to define the roadmap, vision, and strategy for the products.
• Led the TL-9000 certification for OMC-H product.
• Proven and widely recognized as collaborator and troubleshooter capable of resolving problems at any scale and complexity in technology and functional areas.

Aug 1997 – Nov 2000 · 3 yrs 3 mos · Bangalore

• Led a team of 10 Developers to design and implement the system for Orange India for developing the Value-added service for mobile users using Short Message Service (SMS).
• Architect the system and was involved in the project from presales to the delivery.
• Developed GSM SMS gateway in C using Nokia CIMD2.0 and GSM 03.39, 03.40 standards.
• Jini project requirement Specifications and prototype of the application in a WAN environment for Tourism industry of Europe.
• Led a team of 5 developers for integration of LDAP, Solaris for ISP and Sybase for ISP Telecel for provisioning system including co-ordination with other teams & customer.