Hey, reader.
I'm Ethiraj — a software engineer by training, data leader by craft, and founder today. I'm currently Co-Founder & CTO of InfiniTraq (Griffin AI Tech), and Consultant, Head of Data Engineering at Zgrow. Based in Chennai , after five years at Shopee, Singapore.
A decade across software engineering, data platforms, and open-source Ruby gems — now building privacy-first senior care with InfiniTraq. Outside work, I'm an amateur cook, avid traveler, and bibliophile.
Chennai · Now
Experience
A decade of building software and data systems.
From software engineering at TCS and Pramati (Rails) in India, through analytics and data roles in Singapore, to founding InfiniTraq and consulting at Zgrow in Chennai.
Mar 2026 — May 2026
Singapore
Entrepreneur in Residence
Antler
FounderVenture- Completed the Entrepreneur in Residence program at the world’s day-zero investor — shaping ventures from first principles.
Nov 2025 — Present
Chennai, India
Co-Founder & CTO
InfiniTraq (Griffin AI Tech)
Edge AINVIDIA JetsonComputer VisionRadarPythonTypeScriptReact Native- Co-founded Griffin AI Tech and lead product engineering for InfiniTraq — a 24/7 AI guardian for senior living that monitors falls, inactivity, and daily activities using non-visual sensors plus Edge AI on existing CCTV.
- Designed a two-product system: InfiniPulse (privacy-first radar sensor for bedrooms and bathrooms — zero video, zero images) and InfiniHub (NVIDIA-powered Edge module that plugs into existing CCTV).
- Architecting on-prem processing, sub-5-second alerting, and a family / facility dashboard for caregivers.
Aug 2025 — Present
Chennai, India
Consultant, Head of Data Engineering
Zgrow Solutions
SparkAWS EMRS3Athena- Lead Data Engineering, mentoring a high-performing team and implementing governance, best practices, and process optimizations to deliver scalable, reliable, and high-quality data platforms.
- Architected an end-to-end Spark-based ML pipeline on AWS EMR for logistics anomaly and weight prediction — integrated a distributed ML model and automated feature engineering, achieving 99.9% uptime.
Jan 2023 — Feb 2025
Singapore
Expert Engineer
Shopee
SparkHadoopHudiHiveKafkaHBasePythonRedisDockerSpring BootRails- Led the batch ingestion team managing 23k MySQL→Hive, 6k Hive→Hive, and 2k Hive↔HBase pipelines at daily and hourly frequency on a 14 PB data lake — 99.95% job success across 31k pipelines.
- Held 80% memory utilization processing 1,059,221 GB/hour and 245,414 vCore/hour, with 97% of jobs completing within 30 minutes.
- Saved ~94,325 GB/hour, 13,487 vCore/hour, and 500 TB storage by optimizing cross-IDC Hive→Hive pipelines.
- Upgraded the ingestion platform to Spark 3 — 9% reduction in processing time and 14% reduction in resource usage.
- Built and maintained Core Engine, AutoAdaptation Framework, Operations Platform, Data Quality Module, Configuration Service, and Notification Service.
Jun 2020 — Jan 2023
Singapore
Senior Engineer
Shopee
SparkHudiKafkaSpring BootPython- Designed metrics for job performance and resource utilization, and managed ingestion pipelines across MySQL, CSV, Kafka sources and HDFS, Hive, Hudi, Kafka sinks using Spark, DeltaStreamer, Spring Boot, and Maxwell.
May 2019 — May 2020
Singapore
Data Engineer
Lomotif
SparkKinesisLambdaEMRAthenaQuickSightS3PythonRedisElasticsearchPostgresFlask- Designed a scalable data infrastructure (data lake on S3 + Kinesis + Lambda + EMR/Spark) and an automated recommendation engine to boost feed and follower engagement.
- Built PySpark jobs on EMR for diverse business use cases; developed video-ranking metrics and graph analysis to surface communities and influencers.
- Created interactive QuickSight dashboards on top of Athena, giving stakeholders real-time, actionable insight.
May 2018 — Jan 2019
Sunnyvale, CA
Big Data & Analytics Engineer
Knorex
SparkKinesisLambdaS3ScalaVert.x- Migrated an ad-events tracker to Vert.x 3, achieving 50K QPS with a Kinesis + Lambda architecture; built a knowledge graph for customer segmentation.
- Created a reporting tool with Spark (Scala) for attributions and designed QuickSight dashboards via Athena for visualization and advanced metrics.
Dec 2017 — Mar 2018
Singapore
Computer Vision Research Scientist Assistant
Trakomatic
Computer VisionPythonFacial Recognition- Built data management and annotation features for a smart digital signage prototype with facial-recognition capabilities.
Aug 2015 — Dec 2016
Hyderabad, India
Senior Software Engineer
Pramati Technologies
Ruby on RailsMemcachedRedisSolrPostgres- Developed features for an Intellectual Property portal with robust role-based access and content workflow; followed TDD and code-review discipline.
- Organized weekly Open Source meetups to foster community engagement and collaboration.
Jan 2014 — Jul 2015
Mumbai, India
Assistant System Engineer
Tata Consultancy Services
Ruby on RailsMemcachedRedisSolrPostgres- Built core modules for a Tata-group social network platform, led a 2-person team, performed peer reviews, and handled various Tata-group clients.
Education
From Anna University to NUS.
2018
M.Tech, Software Engineering
National University of Singapore
CGPA 4.36 / 5
2013
B.E, Electronics & Communication
Anna University, India
CGPA 8.56 / 10
Awards
Recognition for delivery.
Value Star Award
Shopee, Singapore
Winner — Hackathon
DNA Capitals, Singapore
Star of the Learners group · On-the-Spot Award
Tata Consultancy Services
Talks & Engagements
Sharing what I learn.
Jury, HackElite ’25
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
Guest of Honor, ICCCPS 2020
International Conference on Computer Communication & Power Systems
Guest of Honor — Outcome Based Industry 4.0
Sri Venkateswaraa College of Technology
Resource Person — Faculty Development Program on AI for Robotics
AICTE ATAL Academy, Sai Ram Engineering College
Daily Carry
Gadgets I use.
Tools that earn a place in my bag — no sponsored links, just what I actually reach for.
MacBook Pro M2
iPad Pro
iPhone 12
GoPro Hero 11
Kindle
Apple Watch SE
Sony α7 IV
200–600mm Lens
Bookshelf
Books that stuck with me.
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
How to Become a Straight-A Student
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Metaprogramming Ruby 2
Data Driven
Warren Buffett: The Business and Life Lessons
Let's connect
Have something interesting to share?