# Rajath Rao

> Staff Engineer | Backend & Platform Systems | API & Application Security | FinTech | Kafka, Spring Boot, AI-Driven Workflows

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

Security-focused Platform & Backend Engineer with 9+ years of experience building scalable cloud systems, secure CI/CD pipelines, and resilient microservices across security, fintech, and SaaS domains. Proven track record in API security (WAF, OAuth2, JWT), Kubernetes-based platforms, and data telemetry pipelines. Hands-on with Kotlin, Java, Python, and JavaScript — and passionate about designing systems that are both robust and secure. Recently led engineering efforts on a high-throughput API defense platform at Cequence Security, and have built Airflow-based MLOps workflows, anomaly detection DAGs, and policy automation systems.

I’m happy to take on roles at the intersection of platform engineering, security, MLOps, and AI infrastructure — where reliability meets intelligence.

## Work Experience
### Staff Engineer @ Ridgeline
Jan 2026 – Present | San Ramon, California, United States
∙	Building reactive ETL pipelines for custodian financial data using Kotlin, Spring Boot, and Project Reactor
	∙	Designing SQS event streaming systems for high-throughput financial data processing
	∙	Contributing to distributed systems architecture on the Custodian Data team

### Senior Software Engineer @ Cequence Security
Jan 2023 – Jan 2026 | Santa Clara, California, United States
🔹 Architected and scaled API security platform components (Defender, Mitigator, Sentinel) using Kotlin, Kafka, and Kubernetes
🔹 Delivered CI/CD improvements and security validation gates across GitLab and Jenkins pipelines
🔹 Developed telemetry-integrated DAGs

### Sr Engineer @ HOVER Inc.
Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area
🔹 Implemented OAuth2-based staging access, secure signing, and secrets management
🔹 Built Detox + Cypress validation suites with security checks and code coverage metrics
🔹 Created telemetry hooks and Tableau dashboards for mobile crash trends and anomalies
🔹 Collaborated with backend teams on secure API contracts and schema validation

### Senior Software Development Engineer @ Sitetracker
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Palo Alto, California, United States
🔹 Added CI enforcement with schema checks and PII validation patterns

### Software Engineer in Test @ Sitetracker
Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Palo Alto, United States

### Information Technology Consultant @ Assurant (via Flexon)
Jan 2017 – Jan 2020 | Orange County, California Area
🔹 Implemented secure data validation across distributed insurance microservices
🔹 Integrated testing across multiple on-prem application modules

### Application Engineer @ Tyco
Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Bengaluru Area, India
🔹 Worked on video surveillance and analytics testing for Exacq, C-Cure, and CEM
🔹 Focused on video stream validation and access control systems

### Technical Specialist @ Verint
Jan 2012 – Jan 2014 | Bengaluru Area, India

### Software Engineer @ Target
Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 | Bengaluru Area, India


## Education
### Master's degree in Information Technology
University of Maryland
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017

### BE in Industrial Engineering & management
Visvesvaraya Technological University

### Master's degree in Information Management
University of Maryland

### carmel school

### kumarans


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rajath-rao-01b76224

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