---
title: "Abhishek Kundalia - Director of Engineering in Bengaluru | Tal"
description: "Meet Abhishek Kundalia, Engineering Leader | Head of Infrastructure and AI platform@ Pocket FM | Scaling consumer tech from chaos to clarity | Infrastructure · Streaming · AI Systems · AWS · GCP | AI SRE Speaker based in Bengaluru."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/abhishek-kundalia/share-image"
---

# Abhishek Kundalia on Tal

## Headline

Engineering Leader \| Head of Infrastructure and AI platform@ Pocket FM \| Scaling consumer tech from chaos to clarity \| Infrastructure · Streaming · AI Systems · AWS · GCP \| AI SRE Speaker

## About

I've scaled systems for Flipkart's Big Billion Sale Days\. I've kept classrooms live for millions of students on WebRTC\. I now run infrastructure for a company doing $400M ARR\. I started by taking Harvard CS50 on my own, outside of work, because I wanted to understand how systems really work\. That curiosity never left\. 11 years later, I've led engineering at some of India's most ambitious consumer tech companies\. The thread connecting all of it: I show up when systems are breaking, expensive, or can't scale and leave them simpler, cheaper, and more reliable\. At ZestMoney, I re\-architected their complete backend systems to scale infrastructure and platform for Flipkart's Big Billion Sale Days, one of the largest e\-commerce traffic events in India\. At Unacademy, I started with the platform team, then took ownership of CLX, the live classroom experience product built on WebRTC, handling 60 thousand plus concurrent students and educators in real time\. Progressively expanded to lead infrastructure, data science, data engineering, and eventually full engineering\. 60% reduction in tech costs\. Millions of learners\. Zero compromise on experience\. Sub\-millisecond latencies At Pocket FM, a company that grew from $200M to $400M ARR in 12 months, I head infrastructure, streaming, DRM, content production systems, and AI systems globally\. 20% cost efficiency improvement while growing 2x\. 99\.99% platform availability\. 3B\+ minutes of audio streamed every month\. The wins I'm proudest of aren't the numbers though\. They're the engineers who grew into leaders\. The teams that solved problems before I even saw them coming\. The systems that kept running when everything else was on fire\. I believe great engineering leadership isn't about being the smartest person in the room\. It's about making the room smarter and building systems that outlast any single engineer\. Today I speak at DevOps and AI SRE conferences, participate in roundtables with AWS and Google Cloud, and mentor engineers making the jump from service to product companies\. If you're an engineering leader, founder, or builder working on hard problems at scale, I'd love to connect\. \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Current: Director of Engineering @ Pocket FM Previously: Head of Engineering @ Unacademy \| ZestMoney \| Deloitte \| Accenture Speak on: DevOps · GitOps · AI SRE · Infrastructure at Scale Awards: ACE @ Accenture · Outstanding @ Deloitte · Manager's Choice @ ZestMoney

## Location

Bengaluru

## Work experience

Director of Engineering at Pocket FM, Oct 2024 \- Present · 2 yrs 1 mo, Bengaluru, Heading infrastructure, streaming experiences, DRM adoption, content production systems \(CMS\), and AI systems at Pocket FM, a global audio entertainment platform that grew from $200M to $400M ARR in 12 months\. • Improved tech cost efficiency 20% while supporting 2x business growth • Achieved 99\.99% platform availability across global markets • Led DRM implementation and adoption across the full content platform • Built and scaled CMS powering 300,000\+ creators producing 80,000\+ hours of content monthly • Delivered streaming infrastructure handling 3B\+ minutes of audio monthly across 20\+ countries • Drove AI systems adoption enabling 20x faster content creation • Speaker: DevOps 2\.0 Confex 2026, AI SRE Next, Google Cloud and AWS roundtables

Head of Engineering at Unacademy, Oct 2022 \- Oct 2024 · 2 yrs 1 mo, Bengaluru, Grew from platform engineering to leading all of engineering at Unacademy across four years\. Started with the platforms team, then took ownership of CLX, the live classroom experience product built on WebRTC, handling thousands of concurrent students and educators in real time\. Progressively expanded scope to lead infrastructure, data science, data engineering, and eventually the full engineering org\. • Built and scaled CLX on WebRTC for thousands of concurrent live classroom sessions • Achieved 60% reduction in tech costs while maintaining experience for millions of learners • Re\-architected core infrastructure for performance, reliability, and cost efficiency • Led infrastructure, data science, data engineering, platform and product engineering org

Engineering Manager at Unacademy, Jan 2022 \- Oct 2022 · 10 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, I am proud to have played a key role in revolutionizing the live classroom experience at Unacademy\. At Unacademy, I led the design and implementation of a highly scalable live classroom platform, leveraging my expertise in microservices, APIs, and third\-party tool integrations\. My efforts resulted in a reliable and performant platform that can support thousands of concurrent users, leading to increased engagement and retention rates among students\. One of my most notable achievements at Unacademy was successfully migrating the legacy live classroom platform to a new architecture, which significantly improved platform performance, scalability, and reliability\. Additionally, I spearheaded the development and launch of new features such as interactive quizzes, gamification elements which have helped students learn more effectively\. Beyond my technical expertise, I am a skilled manager who values collaboration and innovation\. I prioritize empowering my team members with the necessary tools, resources, and training to perform at their best\. Through fostering a collaborative work environment, we have achieved several breakthroughs in the live classroom platform and made Unacademy one of the most popular and widely used e\-learning platforms in the country\. Overall, I am proud of the impact that I have made at Unacademy, helping millions of students achieve their academic goals and transforming the way online learning is perceived in the industry\.

Engineering Lead at Unacademy, Oct 2020 \- Dec 2021 · 1 yr 3 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Led Backend platform team and educator experience pod

Senior Software Development Engineer at ZestMoney, Nov 2018 \- Oct 2020 · 2 yrs, Bangalore, Re\-architected ZestMoney's complete backend systems to scale infrastructure and platform for Flipkart's Big Billion Sale Days, one of the largest e\-commerce traffic events in India\. • Redesigned and rebuilt core backend architecture to handle massive concurrent load spikes with zero downtime • Scaled platform infrastructure to support peak traffic volumes during India's biggest sale events • Built platform foundations that supported ZestMoney's growth as India's leading BNPL platform

Business Technical Analyst at Deloitte India \(Offices of the US\), Apr 2017 \- Nov 2018 · 1 yr 8 mos, Bengaluru, Worked as a Business Technical Analyst bridging technology and business at Deloitte India, supporting US clients across enterprise technology initiatives\. • Delivered technology solutions for US\-based enterprise clients across complex business domains • Recognized with Outstanding Award and Applause Award for consistent high performance • Collaborated with cross\-functional teams across India and US offices on large\-scale technology programs

Software Engineer at Accenture, Aug 2015 \- Apr 2017 · 1 yr 9 mos, Bengaluru

[View the original profile](https://tal.club/meet/abhishek-kundalia)

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