Suman Kalavagunta
Director of Engineering @Mastercard
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WORK HISTORY
Director of Engineering @Mastercard
San Francisco, CA, US
As Director of Engineering at Mastercard, I lead cross-functional teams across geographies in designing and scaling the Card-Linked Offers platform—connecting personalized merchant offers to millions of users via their financial institutions.My teams build and maintain:• High-performance offer management portals• Scalable APIs and ingestion pipelines• Intelligent enrollment workflows that enable real-time personalization based on user behavior and transaction historyWe drive precision marketing by ensuring only qualified users receive relevant offers, powering targeted campaigns for new, returning, and lapsed customers. Our work delivers measurable ROI for merchants and increases incremental spend for card issuers.The platform is built for high availability, security, and regulatory compliance, and integrates seamlessly with major issuers and ecosystem partners. By optimizing offer matching, engagement, and conversion, we deliver sustained business value across the loyalty and payments ecosystem.
EDUCATION
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Executive Leadership Development
Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University
Bachelor's degree, Computer Science
Louisiana Tech University
Master's degree, Computer Science
SKILLS
ABOUT SUMAN KALAVAGUNTA
I’m an engineering director, entrepreneur, and inventor who believes that technology at scale should feel human — built with clarity, empathy, and purpose.At Mastercard, I lead globally distributed engineering teams that build and scale high-performance platforms supporting personalized card-linked offers for millions of users. Our systems drive business growth through real-time personalization, self-service tools, and intelligent APIs — delivering measurable value across the payments ecosystem.Beyond Mastercard, I founded ChessBrains, a modern chess academy combining expert coaching with innovative learning methods. We work with Grandmasters and International Masters to deliver engaging programs for students of all levels, including specialized approaches for neurodivergent children. From USCF-rated tournaments to our upcoming student-coach platform, we’re on a mission to make chess more accessible, strategic, and fun.I’m also the author of Human. Leader. Both, a leadership book available on Amazon Kindle that shares reflections on building trust-driven, high-performing teams. I write regularly on sumanwrites.com and have filed patents in AI, developer tools, and education systems.I’m passionate about systems that scale, teams that thrive, and ideas that inspire.
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