About
About¶
SUNIL KUMAR¶
Senior Software Engineering Manager | Data Platform & Analytics
Bengaluru, India
📧 sunilkumar.tc89@gmail.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sunil-kumar-138b71319
🔗 GitHub: data-platform-playbook
SUMMARY¶
Data Platform & Engineering Leader with 12+ years of experience designing, scaling, and operating cloud-native data platforms across e-commerce, retail, telecom, and financial services. Proven track record of building petabyte-scale data ecosystems, driving multi-million-dollar cost optimizations, and leading high-performing engineering teams across AWS and GCP.
Expertise spans data ingestion, distributed processing, analytics platforms, cost optimization, governance, and platform reliability.
"The biggest opportunity for managers isn't better data — it's making data problems understandable."
CORE SKILLS¶
- Data Platforms: Apache Spark, PrestoDB, Hive, Apache Beam, Kafka
- Cloud: Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS, Dataproc, BigQuery
- Data Engineering: Batch & Streaming Pipelines, CDC, Data Lakes, Warehouses
- Architecture: Distributed Systems, Platform Design, Scalability
- Leadership: Engineering Management, Mentorship, Cross-functional Delivery
- Operations: Cost Optimization (FinOps), SLOs, Reliability, Governance
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE¶
Wayfair — Senior Software Engineering Manager¶
Oct 2023 – Present | Bengaluru
- Lead data platform engineering teams responsible for cloud-native ingestion and analytics platforms on GCP
- Designed and operated pipelines processing 10TB+ data per day with 99.9% uptime
- Drove cost optimization initiatives across ingestion and processing layers, reducing recurring infrastructure spend
- Established platform ownership, SLOs, and operational standards across teams
- Partnered with product, analytics, and infra stakeholders to improve data freshness and reliability
"Data freshness is just trust, measured in minutes."
Walmart Global Tech — Senior Engineering Manager¶
Sep 2021 – Sep 2023 | Bengaluru
- Led teams managing data platforms storing 100+ PB of data and processing billions of events per day
- Scaled infrastructure supporting 50M+ daily transactions
- Reduced data processing costs by ~40% through optimization of Hadoop, Hive, and Spark workloads
- Built and mentored a team of 12+ engineers across data engineering and platform roles
"Cost explosions happen when no one feels ownership."
Jio Platforms (Reliance) — Senior Manager, Data Engineering¶
Mar 2018 – Sep 2021 | Bengaluru
- Architected and led the Jio Financial Services Data Lake, serving 400M+ users
- Designed ingestion from 20+ internal and external systems (banking, payments, NPCI, SAP, POS)
- Implemented secure, compliant data platforms aligned with RBI regulations
- Built real-time and batch pipelines using Kafka, Spark, Hive, PrestoDB
- Led teams across data engineering, backend, and DevOps
"Data engineering isn't plumbing. It's product design with consequences."
Earlier Roles¶
- Lead Software Engineer, Intutel (Founding Team)
- Senior Software Engineer, Snapdeal
- System Engineer, Infosys (Finacle Product Team)
EDUCATION¶
Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani
Master's Degree — Data Processing / Software Systems
Visvesvaraya Technological University
Bachelor of Engineering — Computer Science
LEADERSHIP & IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS¶
- Built platforms serving 400M+ users
- Managed and mentored 20+ engineers
- Delivered $10M+ cost savings via cloud and pipeline optimization
- Operated mission-critical platforms with enterprise-grade reliability
"The next generation doesn't need more dashboards. They need better stories about why the data matters."
PHILOSOPHY¶
"Data problems aren't boring. They're just badly explained."
"If Gen-Z doesn't care about your data problem, you've explained the wrong problem."
"Observability is just empathy for future engineers."
"Pipelines fail quietly. People fail when no one explains why they exist."
Maintained by: Sunil Kumar T C