Kunal Vyas Download CV

Experience

Twenty-four years in software engineering, architecture, and leadership, most recently leading data engineering for sports brand exposure analytics at Nielsen.

2020–2026

Nielsen Sports

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Director, Data Engineering

June 2024 – June 2026

Built and led a high-performing global engineering organization across the United States, Canada, Germany, Israel, and India, transforming manual operations into automated, AI-ready platforms. Accelerated AI adoption by championing an AI-first culture and empowering teams to innovate with clean, trusted data for advanced AI and ML solutions.

  • Introduced an LLM-assisted code-generation workflow that increased engineering productivity by 35%, enabling delivery of one to three additional features per quarter.
  • Managed a $1.25M engineering budget, redirecting 60% of investment from legacy systems to AI and ML.
  • Engineered automated ETL pipelines that cut critical data-processing latency from two weeks to 45 minutes, enabling same-day advertising decisions for 80% of clients and real-time analytics for more than 1,000 business stakeholders.
  • Established scalable data governance and compliance frameworks across a complex global data estate, strengthening data quality, trust, and regulatory alignment.

TechnologyDatabricks, AWS (Apache Iceberg, RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, Lake Formation, EMR, DMS, MWAA, Glue, Lambda, Athena, S3, EC2), dbt, Spark, Python, MySQL, Elasticsearch, ClickHouse, Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab, Kiro, Amazon Q, LangChain (Deep Agents), Jira, Confluence, Miro

Senior Engineering Manager

June 2022 – June 2024

Architected and led a cloud-native data platform supporting an $85M sports analytics business. Directed the transition from monolithic architecture to event-driven microservices using Kafka and AWS DMS, delivering real-time insights to more than 80% of clients while establishing robust CI/CD and observability capabilities.

Partnered with Product teams to translate business priorities into architectural decisions, technical roadmaps, and sprint plans, balancing feature delivery with technical debt reduction through an 80/20 investment model.

  • Designed and scaled a cloud-native data platform that reduced infrastructure costs by 40% through open-source adoption and architectural modernization.
  • Replaced error-prone quarterly reporting processes with production-grade daily data pipelines, reducing data inconsistencies by 95% and strengthening stakeholder confidence in enterprise reporting.
  • Established the organization’s first dedicated data engineering function, recruiting and scaling a team of more than 15 engineers and delivering a modern platform that reduced time-to-insight by 70% and became core infrastructure for product decision-making.
  • Introduced disciplined platform planning and delivery practices that align architecture investments with product priorities, sustaining an 80/20 balance between feature delivery and technical debt reduction.

TechnologyAWS (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, DMS, Glue, Lambda, S3, EC2), Apache Kafka, dbt, Python, Java, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab, Jira, Confluence

Engineering Manager

January 2020 – June 2022

Led the modernization of legacy infrastructure into a high-throughput microservices architecture while establishing robust CI/CD and observability capabilities. Streamlined master data management for sports brand exposure products and harmonized multiple datasets to improve data consistency, accessibility, and operational efficiency.

  • Led a nine-engineer team in rebuilding a legacy rates and ratings system, replacing a monolithic architecture with event-driven microservices using Kafka, Node.js, and AngularJS to increase data-processing throughput tenfold and reduce annual infrastructure costs by $100K.
  • Implemented a CI/CD pipeline with automated testing, security scanning, and zero-downtime deployments, cutting deployment time from four hours to 20 minutes.
  • Built a real-time infrastructure health monitoring platform that linked downtime to business impact, enabling proactive intervention and raising system availability to 99.95%.
  • Delivered a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs through architectural optimization and operational efficiencies.

TechnologyAWS (RDS, DynamoDB, Lambda, S3, EC2), Apache Kafka, Java, AngularJS, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Docker, Kubernetes, HashiCorp Vault, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, GitHub, Jira, Confluence

2019–2020

Tata Consultancy Services

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Enterprise Architect

January 2019 – January 2020

Defined a three-year enterprise digital transformation roadmap with C-suite stakeholders at a leading financial services client, including migration of more than 40 middleware applications from on-premises legacy systems to cloud-native architecture while ensuring business continuity and supporting revenue growth.

  • Spearheaded a $15M technology stack modernization program over four years, replacing a monolithic ERP system with composable SaaS solutions and cloud platforms and reducing total cost of ownership by 40%.
  • Reduced claims processing latency from several days to minutes by redesigning and optimizing end-to-end processing workflows, improving end-user experience and operational responsiveness.
  • Achieved and sustained 99.95% enterprise uptime while modernizing legacy core systems without disrupting critical business operations.
  • Executed proof-of-concept initiatives for emerging technologies including containers, serverless computing, and AI-driven automation, and established enterprise architecture patterns that improved team productivity by 25%.

TechnologyJava, .NET, Vue.js, DB2, IBM Case Manager, FileNet, Datacap, Actian DataConnect, Automation Anywhere (RPA), AIX, Windows Server, SVN, Jenkins

2017–2019

Gracenote Sports

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Engineering Manager

June 2017 – January 2019

Engineered a high-accuracy real-time event capture and data normalization platform that reduced manual effort and improved cross-sport analytics. Cultivated a high-performing engineering culture through structured one-on-ones, quarterly career development planning, and technical mentorship, contributing to three internal promotions and two engineers progressing into tech lead roles within 18 months.

  • Directed a real-time sports event capture system that processed live video streams to detect and log in-game events such as goals, penalties, and key plays with 90% accuracy, automating manual tagging that previously required more than 25 FTEs.
  • Designed a multi-sport data normalization engine that standardized statistics across football, basketball, baseball, and soccer into a unified schema, enabling cross-sport analytics and reducing integration effort for new sports by 60%.

TechnologyJava, Spring, AWS (RDS, S3, EC2), Apache Kafka, Debezium, Vue.js, PostgreSQL, Terraform, Vault, Vagrant, GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes, Jira, Confluence

2012–2017

NTT Data

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Principal Consultant

March 2012 – June 2017

Directed cloud architectural design and operational performance of high-traffic platforms, enhancing a benefits application to support millions of daily transactions. Architected a RESTful API platform with more than 50 endpoints for web and mobile applications, implementing OpenAPI specifications, a versioning strategy, a partner integration approach, and API gateway management to handle more than 10M requests daily.

  • Achieved a 35% improvement in code quality scores and reduced code review cycles from more than three days to eight hours by leading a five-member development team and defining coding standards, architecture patterns, and technology selection.
  • Optimized a high-volume employee benefits application handling more than 2M daily transactions through database query optimization, connection pooling, and Redis caching, increasing throughput by 20%.

TechnologyJava, Spring, React, RESTful web services, IBM DB2, Docker, SDL Tridion, SonarQube, Sonatype Nexus, Git, Maven, IBM UrbanCode, Jenkins

2005–2012

Infosys

India, United States, and Canada

Senior Software Engineer, Technical Lead, and Project Manager

July 2005 – March 2012

Progressed from senior software developer to project manager while working with multiple Fortune 500 clients, contributing across technical delivery and project leadership. Developed detailed project plans by defining scope, estimating effort, and allocating resources to deliver milestones on time, and managed project risk by identifying issues early and putting mitigation strategies in place.

  • Contributed to RFP responses and effort estimations to support pre-sales and solution planning.
  • Produced regular status reports for clients and internal stakeholders, and tracked project milestones from initiation through completion.
  • Designed architectural blueprints, proofs of concept, implementation plans, roadmaps, and technical documentation.

TechnologyJava, Struts, Spring, EJB, Hibernate, SOAP and RESTful web services, Oracle Database, IBM MQ, IBM WebSphere, AIX, HP-UX, OTM, OBIEE, ODI, TeamSite, Visual SourceSafe, SVN, Maven, Jenkins

2002–2005

eCaliber

India

Software Developer

June 2002 – July 2005

Developed specialized software, including a point-of-sale terminal application for a leading restaurant chain that required real-time data replication across data centres, and an inventory management system for a heavy machinery stockist. Improved development efficiency through component reuse and sound software design principles.

  • Contributed to the architecture and design of an enterprise CRM platform supporting more than 100 active clients.
  • Participated in system design reviews and improved code quality through targeted refactoring.
  • Redesigned user interface components, increasing user engagement by 40%.

TechnologyVB6, VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access