---
title: "Punit Kandoi - Principal Engineer in Bangalore Urban | Tal"
description: "Meet Punit Kandoi, Principal Engineer, Multi-Cloud Networking & Security | ZTNA · SASE · AI Security Gateway · MCP/A2A · eBPF | 3 Patents | Startup Builder (Soha→Akamai, Prosimo, Aviatrix) based in Bangalore Urban. AI stack includes claude code, cursor, and kimi."
image: "https://tal.club/meet/punit-kandoi/share-image"
---

# Punit Kandoi on Tal

## Headline

Principal Engineer, Multi\-Cloud Networking & Security \| ZTNA · SASE · AI Security Gateway · MCP/A2A · eBPF \| 3 Patents \| Startup Builder \(Soha→Akamai, Prosimo, Aviatrix\)

## About

I'm a Principal Engineer \| Technical Leader \| Product Architect who love to build new products and a leader who builds teams — usually both at once\. Twenty years in multi\-cloud networking and security, all inside early\-stage startups: Soha Systems \(acquired by Akamai\), Prosimo, and Aviatrix\. Across Soha Systems \(acquired by Akamai\), Prosimo, and Aviatrix, I've joined at the 0\-to\-1 stage, established architecture and engineering culture from scratch, and shipped production\-grade multi\-cloud security and networking platforms\. I hold 3 US Patents in cryptographic security and identity federation — IP I helped create at the bench\. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: • 20 years hands\-on expertise in ZTNA, SASE, AI Security Gateways, eBPF observability, and AI\-era protocol infrastructure \(MCP/A2A\) across AWS, Azure, and GCP • Scaled engineering teams from 0 to 15, defined SDLC from scratch, 100% on\-schedule delivery • Scaled multi\-cloud platform throughput from 1 Gbps to 80 Gbps under real enterprise traffic • AI\-enabled Network Security Gateway targeting MCP/A2A protocol governance and deep packet inspection • Led IPv6 from zero to production via sprint — owned architecture, wrote code, showcased in enterprise executive demos • Designed Identity Provider \(IdP\) architecture, SAML, WS\-Federation, Duo MFA, and integrated Akamai CDN caching for authenticated enterprise content delivery • Represented engineering at customer sites across Asia\-Pacific — led architecture discussions with Fortune 500 engineering leaders, translating complex security platform capabilities into business outcomes that retained and expanded multi\-million dollar contracts\. • Comfortable in the room with enterprise CTOs, engineering leaders, and technical architects — from whiteboard to contract, bridging product vision and customer reality\. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗼𝗽𝗵𝘆: Mentored by Doug Merritt \(CEO, Splunk\) and Joshua Medcalf\. That training — radical accountability, high\-performance culture, teams that own outcomes — shapes how I build every engineering organisation\. 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻:C · Go · Python · Lua · eBPF · Kubernetes · Nginx · HAProxy · Apache Traffic Server · AWS \(TGW, VPC, GWLB, PrivateLink, Direct Connect\) · Azure \(ExpressRoute, VWAN\) · GCP · SAML · OIDC · TLS · MCP · A2A · AI Guardrails · RAG · LangChain

## Location

Bangalore Urban

## AI stack

claude code

cursor

kimi

kiro

mcp

ollama

## Work experience

Principal Engineer at Aviatrix, Jan 2025 \- Present · 1 yr 9 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Building next\-generation AI\-era network security infrastructure at Aviatrix\. 🔹 AI\-Enabled Network Security Gateway — AI gateway targeting MCP/A2A protocol governance, AI guardrail enforcement, and deep packet inspection \(DPI\)\. 🔹 Multi\-Cloud IPv6 — Took greenfield IPv6 capability from zero to production in agile environment\. Owned architecture end\-to\-end, wrote production code, and showcased in enterprise executive demos generating immediate customer pipeline interest\. 🔹 Team Culture & Delivery — Established a high\-trust, focused engineering environment; partnered with PM, QA, UI, and customer support to align milestones and maintain delivery cadence\.

Technical Engineering Manager at Prosimo\.io, May 2021 \- Dec 2024 · 3 yrs 8 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Joined Prosimo's India engineering organisation as early engineer and architected the multi\-cloud networking platform\. 🔹 Team 0 to 15 — Recruited and built the engineering team\. Defined SDLC, hiring profiles, code review culture\. 100% on\-schedule delivery over 3\+ years\. 🔹 Platform Throughput — Engineered underlay networking across AWS \(TGW, PrivateLink, VPC Peering, Direct Connect\), Azure \(ExpressRoute\), and GCP\. Scaled throughput from 1 Gbps to 80 Gbps under real enterprise traffic\. 🔹 eBPF Observability — Led eBPF adoption for policy enforcement, packet inspection, and real\-time network visibility — a key differentiator in Prosimo's next\-gen service mesh positioning\. 🔹 AI\-Driven Observability — Delivered LLaMA2\-based GenAI PoC for log and traffic analysis using RAG and LangChain\. 🔹 Security Services — Deployed Firewall\-as\-a\-Service, NAT Gateway, and Kubernetes\-based infrastructure across AWS, GCP, Azure, and on\-premises\.

Senior Software Engineer Technical Lead at Akamai Technologies, Oct 2016 \- May 2021 · 4 yrs 8 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Joined as part of the Soha Systems acquisition\. Continued building the enterprise SASE platform under a CTO\-driven mandate for Fortune 500 secure access\. 🔹 Global SASE Platform — Architected and delivered a Secure Access Service Edge platform for Fortune 500 enterprises\. Owned architecture end\-to\-end and authored production modules for the identity and access layer\. 🔹 Identity Provider Architecture — Designed IdP server and proxy\. Integrated SAML, WS\-Federation, and Duo Push MFA\. Integrated Enterprise Application Access \(EAA\) as a SAML provider to AWS\. 🔹 Enterprise Caching — Integrated Akamai CDN caching with EAA to serve authenticated enterprise content at global scale — a unique identity\-aware caching mechanism reducing latency while enforcing security policy\. 🔹 Enterprise Revenue — Led technical onboarding for Tier\-1 accounts through hands\-on customer engagement across Asia\-Pacific\. Contributed to multi\-million dollar contract retention and expansion\.

Lead Software Engineer at Soha Systems, Sep 2014 \- Sep 2016 · 2 yrs 1 mo, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Early engineer at Soha Systems — a Zero Trust startup successfully acquired by Akamai Technologies\. Built the core platform IP that made the acquisition viable\. 🔹 ZTNA Platform Core — Designed and built the foundational Zero Trust Network Access platform from scratch\. Became the basis of Akamai's enterprise secure access product and underpinned the acquisition value\. 🔹 Cryptographic Security Framework — Designed a cloud encryption model where data could only be decrypted within the customer's data centre\. Forms the basis of 2 of the 3 granted US Patents\. 🔹 NGINX Engineering — Implemented high\-performance NGINX modules for caching, health checks, load balancing, and ICAP virus scanning\. Built connector middleware bridging on\-prem and cloud\. Integrated SPDY for connection stitching and multiplexing\. ✅ Outcome: Company acquired by Akamai Technologies\.

Development Lead at California Software, Oct 2006 \- Aug 2014 · 7 yrs 11 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Founding engineer on the Radware team at Calsoft Labs, delivering industry\-first virtualized networking products\. 🔹 Industry\-First Virtualized Load Balancer — Delivered a functional Alteon Load Balancer prototype in 90 days\. Production\-ready in 12 months\. Led virtualisation project architecture including travel to Israel for project delivery\. 🔹 L2–L7 Networking — Deep expertise across STP, VRRP, GSLB, SIP, TCP, cookie persistence, and rule\-based filtering\. Implemented IPC for packet distribution across multiple processes\.

## Education

Master's degree, Embedded Systems, Manipal university

Bachelor of Engineering \(B\.E\.\), Electrical Enginnering, ITER

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

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