Kunal Shankar

Director of Engineering

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India19 yrs 8 mos experience

AI ML PractitionerAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Expert in operationalizing AI for businesses.
Proven track record in fraud detection and prevention.
Leader in digital transformation initiatives across regions.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in AI-driven digital transformation within the Fintech and Healthcare sectors.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Data ScienceDigital TransformationData VisualizationPeople Management

Other Skills

Process ImprovementGenerative AI ToolsAnalyticsAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsProject ManagementClient RelationsNew Business DevelopmentBusiness TransformationUnix Shell ScriptingPL/SQLDatabase AdministrationSAS programmingData MigrationPerformance Tuning

About

Artificial Intelligence has an adoption problem. Businesses everywhere are drowning in 'proof of concepts' but starving for real, scaled integration. We've proven AI can work, but we've failed to make it part of our work. As the Head of Applied AI for Searce across India, the Middle East, and Europe, I lead a team with a singular mission: To move AI from the lab to the front line. We don't just build interesting projects; we weave AI into the very fabric of your company. This mission is built on a decade of experience in the trenches. Before Searce, I spent over nine years at PwC, leading generative AI and digital transformations. My teams weren't just advising; we were building secure, high-stakes cloud solutions for finance and healthcare. My deep roots in forensic analytics taught me a critical lesson: technology is useless unless it solves a high-consequence problem. We built systems that didn't just find data—they stopped fraud and managed active threats. I bring that 'high-consequence' mindset to everything I do. I build and lead world-class, cross-functional teams that are obsessed with operationalizing AI. We bridge the critical gap between technical possibility and business reality. The future of your company isn't another pilot program. It’s a new way of operating. If you're ready to stop experimenting with AI and start becoming an AI-driven company, let's talk.

Experience

19 yrs 8 mos

Total Experience

6 yrs 4 mos

Average Tenure

1 yr 2 mos

Current Experience

Searce inc

Director - Applied AI

Mar 2025 – Present · 1 yr 2 mos

Pwc acceleration centers

5 roles

Director

Promoted

Jul 2022 – Oct 2025 · 3 yrs 3 mos

Products and Technology, investigation and forensics

Data ScienceProcess ImprovementGenerative AI ToolsPeople ManagementData VisualizationAnalytics+7

Senior Manager - Forensics

Promoted

Jul 2020 – Jun 2022 · 1 yr 11 mos

Forensics - Fraud detection and prevention, Threat management,

Data SciencePeople ManagementData VisualizationAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsProject Management+2

Manager

Jul 2018 – Jun 2020 · 1 yr 11 mos

Forensic services
Deals (Mergers and Acquisitions)
Active Analytics
Licensing management and contract compliance
Fraud investigation
AML

Data SciencePeople ManagementData VisualizationAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsProject Management+2

Senior Consultant

Promoted

Jul 2016 – Jun 2018 · 1 yr 11 mos

Deals - Mergers and Acquisitions
Licensing management
Active analytics
Alteryx, Visualization tools, R

Data ScienceData VisualizationAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsProject ManagementDigital Transformation

Consultant

Feb 2015 – Jun 2016 · 1 yr 4 mos

Fraud investigation using Analytical skills and tools.

Data ScienceData VisualizationAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsProject ManagementDigital Transformation

Ibm global business services

2 roles

Business Analyst

Sep 2012 – Feb 2015 · 2 yrs 5 mos · Bangalore

Worked as a consultant and Business analyst in end to end of quite a few applications for Banking and finance (BFSI) domain. The applications were used by the marketing team for customer profiling/ segmentation and data warehousing.
Key responsibilities:
Requirement gathering.
Link between business and design team.
Client relationship management.
Business acceptance testing.
SQL query tuning

Data VisualizationAgile & Waterfall MethodologiesCloud ApplicationsDigital Transformation

Team Lead

Feb 2010 – Sep 2012 · 2 yrs 7 mos · Bangalore

Worked as technical lead in end to end SDLC for one of the leading North American Banking client.
Key responsibilities:
Creating design document and project tracking.
Code review and milestone tracking.
Technical skills:
Shell scripting
Query optimization, SQL, PL/SQL
SAS

Data VisualizationAgile & Waterfall Methodologies

Cgi

2 roles

Senior Software Engineer

Promoted

Dec 2007 – Feb 2010 · 2 yrs 2 mos

Worked as a tech lead for development projects.
Involved in setting up technical support for a North American Telecom client.
Acted as an Interface between client and development team.
Business Acceptance testing, Code review and delivery management.

People ManagementData VisualizationAgile & Waterfall Methodologies

Software Engineer

Jun 2006 – Dec 2007 · 1 yr 6 mos

Worked on JSPs and Struts framework for front end development.
Worked on cruise control for automating the build.
Worked on JPROBE to analyze and redesign the java code.
Worked on Query tuning, Writing PL/SQL blocks, Procedures, functions, triggers (ORACLE).

Agile & Waterfall Methodologies