Vipan Kumar

Vipan Kumar

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Principal Software Architect (Consultant), 2026 – Present
Location
Ontario (Greater Toronto Area)
Experience
15 years, 2011 – present
Products across countries
Built for customers in the US, UK, Europe and India

Engineering architect and leader who builds platforms that scale: 10x Kafka throughput for BFSI, GenAI imagery for 50,000+ brands on less than half the GPUs, and 500+ Walmart India stores connected. Still hands-on in production code.

Multi-tenant SaaS and event-driven systems on AWS, Azure and GCP, including regulated BFSI platform. Platforms and systems delivered for Lenskart, Walmart India KDP, Domino's India, Maruti Suzuki and Samsung R&D Institute.

What do you need?

Three situations, with the evidence and case studies for each.

Need a consultant

Technical guidance and architecture, on an ongoing basis or for a fixed scope.

Email vipankverma03@gmail.comHands-On CV (PDF)Engineering Leader CV (PDF)

Case studies, most relevant first

  1. Maruti Suzuki RFIDTechnical advisor; led the architecture. Live in 4 plants.
  2. OnGrid10x Kafka throughput; 99.95% uptime; AWS costs down 22%.
  3. DresmaGPU servers from 12 to 5; platform still powers the company, since grown to US$2M ARR.
  4. DroneCraft RidesVideo automation platform, built and run as sole engineer.
  5. ZodiacBee.comSEO platform designed and built end to end. Launched 15 Oct 2026.
  6. SignCatch and Walmart KDP500 kirana stores onboarded in beta; 700+ retail locations.
  7. Lenskart300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day with the same small team.
  8. GigforceFirst engineer; team from 1 to about 15; US$3M pre-Series A.

Need reliable outsourced delivery

A build I personally own, end to end.

  • DroneCraft Rides: sole architect and engineer of a live video automation platform on TypeScript, Node.js, FastAPI and AWS S3, with an automated ffmpeg render pipeline and a SQLite job queue.
  • ZodiacBee.com: designed and built the full SEO platform end to end on Python, FastAPI and AWS for a North American audience. Launched 15 Oct 2026, and live with marketing under way across North America.
  • Gigforce: built the self-serve two-sided marketplace as founding engineer, including e-KYC, rostering, a matching engine and payouts. Grew the gig workforce 40–50x (100 to 4,000–5,000 workers) and the team from 1 to about 15, behind a US$3M pre-Series A.
  • OnGrid: stayed in the code while running a 21-person tech org. Personally fixed a JVM concurrency bottleneck for 10x Kafka throughput with no added infrastructure, and delivered production MySQL and Debezium CDC database upgrades with zero unplanned downtime. Fix the code, not the fleet.
Email vipankverma03@gmail.comHands-On CV (PDF)Engineering Leader CV (PDF)

Case studies, most relevant first

  1. DroneCraft RidesVideo automation platform, built and run as sole engineer.
  2. ZodiacBee.comSEO platform designed and built end to end. Launched 15 Oct 2026.
  3. GigforceFirst engineer; team from 1 to about 15; US$3M pre-Series A.
  4. OnGrid10x Kafka throughput; 99.95% uptime; AWS costs down 22%.
  5. SignCatch and Walmart KDP500 kirana stores onboarded in beta; 700+ retail locations.
  6. DresmaGPU servers from 12 to 5; platform still powers the company, since grown to US$2M ARR.
  7. Lenskart300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day with the same small team.
  8. Maruti Suzuki RFIDTechnical advisor; led the architecture. Live in 4 plants.

Hiring for your startup journey

A senior hire who has done early-stage before.

  • Gigforce: first engineer, as Senior Software Architect / Founding Engineer. Grew the team from 1 engineer to about 15 and built the platform behind the scale story for a US$3M pre-Series A.
  • Dresma: architected the platform that still powers the company, since grown to US$2M ARR on the same infrastructure.
  • Lenskart: part of the early 10-person tech team, scaling from 300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day. The company listed on NSE/BSE on 10 Nov 2025, after my tenure.
  • SignCatch and Walmart KDP: led a team of 25 as exclusive tech partner for Walmart India's Kirana Development Program, onboarding 500 kirana stores in beta.
Email vipankverma03@gmail.comEngineering Leader CV (PDF)Hands-On CV (PDF)

Case studies, most relevant first

  1. GigforceFirst engineer; team from 1 to about 15; US$3M pre-Series A.
  2. DresmaGPU servers from 12 to 5; platform still powers the company, since grown to US$2M ARR.
  3. Lenskart300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day with the same small team.
  4. SignCatch and Walmart KDP500 kirana stores onboarded in beta; 700+ retail locations.
  5. DroneCraft RidesVideo automation platform, built and run as sole engineer.
  6. ZodiacBee.comSEO platform designed and built end to end. Launched 15 Oct 2026.
  7. OnGrid10x Kafka throughput; 99.95% uptime; AWS costs down 22%.
  8. Maruti Suzuki RFIDTechnical advisor; led the architecture. Live in 4 plants.

Impact

Numbers from my own tenure unless marked otherwise. Each links to the work behind it.

  • 10x

    Kafka throughput across 13 topics, no added infrastructure, by fixing a JVM concurrency bottleneck in code.OnGrid

  • 12 to 5

    GPU servers for the same output, about 58% fewer, with a tiered priority queue.Dresma

  • 8,000+

    orders a day, up from 300–500, with the same small team.Lenskart

  • 9M+

    images for 50,000+ brands, on multi-tenant GenAI pipelines.Dresma

  • 700+

    retail locations, including 500 Walmart KDP stores onboarded in beta.SignCatch

  • 40–50x

    gig workforce growth, from 100 to 4,000–5,000 across India, as first engineer.Gigforce

  • 99.95%

    uptime, with AWS costs cut 22% in the same programme.OnGrid

  • 1,200+

    store network moved from offline to online POS.Domino's India

Industries

Twelve industries across 15 years, from regulated BFSI clients to retail, logistics and automotive plants.

Hiring for a full-time role?

My work spans engineering leadership and hands-on architecture. Here is the evidence for each, with the matching CV.

If you are hiring a leader

Target roles: Head / Director of Engineering, Engineering Manager

  • Ran tech orgs of 21 and 25–30 across AI/ML, backend, frontend, mobile, DevOps and QA, including reporting to the CEO.
  • Grew one engineering team from 1 to about 15.
  • Promoted 4 engineers into senior roles; ran appraisals, development plans and underperformance cases for 10 direct reports.
  • Improved release velocity 40% and cut production incidents 35%.
  • Led SOC 2 Type 1 implementation and achieved ISO 27001 certification.
Engineering Leader CV (PDF)

If you are hiring a builder

Target roles: Software Architect, Principal or Staff Engineer, Tech Lead, Lead Software Engineer

  • Personally coded two of my three current client platforms, and run one as sole engineer.
  • Found and fixed the JVM concurrency bottleneck behind 10x Kafka throughput myself.
  • Designed the tiered GPU queue that took Dresma from 12 servers to 5.
  • Built Lenskart's Virtual Try-On as sole engineer.
  • Customized the core of WebKit2 for the Tizen browser at Samsung R&D Institute.
Hands-On CV (PDF)

Case studies

Challenge, approach, results and stack for each. Diagrams are drawn from the facts on each page. There are no mock-up screenshots.

Career
8,000+orders a day, from 300–500

Lenskart: From 300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day with the same small team

Early 10-person tech team at a company that later listed on NSE/BSE. Led the move from a Magento monolith to Java microservices, started the tech for Home Eye Check-Up and built Virtual Try-On alone.

Senior Software Engineer, then Technology LeadJun 2013 – Feb 2016
Current consulting clients

Career

Every role, newest first. Each bar is drawn to scale on the same 2011–2026 axis.

  1. 2026 – Present

    Principal Software Architect (Consultant)

    Three consulting clients

    Technical guidance for three clients. I personally coded two of the three platforms.

  2. Mar 2025 – Jun 2026

    Software Engineering Manager

    OnGrid

    Gurugram, India. Background-verification SaaS for regulated BFSI clients, including banks. 21-person tech org, 10 direct reports.

    • 10x Kafka throughput across 13 topics; 99.95% uptime; AWS costs down 22%; led SOC 2 Type 1.
    Read the OnGrid case study
  3. Feb 2022 – Feb 2025

    Technical Architect & Lead Engineering Manager; previously Senior Engineering Manager

    Dresma

    HQ USA; engineering in Gurugram, India. GenAI e-commerce content SaaS. Senior Engineering Manager Feb 2022 – Oct 2023; Technical Architect & Lead Engineering Manager Nov 2023 – Feb 2025. Tech org of 25–30, reporting to the CEO.

    • 50,000+ brands and 9M+ images; GPU servers from 12 to 5 for the same output; platform still powers the company, since grown to US$2M ARR.
    Read the Dresma case study
  4. May 2021 – Feb 2022

    Senior Software Architect / Founding Engineer

    Gigforce

    Gurugram, India. On-demand gig staffing platform; US$3M pre-Series A led by Endiya Partners (Sept 2021). Team grew from 1 engineer to about 15.

    • Grew the gig workforce from 100 to 4,000–5,000 across India as first engineer.
    Read the Gigforce case study
  5. Sep 2019 – May 2021

    Senior Software Architect

    SignCatch Inc.

    Incorporated in California, USA; engineering in New Delhi. B2B retail-tech, POS and Retail Commerce-as-a-Service. Team of 25, reporting to the CEO.

    • Exclusive tech partner for Walmart India's KDP; 700+ retail locations; ISO 27001 achieved.
    Read the SignCatch and Walmart KDP case study
  6. Aug 2018 – Sep 2019

    Lead Software Scientist

    Domino's India (Jubilant FoodWorks)

    Noida, India. Hands-on individual contributor on a 10-person PHP to Java migration team.

    • Moved a 1,200+ store network from offline to online POS, reducing store setup cost and speeding up new store launches.
    • Designed the refund reconciliation engine for peak days of about US$420,000 in orders.
    • Revamped order management: real-time item availability, state-level taxes, dynamic pricing and a multi-language UI.
    • Integrated food aggregators and payment gateways for real-time order flow and kitchen dispatch.
    • Piloted kitchen-prep forecasting for 20-minute delivery, plus a train delivery pilot.
  7. Nov 2016 – Aug 2018

    Technical Lead

    Koovs plc

    London, UK (AIM-listed 2014), India operations; worked with the UK team. Team of 3 engineers. Stack: PHP, Java, Microsoft Navision ERP.

    • Tripled warehouse capacity from 2,000 to 6,000 orders a day with the same workforce by rewriting the supply chain system and automating warehouse operations.
    • Built a vendor portal that let suppliers handle stock-in and GRN themselves, reducing manpower needs.
    • Built vendor and stock management, PO/GRN automation, pigeon-hole picking, stock-take automation and conveyor belt integration.
    • Improved finance reporting accuracy through Navision integration; set up warehouse SOPs.
  8. Feb 2016 – Nov 2016

    Technical Team Lead

    V5 Global Services (Infield Infotech)

    Delhi, India. Staffing and trade-marketing firm, acquired by FirstMeridian in July 2018. 8 direct reports. Stack: MEAN, migrated from legacy PHP.

    • Rebuilt the entire architecture within 6 months, from legacy PHP to MEAN, for a workforce platform serving 10,000+ field workers across India.
    • The platform covered attendance, sales tracking, route management, training and HRMS.
    • Handled client discussions for Hindware, Usha, Whirlpool, Aircel, Airtel, Philips, Fitbit and Bajaj.
  9. Jun 2013 – Feb 2016

    Senior Software Engineer, then Technology Lead

    Lenskart (Valyoo Technologies)

    Faridabad / Delhi NCR, India. Early 10-person tech team. Technology Lead from Sept 2014. Lenskart listed on NSE/BSE on 10 Nov 2025, after my tenure.

    • Scaled the platform from 300–500 to 8,000+ orders a day with the same small team.
    Read the Lenskart case study
  10. Mar 2012 – Jun 2013

    Software Scientist, then Senior Software Scientist

    Samsung R&D Institute (SRI)

    Bangalore, India. Promoted within 10 months.

    • Chosen as one of six on the initial Tizen OS research team (2 India, 3 Korea, 1 Intel engineer), building a lightweight browser for low-power devices.
    • Customized the core of the WebKit2 engine to support 3D graphics and WebGL rendering on the Tizen browser.
  11. Sep 2011 – Feb 2012

    Software Engineer

    Aricent (now Capgemini Engineering)

    Gurugram, India.

    • Ranked top performer out of 26 in the Nalanda professional training program.
    • OS customization for BTS (Base Transceiver Station) boxes in C on Linux, for clients Airtel and BSNL.
  12. Jan 2011 – Jun 2011

    Software Intern

    SchoolPad

    Chandigarh, India. School ERP.

    • Built the multi-campus, multi-tenant beta platform with a team of 5 new graduates, using PHP and MySQL. It onboarded Chitkara University as beta client plus 3–5 Chandigarh schools.

Skills

Leadership

  • Org building (1 to ~15; 25-person orgs)
  • Hiring
  • Appraisals
  • Promotions
  • Restructuring
  • Cost reduction
  • Client management
  • CEO reporting

Cloud and platform

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • Terraform
  • GitHub Actions
  • Jenkins
  • SRE
  • CloudWatch
  • Prometheus
  • Disaster recovery
  • FinOps
  • Multi-cloud GPU infrastructure

Architecture

  • System design
  • Distributed systems
  • Multi-tenant SaaS
  • Microservices
  • Event-driven design
  • High availability
  • REST
  • gRPC
  • GraphQL
  • PWA

Languages and data

  • Java
  • Spring Boot
  • Node.js
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • FastAPI
  • PHP
  • C
  • Kafka
  • Debezium CDC
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MongoDB
  • Redis

AI

  • GenAI in production
  • LLM integration
  • RAG
  • Stable Diffusion
  • SDXL
  • SAM
  • YOLO
  • CLIP
  • Synthetic data training
  • GPU inference
  • Cursor
  • Claude Code

Security and compliance

  • SOC 2 Type 1
  • ISO 27001
  • RBAC/IAM
  • VAPT
  • OWASP
  • GDPR consent management

Education and credentials

Education

Thapar logo

Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Computer Engineering

Thapar University, Patiala, India

Executive education

ISB logo

Leadership with AI

ISB (Indian School of Business) Executive Education, 2025. 20-week programme on AI, GenAI and Agentic AI strategy. Includes ISB Executive Alumni status.

View the credential

Public references

Public sources you can look up yourself, named as they appear in my records.

  • SignCatch and Walmart KDPSignCatch LinkedIn post ("1st Company to enable the supply chain for Walmart's Kirana Development Program (KDP) in India"); YourStory profile; PYMNTS coverage
  • GigforceYourStory / Business Standard, Sept 2021: US$3M pre-Series A led by Endiya Partners
  • DresmaTop Founders podcast, "How Dresma Hit $2M ARR With Usage-Based Pricing"; The eCommerce Edge podcast, E471
  • Lenskart IPONSE/BSE listing, 10 Nov 2025
  • Koovs plcLondon AIM listing, March 2014
  • V5 GlobalAcquired by FirstMeridian, July 2018
  • AricentAcquired by Altran (2018), then Capgemini (2020)
  • SchoolPadschoolpad.in
  • ISB credentialcredential.net record

LinkedIn recommendation

"Vipan is a highly effective technology leader with a strong track record in building and optimizing e-commerce and service delivery platforms."

See my LinkedIn profile

A strong tech team addition

Engineering Leader CV (PDF) Hands-On CV (PDF)
Email
vipankverma03@gmail.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/vipankverma
Location
Ontario, Canada (Greater Toronto Area)