Gunabalan S.

Principal Engineer (Platform) / Software Architect
Platform architecture • Distributed job orchestration • Internal frameworks • AI-native development
Puducherry / Karaikal, India• +91 9788223359 • gunabalans@gmail.com
GitHub • GitLab • LinkedIn

Key Impact Highlights

• Owned Vigilnz platform architecture and core framework, providing the foundation used by 10+ engineers for feature delivery.
• Architected distributed job execution using BullMQ/Redis worker fleets for security scanning pipelines.
• Building AI-native application capabilities for Vigilnz, integrating AI-driven workflows into platform services and execution pipelines.
• Designed streaming-based scanning Scans as data arrives (network-bound). Optimized container footprint to scale worker fleets (e.g., ~3 → ~30 worker nodes on the same AWS resource).
• Built an internal test automation platform (Katalon/Groovy) with XLS-driven suites and reporting, enabling repeatable regression workflows (optional CLI runner in early iterations).
• Reduced a production platform footprint from ~3GB to ~100MB by decomposing components and moving appropriate assets/services to AWS (S3/Lightsail).

Professional Summary

Hands-on Principal Engineer and platform architect building internal frameworks and distributed execution systems. Owns architecture decisions across platform services and stays accountable as the long-term technical owner (not a feature-only contributor). Focus areas include shared foundations, stable interfaces, and execution pipelines.

Core Skills

• Platform / Solution architecture: shared frameworks, reusable components, conventions, multi-tenant patterns, RBAC
• Distributed systems: queue-based processing, worker fleets, asynchronous pipelines, job orchestration
• Data & reliability: schema/model design, idempotency, backpressure, operational debugging
• Developer enablement: internal tooling, automation platforms, onboarding, standards and reviews
• Technical leadership: architecture direction, design reviews, mentoring, cross-team execution support

Core Stack

Node.js • MongoDB • Redis • BullMQ • MySQL • AWS (EC2/Lightsail/S3) • Docker • Nginx/Apache • Git

Experience

Vigilnz — Principal Engineer / Software Architect (AI Security Platform) | Netkathir Technologies (2025–Present)

• Owned platform architecture and core engineering systems for an AI security scanning platform.
• Architected distributed scan execution using Node.js + Redis + BullMQ: job contracts, queue topology, worker fleets, and retry/failure handling.
• Built the platform foundation (shared modules, core data models, execution pipelines) and published stable interfaces used as the standard baseline for feature teams.
• Standardized delivery via framework conventions, reference implementations, and shared components (access control patterns, CRUD foundations, service conventions).
• Building AI-native application capabilities for Vigilnz, integrating AI-driven workflows into platform services and execution pipelines.
• Designed streaming-based scanning Scans as data arrives (network-bound). Optimized container footprint to scale worker fleets (e.g., ~3 → ~30 workers on the same AWS resource).
• Acted as technical interface between product, client stakeholders, and engineering teams, translating product requirements into scalable platform architecture.

Additional Experience

Nurtem — Software Architect / Platform Engineer (Education Platform) | Netkathir Technologies (2022–2025)

• Owned platform engineering workstreams: architecture decisions, stabilization, and production delivery across web/mobile teams.
• Built internal productivity and QA systems (CLI-driven execution + reporting workflows) to increase regression coverage and release repeatability; reduced container footprint ~1.5GB → ~140MB.
• Standardized repeated product patterns into shared modules and conventions; drove adoption of the platform “golden path” (shared modules + automation pipeline).

Netkathir Technologies — Founding Software Architect (Platform / Products) (2017–2022)

• Owned end-to-end architecture and technical direction across multiple products as an early/founding engineering member.
• Defined technology stack and engineering standards, serving as final reviewer for core technical decisions and design trade-offs.
• Built internal frameworks and reusable foundations (CRUD scaffolding, routing conventions, access control/RBAC, multi-tenant support) reused across applications.
• Enabled teams through architecture governance: onboarding, design/code review standards, and escalation ownership for high-risk technical issues.

Platforms & Internal Systems (Selected)

• Netkathir RAD Framework (PHP, 2015–Present): internal application framework used across multiple applications; includes multi-tenant patterns and RBAC integration.

Key Projects (Selected)

Test Automation & Developer Productivity Platform (Nurtem, 2022)

• Architected and built an internal test automation platform (Katalon/Groovy-based, Apache POI).
• Implemented a reusable automation framework with:
  • XLS-driven data ingestion for large test suites
  • optional CLI runner (early stage) for executing suites and producing outputs when needed
  • XLS-based result capture, including execution outputs and screenshots
• Enabled repeatable regression execution; transferred ownership via team training and documentation.

Fresh Square E-commerce Platform (2021–2022)

• Owned backend architecture for an online grocery delivery platform.
• Removed billing bottlenecks by moving heavy workflows from ORM patterns to database-level procedures and optimizing execution paths.
• Standardized multi-app backend use cases (store, customer, delivery) with consistent APIs and operational practices.

Why Science Learning Platform (2019–2021)

• Owned reliability and performance remediation for a legacy platform: decomposed/restructured components, recoded critical paths, and migrated to AWS.
• Reduced application footprint from ~3GB to ~100MB by separating components and moving appropriate assets/services to AWS (S3/Lightsail).
• Implemented production integrations for online course delivery (including JWT-based Zoom integration).

Admission Office — Founder & Software Architect (2008)

• Founded and built a SaaS platform for college admission process management as a solo engineer.
• Owned end-to-end product architecture: system design, backend implementation, hosting, and deployment.
• Implemented PHP (Zend Framework) + MySQL platform with role-based workflows (students, staff, administrators), including remote admission office operations and approval workflows.
• Commercially launched in 2008 (early SaaS era); owned full-cycle product engineering, platform design, and SaaS operations.

Background (Condensed)

• PhD, Mechanical Engineering, Puducherry University (2019) — Designed/built/tested a PID-controlled electric furnace; in active use throughout a 6-year PhD program, including use by other PhD researchers at the university.
• Publications: 3 peer-reviewed journal papers (2016–2018). DOIs: 10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012109; 10.1166/jamr.2018.1370; 10.1166/rase.2016.1117