Vivek Gupta
| +91-9008273000 | Bangalore, IN
SUMMARY
Head of Engineering at Thena.ai, with 16.5 years of experience leading engineering teams at high-growth companies. Previously Director of Engineering at Unacademy, Engineering Manager at Flipkart, and Founding Engineer at Perk (acquired by Nexxen, LSE: NEXN)
EXPERIENCE
Thena.ai - Head of Engineering April 2023 — Present
Leading engineering organization and driving technical strategy as Head of Engineering
  • Led end-to-end architecture and implementation of core platform features, establishing Thena's technical foundation while ensuring scalability and maintainability
  • Built production-grade AI systems leveraging OpenAI, Pinecone, and RAG pipelines for automated request classification, summarization, enrichment and contextual response generation
  • Spearheaded compliance initiatives, successfully achieving SOC 2, GDPR, and HIPAA certifications, enabling Thena to serve enterprise clients and handle sensitive data
  • Built and scaled engineering team from 2 to 25 engineers and established Agile processes to improve team velocity and product delivery
  • Achieved 70% reduction in AWS infrastructure costs from $16K to $5K monthly through strategic optimization while maintaining system performance and reliability
  • Reduced system response times by 50% through architectural optimizations and efficient resource management
  • Architected and implemented cost-efficient observability platform using Vector, Quickwit, and Grafana, replacing Mezmo while maintaining monitoring capabilities and achieving substantial cost savings
  • Established incident management framework including automated alerting, escalation paths, and on-call rotations, significantly improving MTTR and system reliability
  • Established engineering career ladder and performance review frameworks, providing clearer growth paths for engineers
  • Implemented robust CI/CD pipelines and automated testing practices, reducing deployment time and increasing release frequency
  • Led technical due diligence for strategic partnerships and customer implementations, directly contributing to business growth
Unacademy - Director of Engineering October 2022 — March 2023
Unacademy - Senior Engineering Manager October 2020 — September 2022
Led Test Experience, Educator Experience and In-house CRM teams as Director of Engineering
  • Led the launch of Compete game within Unacademy's app, driving user acquisition with 2M+ players and 100M+ sessions, expanding lead generation funnel
  • Spearheaded the development and implementation of Nimbus, an in-house CRM , achieving 100% migration from Leadsquared and saving INR 60M annually
  • Optimized Nimbus infrastructure through architectural improvements and performance enhancements, reducing operational costs by 45% and saving INR 12M annually
  • Drove exceptional user satisfaction for Nimbus platform, achieving a CSAT score of 7.6 against a quarterly target of 7.0 within first two months of 2023
  • Designed and delivered critical scholarship test feature under aggressive 3-week timeline, resulting in INR 20M monthly cost optimization
  • Architected and scaled quiz infrastructure to handle 350,000 concurrent test-takers, ensuring seamless performance during peak usage
  • Led strategic initiatives to increase practice test adoption, driving 250% growth from 6% to 21% within 4 months
  • Established and maintained robust engineering processes including sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog grooming
  • Implemented comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and on-call systems to ensure 99.9% platform availability and rapid incident response
  • Collaborated with Engineering Managers to design scalable architectures meeting both functional and non-functional requirements like performance, security, and reliability
  • Mentored and developed engineering talent through regular 1:1 coaching sessions, performance reviews, and career development planning
  • Served as primary technical hiring manager for Software Engineers through Lead positions, building and scaling high-performing engineering teams
Flipkart - Engineering Manager April 2019 — August 2020
Led Price Efficiency initiatives within Pricing & Promotions org as Engineering Manager
  • Led Price Orchestration and Spend Management initiatives resulting in annual cost optimization of INR 1.5B through algorithmic pricing and spend analytics
  • Collaborated on architecture and launch of Flipkart Quick, a grocery quick-commerce platform scaling to millions of orders across major Indian metros
  • Established technical direction through comprehensive architecture reviews, ensuring scalable system design through detailed HLD/LLD processes
  • Orchestrated cross-functional delivery through agile methodologies, managing sprint cycles, backlog prioritization, and stakeholder communications
  • Designed and implemented robust on-call processes and incident management frameworks, significantly improving system reliability and mean time to recovery
  • Partnered with Engineering and Product leaders to shape and execute product strategy and technical roadmap, aligning team objectives with company goals
  • Drove team excellence through structured 1:1 coaching sessions, and career growth frameworks, resulting in high team retention and engagement
  • Built high-performing engineering teams through strategic hiring, conducting technical interviews and onboarding processes across all levels
Treebo - Engineering Manager May 2018 — February 2019
Worked as Engineering Manager at Treebo Hotels. Treebo Hotels is an Indian budget hotel chain and hospitality service that operates on franchising
  • Led end-to-end agile delivery processes across multiple teams, driving continuous improvement through sprint planning, backlog refinement, and retrospectives
  • Designed scalable system architectures balancing performance, reliability, and maintainability while meeting stringent SLA requirements and business objectives
  • Contributed hands-on technical leadership through full-stack development and established code quality standards through comprehensive code review processes
  • Fostered team growth through structured 1:1 mentoring sessions and performance development frameworks, leading to improved team productivity and engagement
  • Built and scaled high-performing engineering teams through strategic hiring initiatives, implementing robust technical assessment frameworks and onboarding programs
Instawork - Engineering Manager December 2017 — April 2018
Worked as Engineering Manager at Instawork. Instawork helps small businesses find, qualify, and interview candidates. It also helps job seekers find local jobs quickly
  • Led development of critical features for the Jobseeker application, delivering full-stack solutions that enhanced user experience and platform functionality
  • Established code quality standards through comprehensive code reviews and architectural guidance, ensuring maintainable and scalable solutions
  • Drove team efficiency through agile methodologies, facilitating sprint planning sessions and implementing process improvements based on retrospective insights
  • Mentored team members through regular 1:1 sessions, providing technical guidance and career development support to enhance team capabilities
Coral.life Inc - Co-founder, CTO June 2016 — November 2017
Co-founded Coral.life and served as a CTO. Coral life was a SaaS platform that aimed to simplify the entire hosting process for property hosts and managers
  • Led product strategy and market research initiatives alongside co-founders, translating customer insights into viable product roadmap
  • Architected and independently developed full-stack MVP within 6 months, enabling rapid market validation and early customer acquisition
  • Established robust engineering foundation through automated CI/CD pipelines, code quality processes, and scalable cloud infrastructure
  • Built and scaled engineering team in India from ground up, implementing technical hiring processes and establishing engineering culture
  • Successfully secured $256,000 in angel investment
Perk Inc. - Senior Director of Engineering January 2014 — April 2016
Perk Inc. - Tech Lead August 2012 — April 2016
Perk Inc. - Senior Software Engineer July 2010 — July 2012
Worked at Perk for 6 years in various capacities and roles. Perk owned and operated mobile applications and websites that allowed members to earn Perk Points. These points could be redeemed for digital gift cards and Cash. Primary contributions and tasks involved were:
  • Joined Perk as founding engineer, architecting and launching the company's flagship web and mobile platforms from inception through public offering
  • Played pivotal role in scaling organization from founding team to 200+ employees across 3 countries, contributing to successful IPO
  • Led end-to-end product development lifecycle from strategy through launch for multiple core products, establishing foundational technical architecture and development processes
  • Partnered with Product leadership to define product vision and strategy, translating market opportunities into technical roadmaps
  • Established agile development practices and engineering processes, driving team velocity and product quality through structured sprint cycles
  • Provided hands-on technical leadership through full-stack development while establishing code quality standards and review processes
  • Mentored and developed engineering talent through regular 1:1 coaching and structured performance development frameworks
  • Built high-performing engineering teams through strategic hiring initiatives and comprehensive training programs, scaling technical capabilities alongside company growth
Infosys Ltd. - Systems Engineer June 2008 — June 2010
  • Worked on Banking and Reinsurance projects for clients like RBS Citizens, XL Capital and Aon.
  • Technologies used: VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, MSSQL.
EDUCATION
Jaypee University of Information Technology 2004 — 2008
B.Tech - Computer Science and Engineering
SKILLS
Programming Languages: TypeScript, Javascript, Python, Java, PHP, Go
Databases: PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, MongoDB, MySql, Redis, Elasticsearch
Async/Stream Processing: SQS, SNS, Kinesis, Kafka, Celery, Laravel Queues
Frameworks: NestJS, Express, Fastify, Dropwizard, Django, Flask, Laravel
Cloud/Infrastructure: AWS, GCP, Heroku, Cloudflare, DigitalOcean, CI/CD