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Sajini P Manikandan

Senior Software Engineer II | Leading Engineering Teams | Backend, Platform & Compliance Systems | Mobile Gaming

Bengaluru

10+ years of work experience

Zynga
May 20242 yrs 4 mosPresent

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Leading the Compliance Engineering team within GameServices, responsible for people leadership, team execution, stakeholder alignment, and delivery of strategic privacy and compliance initiatives supporting Zynga's global player base. • Lead the Compliance Engineering team, supporting engineers through regular 1:1s, coaching, career development conversations, goal setting, and performance feedback. • Drive team planning, prioritization, execution, and delivery, ensuring alignment between regulatory requirements, business objectives, customer needs, and engineering investments. • Led strategic initiatives including UK Age Gate, Platform Age Gate, and Underage Player Data Deletion, partnering with Product, Production, Compliance, QA, Legal, and Engineering stakeholders to deliver scalable and compliant solutions. • Own cross-functional stakeholder management, project planning, risk mitigation, and execution across multiple compliance and platform initiatives. • Build a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement while supporting engineers in their technical and professional growth. • Maintained team stability and delivery momentum during a leadership transition, ensuring continuity of execution and strong team engagement. • Contribute to the technical strategy and evolution of Zynga's compliance platform, balancing regulatory obligations, customer experience, scalability, reliability, and operational excellence. • Champion engineering best practices, observability, service reliability, and operational readiness across core compliance services including Compliance, CSReport, CSProxy, and ZDK. Key Areas: Engineering Leadership • People Management • Team Development • Strategic Execution • Compliance & Privacy Platforms • Stakeholder Management • Backend Systems • Platform Engineering
Zynga
Mar 20222 yrs 2 mosApr 2024

San Francisco Bay Area

• Led feature development on WWF, contributing to RPP, FFO bot re-use, and New Achievements, showcasing clear communication and proficiency • Mentored junior engineers and successfully onboarded new team members, showcasing leadership and mentorship skills • Collaborated with cross-functional teams, participated in recruiting efforts, and contributed to ops and roadmap planning
Zynga
Mar 20193 yrs 1 moMar 2022

San Francisco Bay Area

Part of the team that refactored the server technology for Zynga Poker from PHP to Go. Focussed on enhancing user engagement by delivering bold beats. Expertise in Mobile Ads
University of Southern California
Aug 20165 mosDec 2016

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Serving as Teaching Assistant for the Game Development course at USC. Provide students with assistance with their course work , assignments, all course related queries.
Zynga
May 20164 mosAug 2016

San Francisco Bay Area

Software Engineering Intern for the Zynga Poker team. • Actively involved in the development “The Challenges” feature in Zynga Poker game • Involved in working on the server and client features of the product. • Write unit tests and involve in code reviews.
University of Southern California
Dec 20151 yr 1 moDec 2016

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Dell
Jul 20132 yrs 1 moJul 2015

Bangalore Area, India

Windows 8 app developer. Projects: Dell Mobility Platform (DMP) is a comprehensive solution offered by Dell for ‘Bring Your Own Device’ on Android, IOS and Windows 8 platform. • Implemented the encryption mechanism for the whole application to ensure the confidentiality of user’s data. • Single handedly developed the web browser application which allows user to access a secure browser; download images, files, add bookmarks etc. • Involved in requirement analysis, story board creation, task defining and time estimation, scrum meetings. • Actively participated in unit testing of modules, code review for effective performance with respect to time and space complexities

Sajini’s AI Stack

claude code
claude code
claude
claude
codex
codex
gemini
gemini
Amazon Q Developer
Amazon Q Developer
Sourcegraph Cody
Sourcegraph Cody

Education

University of Southern California

Master’s Degree, Computer Science

University of Southern California

20151 yr2016
New Horizon College of Engineering

Bachelor's of Engineering, Computer Science

New Horizon College of Engineering

20094 yrs2013

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Headline

Senior Software Engineer II | Leading Engineering Teams | Backend, Platform & Compliance Systems | Mobile Gaming

About

Engineering leader with 10+ years of experience building backend systems, delivering player-facing features, and leading cross-functional teams in the gaming industry. Throughout my career at Zynga, I have developed features for Poker and Words With Friends, while also leading platform and compliance initiatives supporting millions of players globally. Most recently, I transitioned into leading the Compliance Engineering team within GameServices, where I focus on people leadership, team execution, stakeholder management, and strategic delivery. I have led initiatives including UK Age Gate, Platform Age Gate, and Underage Player Data Deletion, partnering across Engineering, Product, Production, QA, and Compliance to deliver scalable and compliant solutions. Passionate about developing engineers, building high-performing teams, and connecting technical strategy with business outcomes. Technical expertise: Go, Ruby on Rails, PHP, C#, backend systems, platform engineering, and compliance platforms.

Location

Bengaluru

AI stack

claude code

claude

codex

gemini

Amazon Q Developer

Sourcegraph Cody

Work experience

Senior Software Engineer 2 at Zynga, May 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 4 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Leading the Compliance Engineering team within GameServices, responsible for people leadership, team execution, stakeholder alignment, and delivery of strategic privacy and compliance initiatives supporting Zynga's global player base. • Lead the Compliance Engineering team, supporting engineers through regular 1:1s, coaching, career development conversations, goal setting, and performance feedback. • Drive team planning, prioritization, execution, and delivery, ensuring alignment between regulatory requirements, business objectives, customer needs, and engineering investments. • Led strategic initiatives including UK Age Gate, Platform Age Gate, and Underage Player Data Deletion, partnering with Product, Production, Compliance, QA, Legal, and Engineering stakeholders to deliver scalable and compliant solutions. • Own cross-functional stakeholder management, project planning, risk mitigation, and execution across multiple compliance and platform initiatives. • Build a culture of ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement while supporting engineers in their technical and professional growth. • Maintained team stability and delivery momentum during a leadership transition, ensuring continuity of execution and strong team engagement. • Contribute to the technical strategy and evolution of Zynga's compliance platform, balancing regulatory obligations, customer experience, scalability, reliability, and operational excellence. • Champion engineering best practices, observability, service reliability, and operational readiness across core compliance services including Compliance, CSReport, CSProxy, and ZDK. Key Areas: Engineering Leadership • People Management • Team Development • Strategic Execution • Compliance & Privacy Platforms • Stakeholder Management • Backend Systems • Platform Engineering

Senior Software Engineer 2 at Zynga, Mar 2022 - Apr 2024 · 2 yrs 2 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, • Led feature development on WWF, contributing to RPP, FFO bot re-use, and New Achievements, showcasing clear communication and proficiency • Mentored junior engineers and successfully onboarded new team members, showcasing leadership and mentorship skills • Collaborated with cross-functional teams, participated in recruiting efforts, and contributed to ops and roadmap planning

Senior Software Engineer at Zynga, Mar 2019 - Mar 2022 · 3 yrs 1 mo, San Francisco Bay Area, Part of the team that refactored the server technology for Zynga Poker from PHP to Go. Focussed on enhancing user engagement by delivering bold beats. Expertise in Mobile Ads

Teaching Assistant for Game Development - CS599 at University of Southern California, Aug 2016 - Dec 2016 · 5 mos, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, Serving as Teaching Assistant for the Game Development course at USC. Provide students with assistance with their course work , assignments, all course related queries.

Software Engineer Internship at Zynga, May 2016 - Aug 2016 · 4 mos, San Francisco Bay Area, Software Engineering Intern for the Zynga Poker team. • Actively involved in the development “The Challenges” feature in Zynga Poker game • Involved in working on the server and client features of the product. • Write unit tests and involve in code reviews.

Student Technical Assistant at University of Southern California, Dec 2015 - Dec 2016 · 1 yr 1 mo, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Software Application Developer at Dell, Jul 2013 - Jul 2015 · 2 yrs 1 mo, Bangalore Area, India, Windows 8 app developer. Projects: Dell Mobility Platform (DMP) is a comprehensive solution offered by Dell for ‘Bring Your Own Device’ on Android, IOS and Windows 8 platform. • Implemented the encryption mechanism for the whole application to ensure the confidentiality of user’s data. • Single handedly developed the web browser application which allows user to access a secure browser; download images, files, add bookmarks etc. • Involved in requirement analysis, story board creation, task defining and time estimation, scrum meetings. • Actively participated in unit testing of modules, code review for effective performance with respect to time and space complexities

Education

Master’s Degree, Computer Science, University of Southern California

Bachelor's of Engineering, Computer Science, New Horizon College of Engineering