Ram Harikrishnan

Software Engineer with 5+ years of experience building scalable API services, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure. Shipped production systems on FastAPI, Node.js, Django, and AWS/Azure, handling 50K+ monthly requests at sub-200ms latency. Strong in database design, containerization, CI/CD automation, and system reliability. M.S.

Computer

Engineering, Arizona State University.

Software Engineer at Arizona Water Innovation Initiative (2024-05 – Present)

Designed and deployed production-grade backend systems with async FastAPI endpoints, Python data pipelines, and AI/ML-driven features. Architected GraphRAG data pipeline and cloud infrastructure on AWS/Azure.

• Designed FastAPI backend with async endpoints, Pydantic validation, dependency injection, and structured JSON responses — serving 50K+ monthly chatbot queries at sub-200ms p95 latency
• Engineered production-grade Python pipelines using Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, and TensorFlow for scalable AI workflows, improving processing efficiency by 35%
• Designed optimized SQL schemas handling high-volume transactional data, enabling efficient and scalable query performance
• Implemented AI/ML-driven features within web applications, improving automation efficiency and delivering enhanced user experiences across interactive systems
• Architected GraphRAG data pipeline using LangChain, Neo4j graph database, and OpenAI embeddings for relationship-aware retrieval, improving answer accuracy over flat vector search by 28%
• Deployed production stack on AWS EC2 and Azure App Services with Docker containers, secrets management, health check endpoints, and blue-green deployment strategies for zero-downtime releases
• Configured Azure Blob Storage and AWS S3 for vector store persistence, CloudWatch/Azure Monitor dashboards for logging and alerting, and auto-scaling policies — reducing downtime incidents by 40%
• Implemented CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions with automated pytest suites, linting, Docker image builds, and deployment workflows across staging and production environments

Software Engineer at PIT Solutions (2022-05 – 2023-10)

Optimized API performance, designed secure authentication systems, and automated release pipelines for mobile and rental management platforms.

• Optimized API contracts during .NET-to-Vue.js migration with pagination, response caching, and lazy-loading strategies that cut response times by 25%
• Designed secure authentication and role-based access control for the Swiss Volleyball Federation app, supporting 3+ user roles with token refresh, session management, and audit logging
• Built centralized error handling middleware, retry logic, and circuit-breaker patterns for the rental management platform, reducing API-related failures by 15% across 300+ managed properties
• Automated release pipelines and QA validation for mobile backend deployments, reducing manual release overhead by 40% and post-release defect rate by 20%

Co-Founder / Backend Engineer at MakerLabs Edutech (2020-11 – 2022-05)

Co-founded edutech company and architected REST API backend for IoT school deployments with real-time device communication and automated CI/CD pipelines.

• Architected REST API backend using Node.js/Express with OpenAPI-versioned contracts, Docker containerization, and rollback-friendly deployment patterns, supporting 50+ school IoT deployments
• Implemented real-time device communication via WebSocket/MQTT protocols with event-driven architecture, reducing command latency by 20% for robotics kit control
• Hardened API layer with versioned contracts, input validation, rate limiting, and structured error responses — lowering production regressions by 20%
• Automated CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions/Jenkins, gated unit tests, artifact versioning, and Docker image management — cutting release cycle time by 40%

M.S. in Computer Engineering (Computer Systems) – Arizona State University (2025-12)

B.Tech in Electronics & Communications Engineering – PRIST University (2022-03)