Shanmukha Polepeddi

Global technology executive with 27+ years leading enterprise transformation across the US, India, and the Middle East. Served as lead engineering executive for a 4-year, $280M cloud and digital transformation for a US Fortune 500 retailer delivering $50M in annual IT savings, while providing executive oversight and governance for a 1,000+ strong global engineering organization spanning application modernization, migration, and cloud engineering. Built and scaled technology businesses twice from the ground up — a 650+ person global cloud migration capability at Deloitte and a $5M Cloud & Infrastructure practice at Protiviti within 30 months.

Today I help organizations evolve from application modernization and cloud migrations toward AI-enabled engineering, where platforms, automation and AI improve the way technology is built, operated and governed. Trusted by CIOs, CTOs and business leaders to shape technology investments, modernize engineering organizations and build technology capabilities that deliver measurable business outcomes. Throughout my career, I have consistently been asked to build capabilities that did not previously exist—from global engineering organizations and migration factories to software tools and AI-enabled delivery models.

Managing Director — Enterprise Cloud & Platform Engineering at Protiviti India Member Firm (2022-05 – Present)

Established and lead Protiviti's Cloud & Platform Engineering business across India and the Middle East, with responsibility for business growth, engineering capability, client delivery and talent development — $5M revenue, 50+ person Global Delivery Centre of Excellence.

• Scaled the practice from zero to $5M in revenue within 30 months, establishing a Global Delivery Centre of Excellence of 50+ cloud and platform engineering professionals.
• Directed deployment of an agentic AI workflow system for a major banking and financial services client — interconnected AI agents handling complex compliance and operational tasks, reducing process cycle times by 35% with human approval checkpoints retained for high-risk decisions.
• Designed an AI-enabled FinOps and observability capability that continuously identified optimization opportunities, improved engineering decision-making and reduced unnecessary cloud spend across hybrid environments.
• Introduced AI-assisted engineering accelerators and assessment automation that reduced assessment timelines by 40% and improved delivery consistency across transformation programmes.
• Protected engagement margins by institutionalizing reusable code bases, standardized delivery templates, and automated testing frameworks; established SRE practices sustaining 99.99% availability across client hybrid-cloud estates.
• Directed the design and rollout of private cloud platforms and a 24x7 NOC and managed services operation supporting one of the region's largest Smart City programs; advised Middle East government agencies on national data center modernization and cloud adoption roadmaps.
• Established strategic alliances with hyperscalers and technology partners, driving joint go-to-market plans, co-sell pursuits, and annual growth priorities.
• Established the foundation for AI-native engineering by integrating reusable platforms, automation and governance into delivery rather than treating AI as a standalone capability.

Global Cloud Transformation Strategy Lead at Google Cloud (2021-09 – 2022-05)

• Advised CIOs and CTOs of Google Cloud enterprise customers on cloud strategy and transformation roadmaps, shaping investment decisions and accelerating deal conversion with sales and partner teams.
• Developed automated tooling for infrastructure and application inventory discovery, analysis, migration-path (R-lane) determination, effort estimation, and roadmap development — delivering 10x improvements in transformation consulting throughput.
• Led a team of consultants delivering transformation strategy engagements for enterprise clients.

Technology Fellow (Managing Director Equivalent) at Deloitte Consulting LLP & Deloitte USI (2011-10 – 2021-09)

Application Modernization, Cloud Engineering — Strategy, Architecture & Migration. Built Deloitte's global Cloud Migration business into one of the firm's strategic engineering capabilities, spanning consulting, engineering, automation, commercial software and managed transformation services across multiple region (US, India, and global member firms).

• Served as lead cloud engineering executive for a 4-year, $280M digital transformation program for a US Fortune 500 retailer, generating $50M in annual IT savings.
• Provided executive oversight and governance for a 1,000+ strong federated global engineering organization spanning application modernization, migration, and cloud engineering across multi-region delivery models.
• Built the global Cloud Migration delivery capability from inception in 2017 to 650+ engineers by 2021, establishing a migration factory model with defined methodologies, tooling, and automation across AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Directed 200K+ delivery hours annually — 800K+ hours across four years — supporting $100M+ in cumulative service revenue.
• Led product engineering for ATAData, converting Deloitte's internal migration tooling into a commercial software suite with automated environment discovery — cutting manual assessment effort by more than half and enabling the firm to win complex Fortune 500 migration programs.
• Led the demand pipeline governance, forecasting, and major deal reviews across regions; drove indirect revenue growth through member firms and alliance partners via joint go-to-market and co-sell pursuits.
• Transformed client operations from reactive support to SRE-driven models, automating routine platform remediation; served as senior escalation executive and subject matter expert for DevOps, CI/CD, and SRE transformations leveraging Terraform, Ansible, and Python.
• Directed workforce planning, capability development, and leadership succession across multi-region delivery centers.
• Played a key role in evolving the practice from traditional infrastructure transformation toward platform engineering, automation-first delivery and the early adoption of AIOps for IT managed services and engineering.

Progressive leadership roles: Sr. Manager IT Governance | Manager Technology Transformation | Principal Consultant | Sr. Analyst Consulting at Wipro, Capgemini, NTT Data, Cognizant, CSC, Goldstone Technologies, Quality Creed Consultants (1997 – 2011)

Earlier Career — Consulting & Delivery Leadership. Progressive leadership roles: Sr. Manager, IT Governance (Wipro Consulting); Manager, Technology Transformation (Capgemini Consulting, New York); Principal Consultant (NTT Data/Keane, New York); Sr. Analyst, Consulting (Cognizant, New York); and earlier roles at CSC, Goldstone Technologies, and Quality Creed Consultants.

• Led IT strategy, ITSM/ITIL transformation, process improvement (CMMI, Six Sigma), and governance engagements for corporate clients, including governance for a $230M distributed product development program.
• Managed client relationships, delivery performance, budgets, and commercial outcomes, building the foundation in executive communication and people leadership.

MBA in Finance & Marketing – Institute of Public Enterprise (IPE) (1997)