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My Resume

Kunal Pathak

I am a technology leader specializing in data platforms, applied AI, and cloud architecture.

For more than 15 years, I have led teams and platforms across startups and global enterprises. I translate business priorities into secure, scalable technology products—combining clear strategy with hands-on engineering leadership.

Kunal Pathak

Areas of Expertise

  • Technology & Engineering Leadership: Setting strategy, building capable teams, and guiding complex transformation programs from direction to delivery.
  • Data & AI Platforms: Designing governed data foundations and operating models that enable dependable analytics, machine learning, and AI products.
  • Cloud, Security & Delivery: Building secure multi-cloud environments with infrastructure automation, reliable release practices, and pragmatic governance.
  • Applied AI: Taking generative AI, agentic workflows, and knowledge-grounded applications from experiment to production.

Skills & Certifications

Skills
Area Focus areas
Technology Strategy & Leadership Business-aligned roadmaps; platform strategy; outcome-focused execution
AI Platform & Product Strategy Scalable data and AI platforms; product lifecycle; adoption
Engineering Excellence & Culture Team building; hiring and mentoring; quality and delivery practices
Enterprise Transformation Legacy modernization; operating-model and architecture evolution
Cloud Native & DevOps Leadership Multi-cloud strategy; infrastructure as code; CI/CD; FinOps
Cybersecurity & Data Governance Risk management; privacy and GDPR; policy and control frameworks
Area Focus areas
Programming & Integration Python, Java, C; web APIs and systems integration
Cloud & DevOps Azure, GCP, AWS; Kubernetes, Docker; CI/CD; Git; infrastructure as code
Data & AI Engineering Databricks and Delta Lake; Spark; Kafka; Airflow; dbt; MLOps tooling
Data Governance & Catalog Unity Catalog, Atlan, Collibra; lineage, metadata, RBAC/ABAC
Automation & Orchestration Event and workflow automation; GitOps; policy as code
Applied AI Agentic systems; context-aware retrieval; operational AI lifecycle
Area Focus areas
Lakehouse Architecture Databricks and Delta Lake; medallion architecture
Pipeline Orchestration Batch and streaming ETL/ELT; Spark Structured Streaming, Autoloader, Airflow
Access & Security Fine-grained access with Unity Catalog; masking; token governance; GDPR alignment
Metadata & Catalog Atlan and Collibra; lineage, glossary, and stewardship workflows
Data Quality & Reliability Great Expectations, Soda, Monte Carlo, dbt tests; data expectations and SLA monitoring
Governance Automation Tag-based access controls; policy as code; automated lineage harvesting; glossary curation
Certifications

GCP Professional Certificate

Azure Certification

AWS Certification

Oracle Certification

McKinsey Capability Building

SAFe Certification

ITIL Certification

Professional Experience

MB Energy

Head of Data and AI (September 2025 - Present)

  • Execute enterprise data and AI strategy on Azure/Databricks, unifying fragmented initiatives into a platform driving digital growth.
  • Establish standardized platform architecture and delivery frameworks, accelerating time-to-market for data products.
  • Direct production AI capabilities, including GenAI applications and agentic systems, with enterprise-grade security.
  • Implement automated governance ensuring EU AI Act and GDPR compliance through policy-as-code.
  • Oversee multi-million budget and cross-functional strategy, positioning AI as a foundational engine for transformation.
SwitchUp

Chief Technology Officer (CTO) (May 2025 - August 2025)

  • Defined platform & AI architecture for next‑generation energy tariff optimization product and execution roadmap
  • Built and mentored a cross‑functional engineering team; instituted lightweight governance & delivery cadences
  • Partnered with executive leadership translating business objectives into sequenced platform capabilities
Vodafone Germany

Manager - AI/ML Platform Development (2018 - May 2025)

  • Deployed enterprise AI assistants and knowledge-grounded chatbots, improving support responsiveness.
  • Engineered scalable Spark/Airflow/Databricks pipelines, accelerating model experimentation and delivery.
  • Provisioned secure multi-cloud (GCP, Azure, AWS) environments with standardized landing zones and guardrails.
  • Built an automated data transformation platform using Python and Kubernetes, reducing operational toil.
  • Modernized legacy BI stacks and established data governance standards (catalog, lineage, RBAC).
  • Scaled global engineering capabilities through hiring, vendor management, and process optimization.
Vodafone India & UK

Technology Lead / Service Transition (2014 - 2018)

  • Insourced application maintenance (e.g., TIBCO EMS) improving defect turnaround and reducing external spend
  • Built and transitioned a new internal support team; managed vendor offboarding & knowledge transfer
  • Advanced incident & change practices reducing recurring incidents and stabilizing core platforms
  • Recruited and trained cross-functional talent enabling sustainable internal ownership
  • Embedded ITIL-aligned change management processes
IBM India

Multiple Roles - QA & Engineering Support (2010 - 2014)

  • Built an internal ticket management tool (Joomla, PHP, JS) improving workflow efficiency
  • Supported AWS-hosted application stacks (EC2, S3, RDS) ensuring availability & performance
  • Led QA planning & requirement analysis for telecom modernization (COBOL, DB2, Java, Oracle)
Synygy India

Quality Assurance Engineer (2007 - 2010)

  • Performed functional & workflow testing for sales compensation applications (JSF, Spring)
  • Developed automation assets (HP QTP) including harnesses, stubs & drivers to expand regression coverage