# Nikhil Bapat

> Data / ML @ Firework

Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/nikhilbapat

## Work Experience
### Senior Software Engineer @ Firework
Jan 2025 – Present | New York, New York, United States
- Designed and implemented RAG-based AI virtual shopping assistant and livestream copilot, boosting engagement and conversion by answering shoppers' questions. 
- Optimized event-tracking data ingestion pipelines, reducing data transfer and storage costs and saving ~$110K per year.
- Architected and developed conversational analytics pipeline enabling merchandisers to extract insights (e.g., trending questions, product sentiment). 
- Instrumented distributed tracing and LLM observability tools to monitor errors, optimize system latency, reduce cost, and improve LLM response quality.
- Optimized CI/CD pipelines, GitHub Actions, and QA/release processes, reducing production bugs and enhancing developer productivity by over 24%.
- Improved time-to-resolution by 50% by authoring runbooks and streamlining incident response process
- Mentored junior engineers and collaborated cross-functionally with Product, Design, and QA teams.

### Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer @ Firework
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | San Mateo, California, United States

### Teaching Assistant @ Emory University
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023
Department of Computer Science: 
CS377 (Database Systems)
Department of Economics: 
ECON 201 (Intermediate Microeconomics), 
ECON 405 (Industrial Organization)

### SDE Intern @ Amazon
Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | Seattle, Washington, United States

### Data Engineering Intern @ Firework
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 | Redwood City, California, United States
- Developed and managed ETL pipelines using Apache Airflow
- Wrote SQL queries to perform data validation tests
- Upgraded Node application to streamline delivery of Looker visualization into Slack


## Education
### Bachelor of Science - BS in Computer Science and Economics
Emory University
Jan 2019 – Jan 2023

### Monta Vista High School
Jan 2015 – Jan 2019


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nikhil-s-bapat

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Source: https://flows.cv/nikhilbapat
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/nikhilbapat/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-20