Rakesh Shahabadi

About Rakesh Shahabadi

Strategic technology leader with 17 years of experience in driving platform architecture and large-scale transformation, with proven success in scaling engineering team, managing core platform functions. Building high-performing engineering teams, optimizing performance, and implementing AI-first features while collaborating with C-suite to align technology vision with business outcomes.Demonstrated excellence in mentoring architects, conducting technical PoCs and establishing engineering standards, with deep roots in data engineering, microservices and event-driven systems. Hands-on with deep coding experience in the data engineering stack—always ready to dive in and solve complex technical challenges.

Experience

1. Senior Director - Engineering

   Simpplr

   Oct 2024 — Present · Gurugram, IN

   Spearheaded the architecture and delivery of essential features handling 70% of Simpplr\'s platform transactions, directly influencing Gartner and Forrester rankings.Partner with the leadership to define the product roadmap and execute the low level execution plan which made Simpplr leader in Gartner and Forrester rankings for 3 years straight.Established and scaled Simpplr’s Data Engineering division, building solutions that processed over ~100 million change/day. Reduced the data refresh cycle from 24 hours to 10 mins.Accelerated data availability, enabling content creators to promptly adapt strategies based on trending data, which boosted platform adoption by 30% in overall user engagement.Pioneered data access optimizations and streamlined data pipelines that augmented the data science team\'s AI/ML capabilities; accelerated AI solutions and cut feature shipping time by 50% through better data accessibility.Drove Simpplr’s AI transformation: led AI/ML Ops to deliver “AI-first” features including content recommendation, related content, topic suggestion, perception, custom themes and sentiment analysis.Engineered migration of platform to an event-driven architecture, supporting up to tps per service, while decreasing infrastructure costs and improved throughput.Evolved Simpplr\'s access control by orchestrating a ReBAC implementation with Open FGA, which allowed for the successful onboarding of new large enterprise customers within the first month.Facilitated comprehensive system optimization, yielding a 45% improvement in latency and a 99.99% uptime over 3 years.Achieved VPAT (WCAG 2.1 AA) accessibility compliance, unlocking new enterprise contracts and expanding the market by significant percent.Managed and mentored a team of 50+ engineers, achieving an employee retention rate above 90%.All of these developments catapulted Simpplr to evolve from a platform serving mainly SMB customers to one that is fully enterprise-ready.

Education

• Maharshi Dayanand University

  BE, Computer Sc and Engg

  2004 — 2008