SanDisk, Western Digital (Global leader in data storage solutions) | Bengaluru

Staff Engineer - Flash Business

• Productized and shipped SanDisk Extreme Pro portable SSDs for Apple Inc. in under 6 months to align with emerging market trends, contributing to approximately 1% uplift in overall portable SSD revenue with minimal incremental cost.
• Led performance optimization features for SanDisk Extreme Pro portable SSD solutions, translating technological enhancements into 80% improvements in small workloads performance.
• Delivered approximately 160% improvements in large workloads performance from 380MBps to 1000 MBps, enabling premium product positioning in the consumer storage market.
• Drove a high-impact B2B product launch for Apple through development, validation, and customer resolution efforts, deepening OEM partnerships and paving the way for future product line expansion.
• Gathered first-hand market insights and identified feature improvements for product and ecosystem offerings by conducting persona-based consumer research for portable SSDs through in-store visits to retail chains in Bangalore.
• Diagnosed and resolved product-level issues across memory, thermal, and performance domains, preventing redundant hardware spins and contributing to 0.1% cost savings, constantly improving product stability and delivery efficiency.
• Spearheaded collaboration between multiple stakeholders including firmware, system design, hardware, and memory teams, ensuring feature coherence across performance and platform layers.
• Mentored a new team member in a full-time 1:1 capacity over 8 months, ensuring readiness for upcoming product releases, with efforts and results closely tracked by a Senior Director to accelerate onboarding and maximize contribution effectiveness.
• Led the adoption of structured coding practices across the team, enhancing collaboration, maintainability, and long-term scalability of product development.

Senior Engineer – Flash Business

• Developed performance and data-recovery algorithms for SanDisk Extreme Pro Portable SSD product line, addressing critical user needs in a fast-growing $500M+ market and enhancing product reliability and performance.
• Drove performance optimization efforts for a next-gen portable SSD, achieving a 90% improvement from 200 MBps to 380 MBps for large data workloads and enabling accelerated product launch to capture early market demand.
• Served as Technical Consultant for a fast-tracked product delivered in under 5 months, ensuring on-time milestones and a zero-defect release through proactive planning and issue resolution.
• Defined and coordinated the development, validation, and release roadmap, enabling the engineering team to meet aggressive delivery timelines.
• Identified critical risks early and facilitated stakeholder discussions to align product requirements with engineering feasibility and release strategy.
• Acted as the primary liaison between cross-functional stakeholder teams including development, validation, and systems teams to align technical execution with product objectives.
• Delivered primary firmware for new hardware platform by building key functional and platform scaling features for a new platform, laying the groundwork for a scalable architecture powering future product lines.

Engineer – Flash Business

• Designed and developed key software modules optimized for gaming workloads, enhancing performance for heavy games and unlocking new market opportunities for SanDisk’s gaming storage solutions.
• Founding member of the portable SSD team, contributing to core architecture, feature roadmap, and early product definition.
• Stabilized product platform for upcoming products by leveraging emulation platforms for development and triaging.

• Patents - Authored 14 USPTO patent filings driving innovation in performance improvements, user experience and next-gen technologies with a strong focus on product vision, market trends, and long-term business strategy.
• Received 5 patent grants for innovations in data storage technology, user-centric product features and performance improvements.
• Finalist IdeaTank, SanDisk’s APAC SharkTank – Pitched a product idea and business plan to save $1M in development cost.
• Innovation Mentor - one of the youngest mentors among 105 elite global Intellectual Property mentors at SanDisk.
• Night on Town Award - Honored three consecutive years for exceptional performance and impact in product development, awarded to top performers among ~300 employees at SanDisk’s Consumer Solutions Group.
• Recognized by the Consumer Solutions leadership team with Gold, Bronze, We Push to Go Further, We Innovate, and We Deliver Excellence awards for consistent, high-impact contributions across multiple product initiatives.

• Bachelor of Technology, Computer Science & Engineering – Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, India

• Product Management 101 by Todd Birzer, Udemy

• Placement Committee - Vertical Head, PGPX, IIM Ahmedabad: Leading Technology vertical, driving strategy and initiatives to enhance opportunities for students in Technology sectors.
• Mentored 6 engineers through their first invention disclosures, fostering a culture of innovation and guiding early contributors in navigating the Intellectual Property lifecycle.
• Led the Career Development initiative within SanDisk’s We.Fuel Employee Resource Group, supporting early-career professionals in identifying their strengths and career pathways through targeted programming and mentorship.
• Hosted We.Fuel India’s pilot event with over 300 participants and secured funding for future events, driving sustained engagement and professional development across the organization.
• As a Coordinator, spearheaded the integration of online payment systems for college festivals at MIT Manipal, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders to deliver a seamless and reliable digital experience for participants.