# Nikita Sivakumar

> Software Engineer | Data compute platform for Copilot @Microsoft

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/nikitasivakumar

I'm a Software Engineer on Microsoft's Employee Experience Platform Data & Compute team, focused on the infrastructure layer: building scalable, low-latency, fault-tolerant data pipelines and compute systems that process and serve organizational analytics at enterprise scale across the M365 ecosystem. My work sits at the intersection of data engineering and platform infrastructure, ie, the foundational layer that AI products are built on top of. 

Recent highlights: leading a ClickHouse-based compute migration for millisecond-level query performance at organizational scale; architecting the MODIS v2 ingestion API (8x P99 latency improvement, 4s → 500ms); and driving a 94% reduction in pipeline ingestion failures through schema-agnostic validation and auto-correction systems. One of my pipelines was highlighted in Satya Nadella's Microsoft Ignite 2024 keynote.

I'm experienced building distributed systems that handle high-volume, multi-tenant data ingestion with strict reliability and latency requirements - the same core challenges that underpin AI data platforms and model training infrastructure.

Stack: C#, Python, ClickHouse, Apache Spark, Azure ADLS, Cosmos DB, Service Fabric, Azure Auth.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer 2 @ Microsoft
Jan 2024 – Present | Mountain View, CA
Leading backend development on the ExP Data & Compute Platform, building the infrastructure layer that powers AI analytics across Microsoft's M365 ecosystem.

- Leading migration to ClickHouse-based computation for Manager Hierarchy and Senior Leader analytics, achieving millisecond-level query performance at organizational scale *(WW ETA Jun '25)*
- Architected secure, scalable ingestion pipelines for Copilot Business Outcomes, enabling ingestion of sensitive business metrics with validation and audit logging — featured in the **Microsoft Ignite 2024** keynote by Satya Nadella
- Drove the architecture and delivery of the **MODIS (Microsoft Organizational Data Ingestion Service) v2** API set, reducing P99 latency from 4 seconds to 500ms — an **8x improvement** enabling worldwide rollout
- Co-built a Generative AI permitting solution inducted into the **Microsoft Garage Hall of Fame**, now deployed commercially in the energy industry

Stack: C#, Python, ClickHouse, Apache Spark, Azure ADLS, Cosmos DB, Service Fabric

### Software Engineer 2 @ Microsoft
Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Redmond, WA
- Built and maintained distributed systems for enterprise-scale data ingestion system, supporting 1P/3P integrations (Accenture, Glint) with secure auth layers and modularized controllers.

- Led validation overhaul that produced a 94% reduction in ingestion failures and a 66% increase in successful uploads. Introduced partial ingestion, auto-correction, and global date format support.

- Spearheaded schema-agnostic ingestion via "Data on the Fly," collaborating across UX, Auth, Retention, and Reporting teams. Reduced validation time from 2 minutes to 5 seconds.

Stack: C#, Service Fabric, Azure Auth, Kusto, Azure Pipelines.

### Software Engineer @ Microsoft
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | Redmond, WA
Backend engineer on the Viva Insights data platform, building ingestion systems and backend services powering employee experience analytics for enterprise customers. Developed 1P/3P data connectors and contributed to the core platform architecture that scaled to worldwide availability in 2023.

Stack: C#, Service Fabric, Azure, Kusto

### Software Engineer @ Microsoft
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Redmond, WA
Built backend features and data pipelines for the Viva Insights platform on Microsoft 365. Contributed to the core ingestion infrastructure and helped lay the foundation for what later scaled to a worldwide enterprise product.

### Teaching Assistant @ University of California, Los Angeles
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
Teaching assistant for Operating Systems, Introduction to Computer Vision, Human Computer Interaction.

### Software Engineer Summer Analyst Intern - Risk Workflow Team @ Goldman Sachs
Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Jersey City, New Jersey
Created an end to end ETL model which processed raw warehouse data from SharePoint and other sources and projected insights on to a tableau dashboard with email notifications. This process was automated and saved 2-3 work hours per person per month.

### Software Engineer Summer Analyst Intern- Asset Management and Equities Team @ JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Bengaluru
Saved ~1 hour per employee per day by building a workflow status tracker with notification system.


## Education
### Master's degree in Computer Science
UCLA
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020

### Bachelor of Technology - BTech in Computer Science and Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli
Jan 2014 – Jan 2018


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nikitasiva

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Source: https://flows.cv/nikitasivakumar
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/nikitasivakumar/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-22