Headline

Head of Ads Engineering | 17 yrs | Goldman Sachs → Amazon → Razorpay | IIIT Bangalore (M.Tech IT & ML) | IIM Lucknow (Product Mgmt) | UAE Golden Visa Holder

About

Experienced Engineering Leader with experience in software development, Technical Product & Program Management with a ‘CustomerFirst’ mindset who has demonstrated history of building high performing teams, Distributed technology systems, Owning Services, Delivering complex engineering projects, Improving processes & optimizing the cost to serve, accelerating commercialization I’m an engineering leader who enjoys building things from scratch - products, platforms, and teams. Over 16+ years in Technology at Goldman Sachs, Amazon, and Razorpay, I’ve worked across E-Commerce, Payments, AdTech/ MarTech and Financial Services, mostly in spaces where the tech and the business are tightly coupled. What I bring to a leadership role: (1) Platform thinking at scale - Architected DPDPA compliant CDP processing 230M+ customer profiles, 400+ daily audience segments. (2) 0→1 and 1→10 - I've launched new products and Seller Tools in regulated markets (UAE, KSA, Nigeria, SA), built teams from 5 to 30, and navigated the full arc from MVP to operationally mature platform. (3) AI-forward engineering culture - I embed AI agents, skills, and ML models into the SDLC. Built lookalike and affinity models for intelligent audience targeting (4) People and organisation builder - Promoted 10+ engineers across Amazon and Razorpay, conducted 100+ technical interviews, and scaled org structure around OKRs and North Star metrics. I enjoy the organisational side as much as the technical - structuring teams, setting direction, and helping engineers grow. Based in Bangalore, with 4+ years of MENA experience and a UAE Golden Visa.

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

claude

gemini

github copilot

Work experience

Associate Director of Engineering at Razorpay, Feb 2025 - Present · 1 yr 7 mos, Bengaluru, Building Growth Marketing Suite of Products for Merchants and Advertisers in Razorpay Ecosystem. Spearhead the development of a zero-to-one Ads product in context of Payments. Lead a 25 member Engg Team. End-to-end ownership of 3 services: Offers / Rewards Engine, Customer Data Platform (CDP), and Ads Server & Tracking, ensuring scalable architecture, cross-team collaboration, and strategic alignment with product vision and business goals.

Senior Engineering Manager - Seller Growth - MENA Technology at Amazon, Jul 2022 - Feb 2025 · 2 yrs 8 mos, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Led Seller Growth charter for MENA. Manage software solution development solving 3P Seller Challenges across Listings, Fees, Lending (Micro Loans), Registration, Arabization, Reimbursements & profitability portfolios.

Senior Engineering Manager - Payments & High Frequency Categories at Amazon Payment Services, Aug 2021 - Jul 2022 · 1 yr, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 1. Buildout & Launch of platforms for HFC use-cases such as Mobile Recharges, Bill Payments, Tickets Booking leveraging 3P aggregators and partners 2. Build digital payment methods & Enable Amazon Business Expansion leveraging internal - Amazon payments services (APS) and/or external payment processors/gateways in MENA region

Amazon Advertising Tech - Budgeting at Amazon, Dec 2020 - Aug 2021 · 9 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, 1. Buildout & Launch of platform features in Budgeting and Billing activities for Ads business. 2. Power Amazon Products hosting Ads solution with customized budgeting features 3. Contribute to product Vision and GTM activities

Vice President - Risk Engineering at Goldman Sachs, Mar 2011 - Dec 2020 · 9 y 9 mo, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, 1. Define Vision & scope for build-out of Operational Risk Metrics platform. Software Development & Business Analysis 2. Secretary to the Risk Committee (Goldman Sachs India)- Operational Risk 3. Member of Core Working Group for Operational Risk 4. Led implementation of Fundamental Review of Trading Book (FRTB) for Market Risk. 5. Automated Commentary for Liquidity Risk Metrics & CCAR Automation. 6. Led HKMA Regulatory Project for Equities/FICC Desk aimed at Entity Simplification for GS

Education

MTech, Information Technology, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore

Executive Programme in Data Driven Product Management, Product Management, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow

Public links

github: https://github.com/ketankotnis