Tarun Sukhani, Project Manager in Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tarun is available for hire
Hire Tarun

Tarun Sukhani

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Project Manager

Location
Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Toptal Member Since
March 15, 2022

Tarun Sukhani is a business and IT professional with over 25 years of experience working in multinational companies in the Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions. Actively involved in web-scale software development, data science, and machine learning across different industries, Tarun has held several senior development and managerial positions, including software and solution architect, project manager, Certified Scrum Master, CIO/CTO/CDO/CISO, director, and board member.

WebSoftware DevelopmentProject ManagementIT Project ManagementTechnical Project ManagementScrum MasterSoftware Project ManagementAgile CoachingCertified ScrumMaster (CSM)PSM-1Process Improvement Project ManagementProgram ManagementJira AdministrationTechnical Program ManagementDigital Transformation Program Management

Project Highlights

AML/CFT Fraud Detection Engine
Developed a real-time, robust fraud detection and reconciliation engine for money services transactions using Spark Streaming, Kafka, and Cassandra. The solution was AML/CFT-compliant.
Abundent Academy
Designed and developed an edutech platform to train providers to manage training, certifications, attendance, and fee payments.
LinkedIn Web Scraper
Designed and developed a LinkedIn web scraper using Python, RabbitMQ, and PostgreSQL.

Expertise

ConfluenceJavaJenkinsJiraNode.jsPythonSlackVue

Work Experience

Technical Project Manager

2022 - PRESENT
Braven
  • Joined the team as technical project manager and then transitioned to data architect for the company's data warehousing implementation.
  • Set up user stories for completing dimension and fact tables for the company's data warehouse.
  • Created Tableau dashboards for visualizing fact tables from the enterprise data warehouse.

Principal Data Scientist

2021 - PRESENT
Center for Applied Data Science
  • Taught DataOps, data science, SQL/NoSQL, intro to programming, SQL/NoSQL, and big data analytics with Spark to government, academic, and corporate clients through Malaysia.
  • Headed the data engineering track and provided content development and consultancy services to staff and clients.
  • Created, as a lead developer and solutions architect, data science solutions for a variety of stakeholders within and outside the company, including scrapers, machine learning models, and visualizations.

CTO

2016 - PRESENT
Abundent
  • Designed and developed human resources management practices for remote attendance and payroll management–instead of manual or fingerprint scanners, used mobile phones to take group pictures of migrant workers.
  • Provided financial and user fraud detection for anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) at money services businesses and banks, using various modeling techniques such as Naive Bayesian and association rule mining.
  • Handled a receipt processing system for the FMCG industry to filter the appropriate receipts for OCR extraction and then calculate total taxation and profit using a deep neural network (CNN).
  • Acted as a blockchain partner with ProximaX using the NEM blockchain for DApp development with Web3.
  • Designed and developed Abundent Academy, a premier Industry 4.0 (IR4) training platform.

Technical Project Manager

2023 - 2024
Property Litigation Group, PLLC
  • Joined the team as a technical project manager and then expanded scope to product management. Defined the MVP roadmap across three development phases, culminating in the release of the product's beta version for internal use.
  • Set up the individual sub-departments under the company's new IT division to focus on NLP/LLM development and APIs for the front-end apps.
  • Integrated the relevant toolset, including Atlassian-based tools for project management, version control, and knowledge sharing. Provided guidance on startup development. Recommended the relevant UX design company and outsourcing firm.

CTO

2018 - 2020
Paramount Software Solutions
  • Acted as the CTO and advised on matters related to technology options, solutions, and best practices for a number of US Defense projects.
  • Provided training and consulting for a number of customers in the areas of data science, machine learning, and deep learning.
  • Oversaw and led program management and vendor selection.

CTO

2014 - 2016
MaxMoney
  • Defined and implemented technical architecture and technology stack for a new product pipeline using a mixture of Java, NoSQL, and big data technologies.
  • Defined and implemented a reactive microservice API for customer-facing eCommerce products.
  • Worked with a burgeoning team of business and IT professionals to develop a real-time, robust fraud detection and reconciliation engine for money services transactions using Spark Streaming, Kafka, and Cassandra.

Solutions Architect

2013 - 2014
iCar Asia Limited
  • Recommended and oversaw the usage of Pentaho BI for ETL within the company.
  • Delivered the full data model/schema and API for the next release of the classifieds business.
  • Contributed to defining the caching strategies for the next release of the classifieds business.
  • Oversaw the outsourcing of some ETL and analytics API development to third-party vendors.
  • Developed the iCarAsia's vehicle determinator solution for both mobile and web.

Scrum Master, Solutions Architect, Pre-Sales Consultant, and Text Mining Specialist

2011 - 2013
Atex
  • Recommended and oversaw the formation of small, agile teams within Polopoly MDC, leading to a 150% increase in project adoption rates.
  • Established a department-wide Agile approach for future project implementations based on Scrumban, leading to the adoption of a Scrumban board and greater transparency across teams, which in turn increased productivity by 60%.
  • Directly responsible for the revamping of the introductory user training program based on feedback received from a high profile client, leading to the signing of Phase I of the project contract for that client (worth RM100,000).
  • Recommended the “mavenization” and modularization of current product line, migrating from an Ant-based build system to a versioned, Maven system. Suggestions were incorporated into current product release (since December 2011).
  • Spearheaded the creation of an “ATM Office” that is responsible for training and maintaining best practices for Text Mining Solutions at Atex.

Seasonal Lecturer

2012 - 2012
Monash University
  • Redesigned the enterprise computing curriculum to align with modern industry practices, introducing Java OSGi, Spring, and other frameworks for students.
  • Conducted the enterprise computing third-year course in the department of computer science.
  • Functioned as an industry leader to the dean of the computer science department, imparting best practices and linking academia to the industry.

Project Manager & Senior Software Developer

2009 - 2011
Experian
  • Spearheaded the creation of the training curricula for all graduate trainees and new hires, increasing new employee retention by nearly 30% and decreasing overall churn by 8%.
  • Conducted training in BDD for all development staff, which resulted in Gherkin being adopted by QA for preparation of user acceptance tests.
  • Revamped the collection of Scrum metrics and statistics project wide and presented findings to the program manager and PMO. This resulted in greater predictability throughout future phases.
  • Implemented the e-commerce module delivery website in record time, utilizing Spring MVC technologies to accelerate development – led to a cost savings of more than RM120,000.

Co-Founder & Chief Information Officer

2008 - 2009
Apylon
  • Provided seed funding for venture, investing in office space and computer equipment. Collaborated with content providers, external trainers, and consulting customers to grow revenue by 200% within the first six months.
  • Drove the growth of the consultancy arm of the company, providing consulting for DagangNet and InControl Tech.
  • Established corporate training business, conducting training in SOA, MS Office, and Spring/Hibernate for local businesses such as Hei Tech Padu.

Senior Technical Consultant, Project Manager & Senior Software Developer

2007 - 2008
Profitera
  • Established BI (Business Intelligence) department and spearheaded the integration of Data mining/Data warehousing capability into the core product (PowerApps Suite) using Pentaho BI Suite.
  • As the technical project manager on-site for Hong Leong Bank Credit Collections Post-Production Support, was instrumental in securing a RM480,000 Maintenance & Operations contract.
  • As the technical project manager for Arcil, an Indian consortium of private banks providing debt collection services, oversaw the successful implementation of Phase I of the overall project.
  • Worked with the software architect to devise and steadily enhance a new general ledger system for the core product, leading to a signed contract for Phase II of the project, worth RM1.2 million.
  • As a senior software developer for the core product (PowerApps Suite), utilized Java, JasperReports, XML, iBATIS, Cruise Control, JUnit, and CVS in a Debian Linux environment to customize and enhance service offerings.

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

2005 - 2007
Mobolise
  • Evaluated, chose, and managed the outsourcing of non-strategic J2ME development for MoboSync, a full mobile syncing solution for Symbian S60 phones such as the N73.
  • Participated in coding and review sessions with on-site J2ME developers, utilizing Funambol and CLDC 1.1/MIDP 2.0 as core technologies for MoboSync.
  • Provided consulting and development expertise to MDEC for their online Graduate placement portal, generating RM5,000 in consulting fees for 2 days of work.

Technical Lead and Senior Systems Engineer

2001 - 2002
Concentra
  • Designed and led the development of Medicare claims pricing components for automated claims pricing of Medicare claims in a proprietary EDI format.
  • The completed module could price between 10-12k claims per hour, generating $4.6 million of revenue annually, representing the highest grossing class of claims in the company.
  • Utilized JMS/JMX/EJB/JSP/Servlets and Perl with VSS as the SCM tool, Oracle 8i as the database server, BEA Weblogic as the EJB container, and Apache Tomcat as the JSP/Servlet container in implementing pricing components.
  • Designed and led the development of the Claim code mapping module and the Claims comparator.

Consultant and Technical Lead

1999 - 2001
Spherion
  • Led a team of 3 developers on porting and integrating a report generation application for Nuclear Medicine scanners from Rexx/C/C++/Pro*C to Java within a J2EE framework with Oracle 8i as the database server and Websphere as the EJB container.
  • Developed an Earnings Trend and Valuation Scores reporting module, utilizing ActiveReports in a VB6 environment.
  • Developed remote scripting algorithms to assist in seamless data retrieval from a SQL Server 7 database via middle-tier COM components. Scripts employed advanced JavaScript and DOM to extract subsets of data for display in the browse.
  • Designed and developed a multi-threaded batch registration application using JFC/Swing and an in-house Java API to assist personnel in the registration of metal fabricators and scheduling of user and company registration.
  • Led a team of 3 developers in the design and development of VB6/ASP-based web applications for Safety Methodology, Contracting, and Training.
  • Designed and developed COM-based manufacturing components in VB6 and associated web front-end in ASP for automation of order preparation and shipping.
  • Diagnosed and fixed issues within the batch and capture component, manufacturing component, and labeler component.
  • Led a team of 3 developers and 2 graphic designers in the creation of a $5 million budgeted auction site for construction equipment (Ironmall.com). Reported directly to the project manager and completed project ahead of schedule and on budget.
  • Designed and developed a Java-based registration component for insurance providers and payors utilizing the latest EJB technology.

AML/CFT Fraud Detection Engine

https://www.maxmoney.com/my/

Developed a real-time, robust fraud detection and reconciliation engine for money services transactions using Spark Streaming, Kafka, and Cassandra. The solution was AML/CFT-compliant.

Working with my team of five other IT professionals, managed the entire development and rollout of the fraud detection engine company-wide.

The engine was used to prevent several cases of fraud detected over a period of six months.

Abundent Academy

https://abundent.academy

Designed and developed an edutech platform to train providers to manage training, certifications, attendance, and fee payments.

Managed a team of five IT professionals–UI/UX, Java back-end developers, Vue.js and Node.js front-end developers, and QA–to deliver an edtech platform used by training providers and freelance trainers in Malaysia.

LinkedIn Web Scraper

https://bitbucket.abundent.com/projects/WSCRAPER/repos/linkedin/browse

Designed and developed a LinkedIn web scraper using Python, RabbitMQ, and PostgreSQL.

Managed a team of three developers to create the web scraper for a computer-aided design system. Designed the architecture to continuously run and search profiles on Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Google and then extract profiles from LinkedIn, store them in RabbitMQ for processing, and then store the final result in PostgreSQL in relational format. Created Docker and Kubernetes deployment files.
Image of Why KPI Management Needs Metrics for Empathy and Fairness publication
Publication

Why KPI Management Needs Metrics for Empathy and Fairness

https://www.toptal.com/project-managers/freelance/kpi-management-empathy
2024 - 2024

Doctorate Degree in Business Administration

Veritas University - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2003 - 2005

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance

Loyola University Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA

2003 - 2005

Master's Degree in Information Systems

Loyola University Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA

2001 - 2002

Bachelor's Degree in Accounting

Robert Morris - Chicago, IL, USA

1996 - 1998

Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - Champaign, IL, USA

1993 - 1996

Bachelor's Degree in Biochemistry

University of Chicago - Chicago, IL, USA

NOVEMBER 2015 - PRESENT

Certified Chief Information Security Officer V1

EC-Council

NOVEMBER 2011 - PRESENT

Professional Scrum Master Level I (PSM I)

Scrum.org

JULY 2011 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)

Scrum Alliance

MARCH 2010 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum Alliance

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring