Pankaj Batra
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Gurugram, Haryana, India
Toptal member since April 29, 2020
Pankaj is a hands-on professional and entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in product development, planning, architecture and design, team building, and business leadership. He has led teams in the business-growth phase across enterprise software, advertising, B2B SaaS, education, personal finance, food tech, and logistics. Pankaj's specialties include database design, API development, product management, and back-end development in Ruby on Rails, Java, SQL, and AWS.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Java, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Product Management, AWS Lambda, REST APIs, Back-end Development, Relational Databases, API Integration, Third-party APIs
The most amazing...
...project I created was a hyperlocal, logistics-delivery B2B SaaS company, Sparse Labs, which was later acquired by Zomato, the biggest food-tech player in India.
Work Experience
Ruby on Rails Developer
Causemetric LLC
- Handled new feature development in the nonprofit web application.
- Implemented multi-tenant architecture to support multiple organizations.
- Contributed to the Braintree payment gateway 3rd-party integration.
Senior Back-end Developer (via Toptal)
Carsales
- Implemented GraphQL from scratch to return on-demand vehicle data.
- Built REST APIs for the vehicle CMS with CRUD operations.
- Handled large model changes, database migration, and duplicate merges.
Senior Ruby on Rails and Full-stack Developer
Playvalve S.L.
- Created an optimization tool using Applovin MAX APIs.
- Integrated Google spreadsheets API for read/write operations.
- Worked on detailed RSpec test cases to handle large datasets.
AWS Lambda Developer
Anenta
- Developed an app that imports data and is integrated with Gmail; used AWS Lambda to import data from Gmail.
- Set up a Lambda development environment using SAM and TOML file configuration.
- Implemented Google OAuth in a Lambda function using Google APIs.
Senior Back-end Developer and Senior Ruby on Rails Developer
CWS
- Implemented 2-way Slack API threaded communication.
- Developed web notifications using Rails Action Cable.
- Investigated, evaluated, quickly comprehended, and fixed many critical issues.
Co-founder
Hyrr
- Led the design and development of the software platform of the recruitment marketplace (Java, Spring, and MySQL) for employers to hire faster and at a lower commission rate.
- Designed the system and database architecture for a Tiktok and Tinder-style video-based hiring product for grey and blue-collar hiring, using Java, Spring Boot, MySQL, Android, React, and API design.
- Spearheaded project management, sprints, best practices and systems, and process implementation. Introduced systems and processes such as Jira, Sentry, and development sprints. Implemented continuous integration using CircleCI Jenkins.
- Developed the back-end API in Ruby on Rails 5 for blue-collar, bulk-hiring, and outsourced-hiring management.
Senior Back-end Developer
BangTheTable
- Optimized the API response, which reduced the response time by half.
- Implemented tag management and bulk data migration for legacy models.
- Trained junior developers in project management and agile practices.
Senior Back-end Developer
SunReign
- Developed data visualization using Mapbox to help solar installation companies identify the best position location for break-even years.
- Set up the deployment process, AWS, and the database for the application.
- Built the product from scratch for the MVP and investment pitches.
Senior Back-end Developer
GOJINET
- Developed a web app for online international education communities, connecting English language students to native English-speaking tutors on a social learning platform.
- Set up the deployment process, AWS, and the database for the application.
- Oversaw the launch process and MVP product testing.
Founder and CEO
Croftr
- Built a four-acre farm and a successful B2C brand from scratch.
- Designed and developed crop planning and customer management product using Ruby on Rails and MySQL hosted on Amazon EC2 and RDS.
- Recognized with startup status by India's Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
Product Strategist and Digital Transformation Consultant
Freelancer
- Developed a generic web-scraping framework using JUnit, Java, and other scraper frameworks.
- Initiated an online lead-generation system and marketing campaign for a leading real-estate consulting firm, using Java and Ruby on Rails. Grew their incoming queries by 50% MoM.
- Created processes and a document-management system for a leading chartered accountant using the Ubuntu server and Dropbox. This greatly helped them recover from a major malware attack.
- Delivered a strong online presence, communication system, and processes for a playschool using DropBox, Google Drive, and Google Cloud.
- Developed a document-management system using Java and Dropbox APIs.
- Set up an online presence for a top-rated resort and booking engine using WordPress, resulting in a doubled revenue increase.
Vice President of Product
Zomato
- Integrated Zomato with third-party POS systems that solved a significant challenge for restaurateurs, using Ruby on Rails, Java, and AWS.
- Designed a callback system and database architecture for third-party API integration systems.
- Upgraded Ruby on Rails to its fifth version and completed many feature enhancements in a delivery optimization SaaS product.
- Developed the back-end API in Ruby on Rails for an online food ordering system.
Founder and CEO
Sparse Labs
- Bootstrapped a B2B SaaS startup for hyper-local delivery optimization. It was acquired in 2016 by Zomato after finding it to be a great fit. As part of the acquisition, joined Zomato as the vice president of products.
- Designed the system architecture, APIs, and database. Integrated with third-party system APIs, such as POS and online food ordering systems, and provided a callback mechanism.
- Developed Android mobile apps (Java), web apps (AngularJS), back-end API (Ruby on Rails), ServerSocket (Java), and hardware-based products, namely GPS trackers.
Blogger
Personal Finance Blog
- Built and published one of the most downloaded income tax calculators in India. Developed the blog in WordPress.
- Authored articles on personal finance such as income tax and investments. Thousands of people have benefited from reading these articles.
- Considered one of India's top personal finance blogs and seen as the top website for multiple finance-related terms on Google search.
Technical Architect
Educomp
- Built Eduignite, a career counseling and assessment product, using Ruby on Rails and MySQL in collaboration with one of the best minds in India in the education space.
- Empowered students to understand themselves and make the best academic and career choices in life. Led a team of 10 people consisting of marketers, content writers, and teachers.
- Designed the system architecture and database for the assessment and counseling system.
Founding Member and Technical Architect
StudyPlaces
- Built a lead management system in Spring, Java, and MySQL to capture lead lifecycle and better utilization rate.
- Developed a call management system in Spring, Java, and MySQL for telemarketers and automatic distribution with a matching engine.
- Created India's first online college application platform in Spring, Java, and MySQL.
- Delivered a marketing automation product (campaign management system) in Spring and Java with landing page generation for SEM and other online marketing requirements.
- Designed system architecture and database for the lead management system, college online application system, and marketing automation.
Product Team Lead
Tribal Fusion, Exponential Interactive
- Developed a contextual ad serving platform in Java. Built Scraper to scrape website contents and crawl them regularly.
- Created geographical targeted serving platforms in Java for the advertising industry.
- Delivered Facebook API integration in Java on the launch for an ad product.
Senior Software Engineer
Fiorano
- Selected ahead of other team players from IITs for US-based client-facing opportunities. One of the best performers in the company. Received a 4X salary hike in six months due to outstanding performance.
- Saved over $2,000/per month for the company in the first month of joining by building an in-house email marketing automation tool, VerticalResponse, to replace their previous one.
- Developed integration adapters, such as DB, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, File, JMS, MSMQ, TIBCO, and HTTP for Fiorano SOA 2006 and Fiorano ESB in Java.
- Operated as a sales engineer and built a proof-of-concept for various prospects-applications using Fiorano ESB and FioranoMQ.
- Participated as a core team member of the world's first JMS compliant server, FioranoMQ.
Founder and CTO
Net4Engineers
- Created a social network for engineers. This was an internet startup ahead of its time, developing the first portal to create Facebook-like pages for collages.
- Created SMS4India, an online platform to send messages from the web to mobiles, an industry first.
- Delivered ExamOnline, a web-based solution that can be used on the intranet and the internet to conduct multiple-choice question-based tests.
Experience
Automotive Marketing Platform | B2B SaaS
Key Deliverables:
• Implemented GraphQL from scratch to return on-demand vehicle data.
• Built REST APIs for vehicle CMS with CRUD operations.
• Handled large model changes, database migration, and duplicate merges.
HYRR | Short Video-based Hiring App
Key Deliverables:
• Designed the system and database architecture for a Tiktok and Tinder-style video-based hiring product for grey and blue-collar hiring, using Java, Spring Boot, MySQL, Android, React, and API design.
• Spearheaded project management, sprints, best practices and systems, and processes implementation. Introduced systems and processes such as Jira, Sentry, and development sprints. Implemented continuous integration using CircleCI Jenkins.
• Developed the back-end API in Ruby on Rails 5 for blue-collar bulk-hiring and outsourced hiring management.
Logistics Tech B2B SaaS Product
http://sparselabs.com• Founded Sparse Labs, a B2B SaaS product. Zomato acquired it in 2016.
• Conceptualized product, architecture, and database design and developed the back-end API in Ruby on Rails.
• Completed third-party integration with POS and food ordering platforms. Led the Android and web front-end team.
• Used the following technologies: Java, Ruby on Rails, PHP, MySQL, Android, AWS EC2, Lambda, RDS, ElastiCache, Google cloud, Exotel, Bitbucket, API Gateway, and SNS.
Recruitment SaaS Platform
https://unihyr.com/• Defined the system and database architecture.
• Led product ideation and the go-to-market strategy.
• Developed recruitment products.
• Delivered the API design for the employer and candidate side for mobile and web apps.
• Led the back-end development in Java and Spring Boot.
• Managed the front-end development in native Android and React.
• Oversaw project management, sprint planning, best practices, systems, processes, and implementation.
• Used the following technologies: Java, MySQL, Spring, AWS EC2, S3, RDS, ElastiCache, Route 53, Rekognition, QuickSight, Jira, CircleCI, Jenkins, SendGrid, and GitHub
Online Food Ordering Applications
• Developed the back-end API in Ruby on Rails for an online food ordering system.
• Designed a callback system and database architecture for third-party API integration systems.
• Integrated Zomato with third-party POS systems and reduced order confirmation time by 70%. This further improved the merchant happiness score due to the removal of the manual order entry process.
• Upgraded Zomato Trace to the latest technologies.
• Used the following technologies: Java, Ruby on Rails, PHP, MySQL, Android, AWS EC2, RDS, ElastiCache, Google Cloud, Ubuntu, GitHub, and Lambda.
Marketing Automation System and Landing Page Creator
Key Deliverables:
• Developed marketing-automation systems for the education industry with a landing-page generation for the SEM.
• Built a lead-management system from scratch to capture lead lifecycle and better utilization rate. This included support for telemarketers and automatic distribution with a matching engine.
• Used the following technologies: Java, Spring, and MySQL.
Career Counseling and Assessment Product
http://www.educomp.com/Key Deliverables:
• Conceived of Eduignite, a career counseling and assessment product, along with the best minds in the education space.
• Led a team of 10 people consisting of marketers, content writers, and teachers.
• Used the following technologies: Ruby on Rails, Java, Spring, and MySQL.
Lead Management System
http://www.studyplaces.com• Developed system architecture and a database to manage leads, telecalls, and distribution with an order matching engine.
• Built a lead management system in Spring, Java, and MySQL to capture the lead lifecycle, better utilization rates, and for telemarketers and automatic distribution with a matching engine.
India's First Online College Application Platform
• Developed India's first online college, web-based application platform where students can apply to colleges online.
• Designed the system architecture and database.
• Led a team of ten developers.
• Managed the QA resources.
• Used the following technologies: Spring, Java, MySQL, PHP, and Linux.
Adapters for a Service-oriented Architecture Product
https://www.fiorano.com/products/fiorano_adapters• Developed integration adapters (DB, POP3, IMAP, SMTP, File, JMS, MSMQ, Tibco, HTTP) for Fiorano SOA2006 and Fiorano ESB.
• Worked as a sales engineer and built the proof-of-concept for various prospects and applications using Fiorano ESB and Fiorano MQ.
• Used the following technologies: Java, Mail APIs, SQL, JMS, Tibco, and web services.
Contextual and Geo-targeted Ad Server
http://exponential.com/• Developed parsers and a scraper to crawl the content website for Exponential's (Tribal Fusion) display ad server.
• Revitalized contextual and geo-targeted ad serving platforms and developed self-serve advertiser applications to create location targeting and content-targeted display ads.
• Used the following technologies: Java, JUnit, HttpUnit, scraping, JavaScript, and Oracle.
E-MarketMail | Email Marketing Automation Tool
Key Deliverables:
• Built an in-house email marketing automation tool to replace the previous one, VerticalResponse.
• Used the following languages and tools: JavaMail, servlets, JSP, JDBC, MySQL, and Java.
ExamOnline | Online Testing System
Education
Bachelor of Technology Degree (Honors) in Information Technology
Kurukshetra University - Haryana, India
Certifications
Basics of GraphQL with Ruby on Rails
Udemy
Skills
Libraries/APIs
JSON API, Devise, REST APIs, API Development, Ruby on Rails API, jQuery, JMS, Google API, Facebook API, Slack API
Tools
Capistrano, Apache Tomcat, Git, Jira, RSpec, Slack, Jenkins, CircleCI, Trello, Asana, Amazon ElastiCache
Languages
JavaScript, Java, Ruby, SQL, PHP, HTML, GraphQL, C++, CSS
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby on Rails 4, Spring, Ruby on Rails 5, Spring Boot, ActionCable, Grape
Paradigms
REST, Automation, Requirements Analysis, DevOps, RESTful Development, Database Design, B2B, Agile, Microservices, Test-driven Development (TDD), API Architecture, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Continuous Integration (CI)
Platforms
Linode, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, Linux, Android, New Relic, DigitalOcean, AWS Lambda, Mobile, Docker, Mapbox, Dropbox, WordPress, Shopify, Heroku
Storage
Database Migration, MySQL, Relational Databases, JSON, Memcached, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Redis, MariaDB, Databases
Other
Scraping, Web Scraping, Automation Tools, Leadership, Technical Leadership, Team Leadership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Project Leadership, Back-end Development, API Design, Third-party Integration, APIs, Startup Development, Entrepreneurship, Google, API Integration, SaaS, Solution Design, Relational Database Design, Relational Database Services (RDS), RESTful Services, Code Review, Task Analysis, Technical Hiring, Interviewing, Team Management, Source Code Review, Consulting, Back-end, Product Development, MSMQ, Gmail, Web Development, Product Management, Enterprise SaaS, Software Architecture, Architecture, Integration, Back-end Performance, Full-stack, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), Pub/Sub, Image Processing, Cloud Telephony, Amazon Route 53, Internet of Things (IoT), Serverless, OAuth, Third-party APIs, Programming, Information Technology, Computer Science, Operating Systems, AWS DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, AppLovin MAX, BizTalk Server
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