ENGINEERING LEADER • PEOPLE BUILDER • TECHNOLOGY EXECUTION

Building Engineering Teams That Actually Scale and Deliver Lasting Business Impact.

Introduction

I am an engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building high-performing teams, leading complex technology initiatives, and delivering enterprise software at scale. My career spans software engineering, engineering management, technical program leadership, and strategic execution across global organizations.

I enjoy working where the path isn't clearly defined - building new capabilities, leading through ambiguity, and helping organizations solve difficult engineering challenges. Whether launching new initiatives, modernizing legacy platforms, improving engineering effectiveness, or exploring AI-enabled development, my focus is always the same: building strong teams that deliver exceptional results.

Portrait of Rakesh Sharma

About Me

From Software Engineer to Enterprise Engineering Leader

I started my career writing C++ software for security and identity management systems. Over the past two decades, my responsibilities have steadily evolved from designing software to leading globally distributed engineering teams, guiding technical strategy, and delivering enterprise-scale technology initiatives.

Throughout my career, I've been drawn to opportunities where the answers weren't already known. I've helped build new teams, establish engineering practices, modernize complex platforms, mentor engineers, and lead organizations through periods of growth and change. These experiences taught me that sustainable success comes from developing people just as much as technology.

While I have led cloud migrations, platform modernization efforts, and large-scale transformation programs, I view those as outcomes of strong engineering leadership - not the goal itself. My passion is building engineering organizations that continue to innovate long after individual projects are complete.

Today, I am increasingly focused on how artificial intelligence can enhance engineering productivity, accelerate software delivery, and enable teams to build better products. I believe AI represents the next evolution of engineering, and I'm actively exploring how it can be applied responsibly to create long-term value.

20+
Years Experience
~$100M
Annual Savings Contributed
99.99%
Platform Availability
4
Continents - Teams Led
10+
Aligned Cross-functional Teams
200+
Integrations Delivered

Leadership Philosophy

I believe great software is built by great engineering organizations.

Technology changes rapidly, but strong leadership, empowered teams, thoughtful architecture, and a culture of continuous learning remain timeless. My role is to create environments where engineers can solve meaningful problems, grow professionally, and consistently deliver products that make a lasting impact.

Expertise

Core areas where I deliver value.

Engineering Leadership

Building and leading high-performing engineering teams through coaching, technical guidance, and a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.

Talent DevelopmentMentoringDistributed TeamsEngineering Culture

Technical Program Leadership

Leading complex cross-functional initiatives through strategic planning, roadmap execution, stakeholder alignment, and metrics-driven delivery.

OKRs & KPIsAgile DeliveryExecutive CommunicationPortfolio Management

Platform Modernization

Driving modernization of enterprise platforms through cloud migration, architectural evolution, microservices adoption, and operational excellence.

AWSMicroservicesObservabilityPlatform Engineering

Security & Identity

Delivering secure, resilient enterprise systems with expertise in identity management, governance, regulatory compliance, and security best practices.

IAMOAuth/SAMLHIPAARisk & Compliance

Talent & Organization Development

Building engineering organizations through strategic hiring, mentoring, leadership development, succession planning, and performance management.

HiringLeadership CoachingPerformance ManagementTeam Building

AI Strategy & Governance

Helping engineering organizations adopt AI responsibly through governance, security, risk management, and practical implementation that improves developer productivity while protecting enterprise data and ensuring compliance.

AI-Assisted EngineeringResponsible AIAI GovernanceGenAI

Experience

Highlights from 20+ years in product engineering and delivery leadership - from a C++ R&D bench in Delhi to modernization programs in Southern California.

JUL 2024 - PRESENT

Senior Manager, Software Engineering

Experian · Costa Mesa, CA

Leading the modernization agenda for the PreciseID identity & decisioning platform across cloud and hybrid environments.

  • Central technical leader across 10+ departmental teams, aligning all to consistent solution-engineering approaches.
  • Drove 5 major platform simplification initiatives, eliminating legacy middleware layers to improve performance and reliability.
  • Directed phased cutovers for 1,000+ clients with risk-based rollout strategies and OKR-based execution.
  • Primary escalation for high-severity production issues; established data-driven validation with Dynatrace, Splunk, and CloudWatch.
JAN 2019 - JUL 2024

Senior Manager, Product & Engineering

Bristlecone · California (Remote)

Led distributed delivery teams and a multi-vendor ecosystem across platform modernization and integration programs.

  • Delivered 60% cost savings and 75% productivity gains for a client; cut onboarding from two weeks to three days.
  • Led monolith-to-microservices refactoring and Mainframe-to-AWS migrations.
  • Delivered O2C eCommerce integrations (Amazon Seller Central, FedEx, ShipStation, QuickBooks, S/4HANA).
FEB 2011 - DEC 2018

Consultant → Manager, Product & Engineering

Bristlecone · Noida, India → Minneapolis, MN

Grew from Consultant to Manager over eight years - managing Oracle identity & access management products (IDM, IDCS · SAML2, OAuth, CSRF protection), running a factory-model program for the Oracle Marketplace with hundreds of vendor relationships, and leading teams across Delhi, Pune, and Bengaluru. Moved to the US in 2017 to lead SPS Commerce omnichannel eCommerce integrations on-site.

2005 - 2011

Software Engineer → Offshore Teams Coordinator

Stellar · Scicom · Ionnor Solutions, India

Started in Stellar's R&D lab building first-generation Office file-recovery tools (v1.0 for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) in C++. Later built antivirus add-ons for Norman security products and grew into coordinating Development, QA, and Malware Analysis teams; earned Certified Scrum Master.

Credentials

Degree and certifications.

🎓Education

2002 - 2005

Master of Computer Applications (MCA)

Indira Gandhi National Open University · India

Three-year postgraduate program in computer applications - algorithms, systems programming, databases, and software engineering - completed alongside the start of a professional engineering career.

📜Certificates

JUL 2026

AWS Certified AI Practitioner

Amazon Web Services · Valid through Jul 2029
MAY 2023

Professional Scrum Master™ I (PSM I)

Scrum.org
MAR 2020

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services
OCT 2014

PMP® Certification Training

AAUSCO LLC (formerly AstroWix)
OCT 2010

Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Scrum Alliance

Continued Learning

Organization Design · LinkedIn · 2026 Introduction to Fintech · LinkedIn · 2026 Program Management for IT Professionals · LinkedIn · 2023 AWS for Architects: Advanced Security · LinkedIn · 2020 Essential Spanish · LinkedIn · 2023

Let's Connect

Open to leadership roles, consulting, and interesting conversations about cloud modernization and engineering excellence.

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