Curriculum Vitae
With a robust 20-year career blending architecture and software engineering, I offer a unique blend of leadership, vision, and knowledge that has repeatedly driven success in the Banking and Finance domain. Currently, as Lead Architect at Marsh McLennan's Innovation Center in Ireland, I am at the helm of developing channel applications for insurances and pensions, and am the driving force behind the optimization of our Digital Platform.
My prowess lies in Transactional systems, Information Management, Web applications, and Data Integration solutions, where my contributions have been pivotal in propelling business objectives.
My passion for Domain-Driven Design (DDD), Test-Driven Design (TDD), and Everything-as-Code isn't just theoretical. I actively champion these methodologies in my work, translating them into practice to drive operational efficiency and improve the bottom line. I'm always excited to leverage my skills to tackle new challenges and deliver impactful solutions.
Key Technical Accomplishments
- Architectured the vision for the next-generation fraud detection solution, to be developed at Fiserv's R&D centre, enhancing security and risk management capabilities.
- Provided strategic guidance and devised the architecture for a platform aimed at supporting key products from Fiserv's R&D centre, aligning with business objectives.
- Defined and implemented a robust API strategy for Barclays International's Corporate division, enhancing system interoperability and efficiency.
- Created a reference implementation pattern on AWS Cloud for Barclays' internal APIs, facilitating optimised cloud-based solutions.
- Led a successful integration of the Group Financial data warehouse, facilitating the seamless merger of Lloyds and HBOS business systems.
- Designed and built a high-performing execution framework for the Business Intelligence (BI) platforms of Lloyds TSB Group and HSBC France, improving data processing capabilities.
- Revolutionised release management of BI solutions through an innovative Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach, increasing automation and reducing errors.
- Reengineered ETL solutions, replacing the existing legacy data warehousing system with a UNIX environment in HSBC France, enhancing data management efficiency.
- Architected the processing engine for HSBC Middle East's Initial Public Offer system, seamlessly integrating legacy and open systems.
- Designed a real-time bill payment system for HSBC Saudi Arabia, offering diverse payment channels for enhanced customer convenience.
Key Business Accomplishments
- Pioneered business process automation in Element Fleet, resulting in a dramatic 90% reduction in repair reporting and response time.
- Devised architecture and end-to-end design for a sophisticated multi-tenancy cash management product, providing non-repudiable self-service for customers and centralised operations for Barclays.
- Crafted architecture and end-to-end design for a payment API, enhancing service offerings for Barclays' trusted partners.
- Developed architecture and end-to-end design for a self-serviced cheque reconciliation system, improving operational efficiency for major Barclays customers.
- Streamlined the project development life-cycle in Lloyds TSB’s Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, leading to a substantial saving of 15% of the allocated budget.
- Innovated by automating release management in Lloyds BI, eliminating manual latency and reducing build release time by a remarkable 75%.
- Implemented cost-saving strategies, achieving a 25% decrease in project cost for data warehouse migration from legacy to open system for HSBC France.
- Successfully established outsourcing and off-shoring strategies for the Business Intelligence department of HSBC France, optimising resource allocation and boosting productivity.
Current Responsibilities
As the Lead Architect at Marsh McLennan (MMC) Innovation Centre in Ireland, I am at the forefront of defining and driving the strategy for the Mercer Digital Platform and its shared services. Mercer, a global business unit within our organisation, relies on a digital platform built on AWS and Kubernetes, which I help to oversee and enhance.
On a regular basis, I foster cross-functional collaboration, working closely with architects from other business units to align strategies that benefit not only the Digital platform but also the wider Group.
My day-to-day responsibilities encompass coordinating with co-architects and various stakeholders such as business/product managers, designers, and project managers. My aim is to ensure that the delivery of solutions and products aligns with agreed architecture and adheres to the Group’s principles and standards on architecture and security.
In previous roles, I have left a significant footprint by devising the API and Microservice strategy for Fiserv R&D, setting standards for RESTful APIs and Microservice Architecture, and influencing the CI/CD, Automation, Hosting, and Cloud strategy for the organisation.
During my tenure at Element Fleet, I played a key role in shaping strategic architectural decisions and standards, setting the roadmap to reduce the landscape of around 100+ legacy applications to about 10 strategic services. A major achievement during this time was the delivery of an application platform based on GCP and AWS-based Kubernetes.
As an Architect in the Strategy and Innovation team at Barclays, I spearheaded the API Strategy for Barclays Corporate and drove the adoption of the Cloud strategy. I also had the privilege of chairing the API design authority and working committee for Barclays Corporate.
| Domain | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Initiation and Innovation |
|
| Architecture |
|
| Design |
|
| Delivery |
|
| Governance |
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| Management |
|
Education Qualification
| Degree | Institute | Year of Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| pgDAC (Post Graduate Diploma in Advance Computing) | CDAC (Centre for Development of Advance Computing, Pune) | 2001 |
| BE (Bachelor of Engineering) | COEP (Govt. College of Engineering Pune) | 2000 |
Technical Competency Cloud
- Technologies
- Docker, AWS Cloud, Internet Facing Web Applications, RESTful APIs, Terraform, Chef, Atlassian Stack, MuleSoft, Mashape/Kong, Jenkins, PKI, Smart Card/Gemalto, IBM MQ, IBM Sterling, IBM DataStage
- Languages
- Scala, Kotlin, Dart, Java, Lua, Groovy, C++, VB, Fortran, TypeScript
- Frameworks
- Akka,Play Framework,Flutter, Lagom, J2EE, Apache Struts, Angular 2, Scala.js
- Platforms
- Kubernetes, Openshift, Linux (RHEL), IBM pSeries (AIX-Unix), IBM iSeries (AS/400), Windows
- Financial Data Models
- Teradata Financial Logical Data Model, IBM Financial Datawarehouse Logical Data Model, HSBC Core Banking Logical Model
- Database
- Postgresql, DGraph, MariaDB, MongoDB, ArangoDB, Teradata, DB2, Oracle, MS-SQL
- Tools and Methodology
- TOGAF , Agile, Archimate, Erwin, HP Quality Center, ClearCase, MS Visio, Clear Quest, IBM RAD 7.0,Niku (Clarity) , Domino Doc, CVS, Implementer, Endevor
- Applications/Servers
- WebSphere Application Server, Geronimo, Tomcat, MQ Series, Connect Direct, Netty, HAProxy, IIS Server
- Certifications
-
- Certified Scrum Master
- Certified Scrum Product Owner
- Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform
- IBM Certified Specialist - ILE RPG Programmer
Organization Association and Roles
| Company | Duration | Roles | Domain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marsh McLennan R&D (Ireland) | November 2019 until now | Lead Architect |
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| Fiserv R&D (Ireland) | May 2018 until August 2019 | Senior/Enterprise IT Architect |
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| Element Fleet Technology (Ireland) Ltd | September 2017 until April 2018 | Senior Architect |
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| Barclays International | January 2011 till August 2017 | Architect (Enterprise and Solution) |
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| Lloyds Banking Group | June 2008 till December 2010 | Integration Consultant |
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| HSBC Group (IT) | October 2002 to May 2008 | Architect, Management, System Analyst |
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| EZ Technologies and Information Technologies | July 2001 to September 2002 | Designer, Programmer |
|
| NetBrains | June 2000 to January 2001 | Programmer |
|
Major Projects' Highlights
(Global) Group Benefits Portal
- Technologies
- MEAN stack, WASM, Scala, Microservice Architecture, Apache Kafka, Kubernetes, AWS, MongoDB, Helm
- Description
-
A internet facing channel application for mid to large enterprises for managing various policies and census for their employees.
The domain of the product demands focus on the local country specific policies and laws. However, the product is built to act as a global channel to serve country specific benefits for clients of Marsh McLennan and its operating businesses (Mercer, Marsh, etc). By end of 2022, around 120 million user are expected to be onboarded on the platform. MEAN stack has been the primary technology for handling the portal UI. The system of records are 27 different systems, which are non-internet facing. A combination of Event publishing, steam operation and (channel side) CQRS/ES is used to consume, translate and publish the domain data to end customer.
One important architecture component as been introduced in the product and also the Digital platform, as part of this project is (Authorization) Policy-as-Code. This had been implemented using OPA and mix of WASM and K8s Sidecar, based on point of evaluation.
This is a flagship project in the organization, and I had been an hands-on architect in this. The product is live for pilot customer.
Arcane Zone
- Technologies
- Android Kotlin, Microservice Architecture, Actor Modelling, Akka, Apache Pulsar, Kubernetes, Gitlab CI, AWS, Oracle, Helm, Terraform
- Description
-
Arcane Zone is a privacy first and end to end encrypted communication product, that does not store any user data at back end. Thus making it a database less social network platform. The messages exchanged in the platform are all digitally signed and only decryptable by intended recipient. Main targeted users are people who are interested in privacy and value it.
This product was developed as co-founder for a start up, when we spotted the absence of a social communication platform that also provides privacy. Being investor and co-founder, I had to wear many hats. I was the Application and Technology Architect for this product, as well as Developer for many of the components. Being social communication platform, ability to scale on demand was very important. A combination of Actor modelling, streams, and event based messages were used to provide failure aware and persistent connection of user devices. The backend was based on GCP based Kubernetes platform. Front end was Android app build using Kotlin, which needed to handle stream based cryptography operation, within device memory constraints.
The product went live for closed loop pilot testing September 2020. Technically it was a successful product, in its MVP form. However, on business front it did not succeed.
Cloud POI
- Technologies
- Microservice Architecture, CQRS Pattern, Actor Modelling, Akka, Play framework, Kubernetes, Gitlab CI, AWS, Oracle, Helm, Terraform
- Description
-
This is a strategic product from Fiserv that enables a merchant SS (Sale System) to connect with a POI (Point of Interaction) device without using any physical wire i.e. remotely. The merchants will onboard their SS onto the Cloud POI control service and map it with one or more of the Fiserv allocated POI devices. Once onboarded, the Merchant system uses an Async interface to communicate with the Cloud POI service. The Cloud POI devices pushes the payment and non-payment transactional messages to designated POI devices. Both Merchant system and POI devices need to have connectivity to Internet.
I am the Application and Technology Architect for this product. Actor modelling was used to facilitate stateful asynchronous transaction processing on the POI devices. Principles of domain driven design, microservice and RESTful APIs were used in the solution. The product will be hosted on AWS based Kubernetes platform, and will support auto-scalling and high throughput. Multi-stage X.509 based mutual authentication is used to provide end-to-end non-repudiation between the Merchant system and POI devices.
The product would go Live Q4 2019 and, in its first iteration, will handle about 21,000 transactions per minute.
Consult and Referral Management
- Technologies
- Microservice Architecture, CQRS Pattern, Spring Boot, PostgreSQL, Sybase, OpenShift, Gitlab CI, AWS, Docker, MS Outlook APIs, Artifactory
- Description
-
This was a complex business product that allowed fleet managers, suppliers and drivers to report, coordinate and manage the maintenance and repair of the fleet/vehicle. The original product was a legacy power builder 2-tier application, which relied heavily on human effort to maintain the business process. The coordination between various participants/actors were done using calls, fax and email, with no automation. This project’s goal was to convert this product to an internet facing and self-service multi-channel application, which could be accessed by fleet managers, suppliers, drivers and internal staff.
As an Architect I was responsible for creating the solution and governing it during it's execution. Principles of domain driven design, microservice and RESTful APIs were used in the solution. This was an important project that laid the foundation of architecture patterns and standards for Microservices, RESTful APIs and CQRS in the organization. The solution was delivered using OpenShift (hosting platform) and Gitlab CI/CD. The solution was highly resilient, auto-scalable, supporting partial non-repudiation using personalised token. The solution automated many business processes, thus decreasing the repair reporting and response time by almost 90%.
The product was piloted in USA in May 2018, followed by Canada and Mexico.
Barclays Multi-Account Platform
- Technologies
- COTS product, IIS server, Windows, SQL Server, PKI, Gemalto, X.509 cryptography, Informatica
- Description
-
This product was a complex internet facing channel product allowing cash management and multi-level apportionment of cash and liquidity. The product supports multi-tenancy and specialized business processes based on customer’s business domain e.g. property management, solicitors, councils, charity organisation, etc. I worked with Business to drive the vendor selection, and draft the initial options paper. I further drafted the Architecture of product, and assist sourcing team to close the contract with vendor. I then created the E2E Design of the solution. The channel product is highly resilient, provides non-repudiation of instructions, and processing of large volume of online and offline transactions.
The product went live with few customers already using it as pilot customers. This product was no longer in my portfolio, during by tenure with Barclays, post delivery of first phase. However, I was working the newly appointed Architect of the product to deliver RESTful APIs for our customers.
Send a Payment Debit Card
- Technologies
- Akana/API Gateway, PKI, J2EE, JBOSS, RHEL7, IBM MQ, Oracle, Faster Payment scheme, DebitCard engine
- Description
-
This was another API created for customers who would want to pay back money to Barclays customer using their Debit Card number, instead of account number. This would allow settlement of payments using UK payment scheme, instead of Visa/MasterCard settlement process, thus shrinking the settlement time to less than 2 hrs instead 4-5 days. I created the Architecture and E2E design of the solution. The channel product provided a RESTful API interface and supported payment instructions conforming to ISO20022 standards, where instead of account number the customer provides Debit card number. The channel application enriches the payment instruction with account number, associated with debit card, by interacting with debit card processing engine. It then communicates with backend faster payment engine for settling the payment using UK payment schemes.
Send a Payment Faster Payment
- Technologies
- Akana/API Gateway, PKI, J2EE, JBOSS, RHEL7, IBM MQ, Oracle, Faster Payment scheme
- Description
-
Barclays wanted to provide an Internet facing API for accepting faster payments from trusted partners. The channel product is very resilient, internet facing, provides non-repudiation of payments, and support about high volume of payment requests per second. I created the Architecture and E2E design of the solution. The channel product provided a RESTful API interface and supported payment instructions conforming to ISO20022 standards. The channel application relies on the backend faster payment engine for the actual settlement with UK payment scheme.
ImagePay Internet Enablement
- Technologies
- J2EE, JBOSS, IIS server, RHEL7, Windows, Oracle, MS-SQL, PKI, Gemalto, VPN
- Description
-
A large UK public sector customer wanted Cheque reconciliation product from Barclays. The channel product was Internet facing product that required to handle large volume of cheque transactions, provides non-repudiation of instructions and need to be highly resilient. The solution was a complex solution involving Barclays strategic online portal and partner IPSL (cheque processing partner). I created the Architecture and E2E Design of the solution. I also worked with Business and Relationship Manager influence the customer’s IT team, and thus assisting in on-boarding them on to Barclays.
IFS Upgrade
- Technologies
- COTS product, IIS server, Windows, SQL Server, PKI, Gemalto, X.509 cryptography, IBM Sterling
- Description
-
This was upgrade to a legacy product, which is hosted at customer site. The new product allows management of cash with complex structure. It allows non-repudiation using X.509 certificate, which is inline with EU non-repudiation laws. It also allows secured communication with Barclays over internet, instead of dedicated and costly VPN connections. I created the Architecture and E2E Design for the product. I ensured that the solution delivered by the vendor conformed to Barclays standards and contractual agreement. I also worked with Business, Relationship manager, vendor’s IT team and customer’s IT team to ensure smoother migration to new version of the product.
IFS Standard Life
- Technologies
- COTS product, IIS server, Windows, SQL Server, Connect Direct, MS Exchange
- Description
-
This was internally hosted application for Barclays Standard Life division. The product provided management of bonds and pooling of investments for high value investors. I created the Architecture and E2E Design for the product. I governed the project during all stages of delivery, and ensured that the delivered product conformed to agreed design and was inline with group’s standards.
Business Internet Banking
- Technologies
- J2EE, JBOSS server, RHEL, DB2, ConnectDirect
- Description
-
This is an internet facing application serving business and corporate customer of Barclays. The application provided online banking and cash management solution for customers. It had complex entitlement module and non-repudiation for very secured banking, thats necessary in a corporate. I was the Architect responsible for governing and reviewing changes to the product.
Business Intelligence Department
- Technologies
- DataStage, WebSphere, J2EE, UNIX, Mainframe, Teradata, DB2, Oracle
- Description
-
This was an umbrella programme responsible for producing solutions transforming Lloyds TSB BI and Legacy applications. LTSB systems were migrating from legacy closed system to open system. The BI applications were being migrated to ETL Tool or J2EE based solutions. The aim was to centralize the Group’s IT systems. The core execution framework for ETL applications was build by me. As member of BI Technical governance team, I had to review and promote designs and solution produced by each team. There were many projects under this programme dealing with integration of systems and business.
Key project’s within this engagement – LTSB and HBOS Statement Integration, Retail Data Warehouse Integration, Commercial Data Warehouse and Commercial Statements.
Finance Governance Systems
- Technologies
- WebSphere, DataStage, Java, UNIX, AS/400, DB2, Oracle
- Description
-
This was an umbrella project dealing with maintaining and enhancing HBSC France FG systems. HBFR FG systems needed constant evolution and migration driven by business needs. I was responsible for guiding my team members through architect, design, development and implementation phases. The systems were based on J2EE applications on AIX servers and ETL solutions on AIX servers. I was responsible for managing and leading a team of 22 diverse and specialized resources, within an established onshore/offshore model.
Financial Datawarehouse Upgrade
- Technologies
- WebSphere, DataStage, Java, UNIX, AS/400, DB2, Oracle
- Description
-
Existing DWF (Data Warehouse Financial) system had to be upgraded to version 4.0 (open system based) from 3.2 (legacy based) because of business implications and acquisition. HSBC group had bought CCF group and formed HSBC France. This merger required migration of existing CCF system to adapt HSBC’s enterprise architecture. This also intended to France’s data warehouse model closer to HSBC group’s data warehouse model. I drafted the target architecture and carried out gap analysis between the base and target architecture. The target system was build using IBM DataStage Px and Agile software development approach. This allowed effective usage of resources and absorption of business requirement changes without affecting the schedules.
IPO (Initial Public Offering)
- Technologies
- Websphere , Java, UNIX, AS/400, DB2, Oracle
- Description
-
The project aimed at creating a product for supporting HSBC Middle East’s IPO business. The key need of this product was to enable and deliver IPO business through thin clients over secured network. Considering the complexity of delivery channels and HSBC core banking system (HUB), the solution was build using Service Oriented Architecture. The front end was J2EE based application deployed on WebSphere server deployed on IBM AIX UNIX server. The transactional and non-transactional processing request were delivered using MQ server and was processed within HUB system. The non-transaction data was stored at the front-end application’s DB2 on AIX server and was sent to HUB system using DataStage (PX) ETL jobs as end of day batches. I produced the complete product architect based on POC at initial stage. Also, the low-level designing for HUB system IPO processing module, transactional protocol and DS PX ETL was produced by me.
HSBC Universal Core Banking System
- Technologies
- ILE, Java, UNIX, AS/400, DB2
- Description
-
HSBC SA (Saudi Arabia) was using HUB Core 7.02. Business requirement and Group directives required HSBC SA to upgrade to HUB Core 8.0. We had to upgrade the system to HUB Core 8.0 without loosing any of the local business functionality of HUB Core 7.02. I was part of the team responsible for capturing all local business functionalities in the base system; and preparing target system enhancement and migration plan for the new system. Preparing a real-time bill payment system was important feature of new system. Due to the rigidity and complexity of existing payment channels, it was a challenge to build the real-time bill payment system. A new payment gateway service was designed and build by me to tackle the complexity.
WIREA (Web based Interactive Real Estate Agent)
- Technologies
- Java, J2EE, JBOSS, Apache Tomcat, MsSQL, Windows 2K
- Description
-
The goal of this project was to create an e-Commerce Yellow Page application for the client serving agents dealing in property/real-estate business. Agents will buy specific services provided by our client and get registered with the system to use them. A potential customer can visit the site and get all the information related to the properties registered by agent registered with the system. All deals done through the website are monitored and the agents are charged as per the various transactions executed. Financial transactions are in form of Credit Card, Check, Draft, Coupon and Cash. My responsibility was to assist in designing and developing the complete system and its architecture. We had to interact with the client and understand their business requirement. The architecture, core business logic and the data model have to be developed by me. Various customized web based tools were also designed and developed to increasing business back office processing.
Payment Gateway
- Technologies
- Java, C++, Windows NT/2K, Linux, Solaris
- Description
-
The goal of this project was to convert HC (HyperCom) protocol to TT(Transactional Technology) protocol. Then, collect the request from Hypercom POS and interact with the Transactional Technologies application and business server and send back the response to originating POS. My responsibility was to assist in designing and developing the complete gateway and its architecture. I had to analyze the transactional protocols from HC and TT and map the messaging components. I had to form the logic for converting the HC protocol to TT protocol. The version 1.0 of the product has been already placed. The solution also involved low level programming.
FEMA Plugin – Finite Element Method of Analysis of Structures
- Technologies
- Java, C++, VB, Oracle, Access, AutoCAD
- Description
-
Based on Finite Element Method of analysis of structures, which is a method for analyzing engineering structures. It used formula derived by the Engineers of CME and FEM and analyzed plain stress and strain structures. The software would take all the information from the database or image and analyze the structure and display the result in both textual and graphical mode. It used to analyze the design of two dimensional plain strain and stress structures only.