Gurunath M

About Gurunath M

Alumnus of the Indian School of Business (ISB) and a strategic technology executive with 25+ years of experience in banking, financial services, and fintech.Currently serving as Head of IT Infrastructure at Utkarsh Small Finance Bank, I lead enterprise technology strategy and operations spanning infrastructure and platform services. I work closely with the CXO team and represent the bank at board meetings, driving technology discussions that directly influence business and governance decisions.As a key stakeholder in the bank’s Core Banking System (Finacle) transformation, I oversee the alignment of infrastructure architecture, application delivery environments, and risk frameworks to ensure seamless execution across phases. My approach bridges enterprise IT operations with application agility—enabling scalable, secure, and cost-efficient digital ecosystems.My background includes leadership of large hybrid teams, cloud adoption across multiple providers like AWS, Azure, and OCI, automation-first operations, and modern security posture engineering. I’ve helped transform infrastructure and application landscapes through thoughtful modernization, DevOps practices, and end-to-end ownership of application and infrastructure operations.In addition to transformation leadership, I’ve driven enterprise-wide cost optimization—reducing multi-crore annual spend through vendor strategy, capex-to-opex realignment, and organization-wide adoption of usage-aware practices. These efforts ranked among the bank’s most impactful initiatives.Beyond enterprise leadership, I have a deep personal passion for artificial intelligence, machine learning, and coding. I enjoy experimenting with AI models, working hands-on with automation, and staying at the forefront of emerging technologies that can power the next wave of business and operational transformation.I’m deeply passionate about enabling reliable, compliant, and business-aligned IT functions—whether through platform resilience, process re-engineering, or collaborative stakeholder engagement. I believe in building strong, forward-looking tech organizations where infrastructure, operations, and engineering teams operate in unison to deliver measurable business value.

Experience

1. Head of Information Technology (Infrastructure)

   Utkarsh Small Finance Bank

   Feb 2024 — Present

   Spearheading cross-functional technology strategy encompassing infrastructure, application delivery, and operations. Accountable for a third of the bank\'s IT budget and leadership of 170+ professionals. Actively engaged in board meetings and regulatory forums.Leadership Highlights- Led Finacle CBS migration from infrastructure and delivery architecture through to execution- Directed cloud transformation with migrations across AWS, Azure, OCI for CBS and business apps- Strengthened security posture with modern architectures (SASE, Cloud WAF, VPN)- Oversaw end-to-end app lifecycle, ensuring uptime, incident response, SLA compliance- Introduced DevOps workflows and agile releases across app portfolios- Institutionalized automation for infra/app operations; improved efficiency and OPEX- Built resilient data center operations including VMware, Nutanix, storage, endpoint and AD environments- Represented IT in cross-functional strategic forums, risk and compliance governance bodies.

Education

• Manjunatha Vidyalaya

  SSc, English

  1982 — 1992

• South Indian College

  H.Sc, Science

  1992 — 1994

• Indian School of Business

  Information Technology

• University of Mumbai

  B.E, Instrumentation

  1994 — 1998

Skills

• Risk Management
• Team Management
• Html5
• Service Delivery
• C++
• Vendor Management
• Java
• Desarrollo Web
• Javascript
• Agile Methodologies
• Liderazgo De Equipos
• Pre-Sales
• Management
• Sql
• Html
• Android Studio
• Phpmyadmin
• Customer Relationship Management (Crm)
• Service Management
• IT Service Management
• Xml
• Gestión De Proyectos
• C#
• Oracle
• Jquery
• Business Continuity
• Project Management
• Mysql
• C (Programación)
• Aplicaciones Web
• Pmo
• Pmp
• Desarrollo De Software
• Php
• Leadership
• Css
• Ajax
• Postgresql
• Bases De Datos
• Product Management