man kiran
# about
- NAME
- Kiran Capoor — Engineering Leader & hands-on engineer, professional problem-fixer
- SYNOPSIS
kiran --role engineering-leader --stack polyglot --location pune --status building-something- STATS
- 9+ yrs · 8 roles · 1 chemistry degree · 0 regrets (mostly)
- STATUS
- open to engineering leadership & senior IC roles · available in ~30 days
- DESCRIPTION
I'm an engineering leader and hands-on software engineer with 9+ years across backend, platform, AI, and developer tooling. I built and scaled a 66-person cross-functional technology department at a 1,100-person agency, growing department revenue 3x and pushing margins past 60%. These days I'm Tech Lead at Smart Working, contracted to SiSU Health (UK), building AI-native integration infrastructure and distributed systems. I'm a genuine polyglot — TypeScript, Python, Go — and I go wherever the interesting problem is, from architecture through to the thing running in production.
A lot of what I do outside work is tooling for the way I work. I built Wizard, a persistent memory and work triage layer for AI coding agents, because I kept losing context between sessions. I built Wand, a full custom Neovim distribution in Lua, because I wanted an editor that fits exactly how I think. I built Ritual, a one-command dotfiles bootstrap for my dev machine, because setup should be solved once. They're tools I use every day.
On the AI side, I'm interested in the engineering layer below the model — memory systems, agent orchestration, MCP server design, RAG pipelines, and how you make AI tooling actually reliable in a production context. I run a YouTube channel, Ctrl Alt Tech, where I talk about this kind of work. I write, I teach, and I think out loud. I like sharing what I have learnt through my experiments.
- 166
- services & apps migrated98 services + 68 apps · AU → UK AWS · SiSU
- ~30%
- faster client data exportsvia Halo orchestration · SiSU
- 3x
- dept revenue₹4Cr → ₹12Cr · Schbang
- 15→66
- team scaledeng, UX/UI & PM · Schbang
- ~25%
- faster app perf13+ services off legacy · Oaktree
- ~50%
- faster dev turnaroundplan→design→implement · Oaktree
## experience
// the paid version of side projects. click a commit to expand it.
•33c81ceTech Lead @ Smart Working (contracted to SiSU Health, UK)Nov 2024 – Present
// Remote (India)
- Migrated 98 services and 68 applications from AWS Australia to the UK region — a full re-homing of the platform’s cloud footprint.
- Cut client data-export time by ~30% through Halo, the orchestration product.
- Architect and build integration pipelines and API layers connecting third-party health-data providers into the core platform across three products: Halo (orchestration), Universe (core health platform), and SISU IQ (reporting).
- Lead architecture decisions on event-driven data ingestion, distributed-service reliability, and API contract design across the stack.
- Designed and shipped internal AI tooling and MCP-based integrations that reduced engineering workflow overhead across the team.
- Stack: TypeScript, Python, Go, event-driven architecture, REST API design, distributed systems.
•4454598Head of Technology @ SchbangNov 2022 – Jun 2024
// Mumbai, India
- Scaled the technology function from 15 to 66 people across engineering, UX/UI, and project management — hiring, structuring, and developing the full department.
- Grew department revenue 3x (₹4Cr → ₹12Cr) while improving profit margins to 60%+; launched new business lines and revenue streams that did not exist on joining.
- Owned full technology strategy for a 1,100-person creative and technology agency — architecture, vendor decisions, engineering standards, and client-facing technology consulting.
- Delivered projects across generative AI, web platforms, and custom applications; introduced design-thinking practice and a culture of technical ownership.
•9c8dd26Technology Lead @ Oaktree ConnectJun 2022 – Nov 2022
// Bengaluru, India
- Hired and built an internal engineering team from scratch on a Node.js, React.js, GraphQL, and Apollo Federation stack.
- Migrated 13+ microservices from a legacy vendor stack, achieving ~25% improvement in application performance.
- Reduced developer turnaround time ~50% through a plan-design-implement methodology, Dockerised services, and AWS ECS.
- Implemented observability with Sentry and AWS CloudWatch; established consistent SDLC practices across the team.
•640b192Technology Lead @ Nirveda Cognition, Inc.Sep 2021 – Jun 2022
// Bengaluru, India
- Led engineering direction, architecture decisions, and team development at a Jiddu, Inc. portfolio company; role concluded following company acquisition.
- Contributed to backend services architecture and core product platform design across the stack.
•55c3d68Senior Software Engineer @ BeamX TechLabs Pvt LtdOct 2020 – Aug 2021
// Hyderabad, India
- Principal engineer across several concurrent projects, owning architecture and infrastructure design from scratch.
- Introduced 12-Factor methodology, DRY principles, SDLC processes, and Docker-based builds with clean separation of concerns.
- Ran training sessions for the backend team on Docker, Docker Compose, Celery, and Django performance tuning.
- Built custom integration SDKs for Shipway and Zoho Mail; managed deployments on Heroku and AWS.
- Hardened the security layer across backend services and improved existing implementations where gaps existed.
•f67b8c6Founder & Managing Director @ Texmith TechnologiesJan 2019 – Sep 2020
// Mumbai, India
- Founded and ran a technology company delivering end-to-end product development across web and application domains — full ownership of technical direction, client relationships, and delivery.
- Built and shipped products across multiple client engagements; managed the full cycle from scoping and architecture through to production deployment.
•2b24702Freelance Software Engineer @ Self-EmployedDec 2017 – Jan 2019
// Mumbai, India
- Delivered client projects across web and application development; built core engineering foundations in backend development, system design, and client delivery.
•4d8d62cEquity Data Analyst @ MSCI Inc.Mar 2017 – Dec 2017
// Mumbai, India
- Part of the global equity data team, responsible for data quality assurance, analysis, and reporting across international equity datasets at institutional scale.
- Built an early automation prototype that was later adopted into a production system — the start of a transition into software engineering.
## skills
// what shows up in `git blame` most often.
$ install --languages
$ install --leadership
$ install --ai-engineering
$ install --backend
$ install --frontend-ui
$ install --data-persistence
$ install --infrastructure
$ install --architecture
$ install --dev-tooling
$ install --testing-quality
## education
// a chemistry degree that mostly taught me to debug things I can't see.
B.Sc. Chemistry — Guru Nanak Khalsa College of Arts, Science & Commerce
// 2012 – 2015, Mumbai
## certifications
- Programming Foundations: Algorithms
- Programming Foundations: Object-Oriented Design
- Programming Foundations: Beyond the Fundamentals
- Serverless and Microservices for AWS
- Graph Developer – Associate