About
I run data center, infrastructure, and critical application support for a payments bank. Right now the work spans a few programs at once: I'm contributing to the core banking platform migration from FIS to Finacle, leading the data engineering and data analysis teams, and running a separate program to retire a legacy Hadoop data lake in favor of a modern data stack on Apache Iceberg and MinIO. Underneath all of that, the steady-state job is what it always is in banking — keeping the data centers, the network, and the mission-critical applications up, secure, and inside the rules the regulator expects. I manage a cross-functional team of about 100 people, with five direct reports.
I'm also an AI practitioner. I've run multiple internal Gen AI awareness sessions for engineering and product teams at Fino — covering LLMs, prompting, retrieval, and the practical limits of what these tools can and can't do in a regulated environment. I build with these tools in my own time, and I read the papers. It's the part of the work that genuinely excites me right now.
Before Fino, I spent 14 years at NTT Data, building and leading the global 24x7 platform engineering team for a managed cloud service. I came in early on the offshoring story — built the India team from scratch, doubled its size in nine months, and helped drive the platform to 99.5% uptime. Before that, I moved through operations and engineering roles in India and the UAE — running IT for a retail bank in the Middle East, scaling cloud operations at Dimension Data, leading application support at a few earlier-stage companies. The early years were hands-on: networks, web servers, storage, the systems work that taught me how things actually break.
These days I care about three things: reliable infrastructure in a regulated environment, good engineering culture, and steady mentorship for people earlier in their careers. I've been a mentor with the Global Mentorship Initiative since 2023. I try to leave teams better than I found them.
Experience
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Senior Vice President — Head, Data Center and Infrastructure
Fino Payments Bank · Bangalore
– Present
Lead data center, infrastructure, and critical application support for a regulated payments bank, including the data engineering and data analysis teams. Built a dedicated support team for the core banking system and reshaped the support model for infrastructure and mission-critical applications — teams, tools, and process. Currently contributing to the bank's core banking platform migration (FIS to Finacle) alongside the core platform and product leads, and running a separate program to retire a legacy Hadoop data lake in favor of a modern data stack on Apache Iceberg and MinIO. Also run internal Gen AI awareness sessions for engineering and product teams. Manage a cross-functional organization of about 100 people, with five direct reports, including the on-premises data center and DR operations, and full accountability for RBI and regulatory compliance on the infrastructure side.
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Senior Director, Platform Operations
NTT Data · Bangalore
– · 14 years 5 months
Led a global 24x7 platform engineering team supporting NTT Data's managed cloud service. Built the India-based mid-level engineering team from scratch, then doubled its size in nine months. Drove the platform to 99.5% uptime across the years. The work covered incident management, change management, capacity, and the unglamorous parts of keeping customer infrastructure running without surprises.
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Information Security Manager
RakBank · Ras Al Khaimah, UAE
–
Ran IT and security for a UAE retail bank. Short stint; I learned how regulated industries expect you to operate, and brought that back.
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Operations and IT management roles
Dimension Data · OpSource · MPS Technologies · TeleTech Services
2002 – 2010 · India (Bangalore, Gurgaon, New Delhi)
A series of operations, application support, and IT management roles as the Indian IT services industry was scaling. I learned to build teams, run shifts, and ship infrastructure under deadline.
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System and network administration
Ishiva · Dimension India · CTR Database Media
1998 – 2002 · New Delhi, Jodhpur
Where I started: web servers, mail servers, Cisco routers, late nights. The work that taught me how things break and how to fix them before the boss finds out.
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Mentor
Global Mentorship Initiative
– Present
I work with engineers earlier in their careers through the GMI program. It's a few hours a month and I learn as much as they do.