Gayathri Kathirvelu

Engineering Manager

San Jose, California, United States15 yrs 3 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Led high-performing engineering teams at Chime.
Spearheaded multiple successful product launches.
Expert in strategic execution and operational excellence.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech and E-commerce expert with strong software engineering and product management capabilities.

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Skills

Core Skills

Engineering ManagementProduct DevelopmentSoftware Engineering

Other Skills

Zero-to-One product launchesplatform re-architecturestrategic executiontechnical excellencepeople developmentoperational excellencecross-org alignmentstrategic visionproduct integrationsfull stack developmente-Commerce integrationAgile best practicesuser acquisition strategiescompliance application designperformance optimization

About

I build things. Sometimes it’s scalable distributed systems that handle millions of requests; other times, it’s the high-performing engineering teams that make those systems possible. And on the weekends? It’s usually the longest road in Catan.

Experience

Chime

Engineering Manager

Jan 2021 – Present · 5 yrs 3 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Engineering Leader at Chime with over 3.5 years of Engineering Manager experience, leading high-performing teams to drive outsized business impact. I specialize in Zero-to-One product launches, platform re-architecture, and phased strategic execution within high-growth organizations.
Currently managing three distinct squads in the Growth organization, I focus on driving core business metrics—including Deposit volume, net new Direct Depositers—through technical excellence and strategic vision.
Platform Ecosystems: Spearheaded the Unified Transfer Funds Flow (UTFF) and Move Money Hub (MMH) transformations, reducing time-to-market by 5x, cutting latency by 50%, and eliminating critical incident overhead.
Zero-to-One Leadership: Served as Eng Manager DRI for the company-level launch of Chime+ Membership, exceeding program goals for acquisition and retention through complex cross-org alignment.
Strategic Vision: Architected the Membership Platform Expansion Strategy and a four-phase execution roadmap to support future tiers and self-serve product integrations.
Operational Excellence: Developed the "Cluster of Scrum Teams" model and three-layered reporting frameworks to ensure predictable delivery across five interdependent organizations.
People Development: Scaled leadership capacity by coaching multiple L4 to L5 promotions, mentoring Staff-level competencies, and guiding Senior Engineers through EM track transitions.
Engineering Culture: Championed team health and operational excellence, significantly increasing Developer Experience (DXI) scores during periods of high organizational flux.

Zero-to-One product launchesplatform re-architecturestrategic executiontechnical excellencepeople developmentoperational excellence+2

Software Engineer

Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 · 2 yrs · San Francisco Bay Area

Full stack/Backend engineer and TL in SMB Growth, Monetization org. Led multiple growth initiatives.
Launched Shopify-Pinterest integration that increased the advertisers top of the funnel volume. Built a dedicated team to scale the same.
Built an e-Commerce integration SDK to onboard partners effectively and scale the advertisers base.
Active member of How We Work tiger team that defined and socialized Agile best practices for Pinterest and improved dev velocity

full stack developmente-Commerce integrationAgile best practicesSoftware Engineering

Paypal

2 roles

Software Engineer

Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 · 2 yrs

Full stack engineer and Tech Lead for Merchants Onboarding and Activation teams driving increase in net new active users on the PayPal platform globally.
Re-architected the experience to improve the Merchant experience and user acquisition funnel.

full stack developmentuser acquisition strategiesSoftware Engineering

Software Engineer

Jan 2014 – Jan 2017 · 3 yrs

Full stack/Backend engineer in Risk & Compliance org. Successfully designed and built a config driven frontend compliance app from Zero to One to handle all compliance traffic, scale globally and reduce TTM by 6x. Reduced training cost and call volumes for internal ops while ensuring compliance verification flows are consistent and effective for end users.
Collaborated with cross functional teams across different geographical locations and successfully delivered multiple AML compliance projects with unbending timelines.

full stack developmentcompliance application designSoftware Engineering

Bubbly

Software Engineer

Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 · 2 yrs · Singapore

Full stack engineer in the platform team. Led performance optimization and automation efforts that boosted system efficiency 4x and reduced manual testing from 4 weeks to 3 days through state-machine automation. Developed internal tools improving developer productivity, traffic insights, and stress test management.

full stack developmentperformance optimizationautomationSoftware Engineering

Amazon

Software Engineer

Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 · 1 yr · Chennai Area, India

Backend engineer in Global Retail Catalog Services team. Led automation and modernization of Amazon’s retail data systems, streamlining vendor integration, improving data quality auditing, and accelerating item-data reconciliation.

backend developmentdata systems automationSoftware Engineering