Harish Raghavendra

Harish Raghavendra

Director, Data, AI Policy Governance | Product Strategy Leader
AI & Data Platform | Payments & FinTech Enabler
San Francisco Bay Area, CA | USA
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harish.raghav@gmail.com (818) 324-5080 linkedin.com/in/harishraghavendra github.com/drivenbyvalues

Executive Summary

Accomplished technology executive with 20+ years of experience in big data, AI/ML platforms, and distributed systems at scale. Proven track record of leading global engineering teams and delivering mission-critical platforms processing 215B+ annual transactions. Expert in building self-service data platforms, implementing GenAI/LLM solutions, and driving cloud-native transformations. Passionate about mentoring engineers, fostering innovation, and delivering business value through technology.

Technical Leadership & Expertise

Data & AI Platforms

  • Big Data Technologies (Hadoop, Hive, HDFS, Spark)
  • AI/ML & GenAI Implementation
  • Data Governance & Security
  • Real-time Data Processing
  • Entity Recognition & Classification
  • Data Product Development

Cloud & Infrastructure

  • AWS & GCP Cloud Services
  • Kubernetes & Containerization
  • Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)
  • CI/CD & DevOps Practices
  • High Availability Systems
  • Performance Optimization

Leadership & Strategy

  • Team Building & Mentoring
  • Technical Roadmapping
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Agile/Scrum at Scale
  • Vendor & Partner Management
  • Regulatory Compliance

Professional Experience

Director, Data and AI Platform

Jul 2019 - Present
Visa Inc., Foster City, CA
  • Lead development of Visa's next-generation merchant data platform, enabling global merchant data products using hyperlocal regional data sourcing and LLM/AI/ML models
  • Pioneered VisaTravelInsights.AI, leveraging GPT-4 with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to deliver actionable travel insights for airlines and airport operators
  • Headed Technical Product Management, leading a team of senior product managers and growing the engineering team from 3 to 80+ members across 5 scrum teams
  • Architected a self-service platform portal for managing 100+ petabyte-scale Hadoop, Kafka, and NiFi clusters with multi-tenant, highly available agent-based architecture
  • Spearheaded the development of an app-builder framework featuring no-code/low-code UI/Service and model generation using Node.js
  • Drove the implementation of Big Data products including Spark as a Service, multi-tenant cluster management, and platform governance solutions

Senior Technical Program Manager

Mar 2016 - Jun 2019
Hulu, Santa Monica, CA
  • Delivered shared infrastructure services that improved developer productivity and reduced operational costs, supporting user base growth from 10M to 25M+
  • Led database migrations, data center transitions, and cloud adoption initiatives, including migration of self-hosted databases to shared infrastructure
  • Scaled infrastructure to handle traffic spikes from major live events and implemented SOX compliance measures for datastore platforms
  • Acted as Technical Product Manager, creating roadmaps and engaging stakeholders while implementing Agile methodologies to enhance team efficiency
  • Upgraded shared PaaS application deployment using Aurora & Apache Mesos, improving system reliability and performance

Senior Engineering Manager

Sep 2009 - Mar 2016
Intuit, Woodland Hills, CA
  • Architected and developed REST-based microservices for payment processing across web, software, and mobile applications
  • Led Agile transformation as Scrum Master and coach, implementing CI/CD pipelines and modern development practices
  • Delivered key projects including Activation Platform Services, Master Merchant on Chase Payment Tech, and QuickBooks Point of Sale 2013
  • Mentored engineering teams, conducted code reviews, and established technical direction in collaboration with cross-functional teams

Tech Lead / Senior Software Engineer

Feb 2007 - Oct 2009
MyCorporation by Intuit, Calabasas, CA
  • Led design and implementation of 37+ business formation products including LLCs, Corporations, Trademarks, and Copyrights
  • Developed online interview process, Customer Management System, and Document Management System
  • Created centralized billing portal and Workflow management system to streamline operations

Education & Research

Master of Science in Computer Science

2005
University of Dayton, OH
Research: Created a new Congestion Aware protocol for wireless ad-hoc mobile networks, published in IEEE

Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science

2002
Visvesvaraya Technological University (JSSATE), India

Certifications & Professional Development

  • Agile/Scrum Master Certification (Intuit)
  • Cloud Architecture & Distributed Systems
  • Big Data Technologies & AI/ML Specializations

Key Achievements & Impact

Industry Recognition

  • Recipient of the "Technology Innovation Award" for developing a novel data architecture at Visa
  • Featured speaker at 10+ international technology conferences on big data and AI
  • Published 5+ research papers in peer-reviewed journals on distributed systems

Leadership Impact

  • Mentored 50+ engineers, with 15+ advancing to leadership positions
  • Established engineering best practices adopted across 100+ teams
  • Led diversity initiatives increasing women in tech roles by 40% in my organizations

Languages

References

Available upon request