Prathap Karaka

High-ownership Engineering Manager with over 4 years of experience at Kotak Mahindra Bank. Rapidly progressed from Deputy Manager to Manager by demonstrating strong leadership in critical fintech infrastructure. Expert in React.js and React Native, with a focus on scalable architecture and secure banking solutions. Proven track record of leading Agile teams, conducting rigorous code reviews, mentoring freshers, and managing multiple high-availability admin portals simultaneously.

Manager (Associate Technologist III) - Kotak Mahindra Bank - Hyderabad

(2025-05)

Deputy Manager - Kotak Mahindra Bank - Hyderabad

(2021-09 - 2025-04)

• Mobile Banking 2.0 Admin Portal (React.js): Transitioned the project from a shared team effort to sole ownership within 6 months of tenure, ensuring rapid delivery and stability.
• Architected the portal using React.js and React Bootstrap, implementing Context API for global state management and Axios for optimized API data handling.
• Act as the primary gatekeeper for code quality by conducting rigorous code reviews on Pull Requests (PRs) for fellow developers and freshers, ensuring clean, maintainable, and efficient code.
• Utilized JWT for secure session management. Currently initiating the roadmap and groundwork for IDAM (Identity and Access Management) integration to further enhance login security.
• Onboarded and mentored newly joined freshers, guiding them through the codebase and enforcing best practices.
• Mobile Banking 2.0 App (React Native): Led the end-to-end development of the Payments Module (2023) and currently spearheading the SME (Small & Medium Enterprises) sub-project (2024–Present).
• Collaborated with cross-functional backend teams to ensure secure and seamless API integration for mobile transactions.
• Infrastructure Monitoring Tool (Initiative): Conceptualized and built a custom internal dashboard (Jan 2024) to monitor application server health (Up/Down status) and frontend version consistency.
• Reduced incident response time by providing real-time visibility into system status for the technical team.
• Successfully maintained the legacy Admin Portal 1.0 while migrating critical features to modern stacks with zero business disruption.
• Implemented CI/CD pipelines to automate deployments, reducing manual errors and speeding up release cycles.

Master of Science - Computer Science - Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), London (2025-05)

Bachelor of Technology - Metallurgical and Materials Engineering - Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur (2021)