Backend Platform Engineer
Arunav Malhotra
Lead Software Development Engineer. Architect of high-scale distributed systems, operational reliability, and engineering team execution.
6+ years architecting backend platforms, scaling service infrastructure, and leading engineering execution across product growth, onboarding, and reliability systems. I own the systems that matter—designing for scale without fragility, simplifying operational complexity, and building teams that ship with confidence.
About
I architect and own backend systems that power product growth and reliability. Over 6+ years at SaaS Labs, I've progressed from SDE to Lead, designing platforms that handle billions of operations daily while maintaining operational simplicity and engineering velocity.
My focus spans distributed system design, service modernization, and operational reliability. I led the migration to stateless architecture across 50+ services, architected the contact management system (billions of entities, sub-millisecond queries), and built the infrastructure that enables confident rollouts at scale. Beyond systems, I mentor engineers on architecture decisions and drive execution across product, infrastructure, and reliability initiatives.
I operate at the intersection of technical depth and product leverage. Whether designing fraud detection systems, owning onboarding and billing infrastructure, or improving release confidence through CI/CD standards, my goal is always the same: reduce operational complexity, improve system behavior under scale, and enable teams to ship faster with fewer incidents.
Core Technologies
Leadership Focus
- →Distributed System Design
- →Architectural Modernization
- →Reliability & Observability
- →Platform Scaling
- →Cross-functional Ownership
- →Operational Excellence
Expertise Areas
- →Microservices & Stateless Design
- →Database Optimization
- →Real-time Systems
- →Production Hardening
- →Growth Systems (Onboarding, Billing)
- →Team Scaling & Mentoring
Experience
Lead Software Development Engineer
SaaS Labs
Oct 2023 - Present
2+ years
Key Achievements
- ▹Architected and owned migration to stateless architecture across 50+ services, enabling horizontal scaling and sustaining 99.9% uptime while reducing operational complexity
- ▹Designed and delivered Contact Management System handling billions of entities with sub-millisecond query latency; powers core platform for thousands of customers
- ▹Led backend architecture decisions, mentoring 6+ engineers on distributed systems design, reliability patterns, and production hardening practices
- ▹Built centralized IAM platform using LDAP, improving security posture and enabling enterprise customer support across 200+ organizations
- ▹Engineered self-healing infrastructure reducing manual incident response by 80%, improving engineer velocity and reliability
- ▹Modernized legacy platform: migrated 50+ services from monolithic PHP to distributed NestJS services with improved deployment velocity
- ▹Drove engineering standards across CI/CD, code review, and observability; improved rollout confidence enabling faster, safer releases
Senior Software Development Engineer
SaaS Labs
Mar 2022 - Oct 2023
1.5 years
Key Achievements
- ▹Owned onboarding and signup systems, designed security infrastructure reducing fraudulent signups by 45% while maintaining 99.8% legitimate user acceptance
- ▹Built and shipped billing infrastructure supporting usage-based pricing and subscriptions for thousands of SaaS customers; zero revenue leakage across 99.99% transactions
- ▹Delivered core growth systems: referral program, OTP verification (10K+ monthly signups), and feature flagging platform enabling safe experimentation at scale
- ▹Architected real-time systems: click-to-call infrastructure handling 500K+ monthly calls with intelligent routing and call analytics integration
- ▹Collaborated cross-functionally with product and marketing on PLG initiatives, translating business requirements into scalable backend systems
Software Development Engineer
SaaS Labs
Jan 2020 - Mar 2022
2.2 years
Key Achievements
- ▹Owned core platform modules (Marketplace, Signup, Onboarding, Demo Page), establishing patterns adopted across engineering org
- ▹Simplified billing infrastructure architecture; reduced onboarding time for new engineers by 40% through improved API design and documentation
- ▹Built scheduled calling and click-to-call systems processing 500K+ monthly calls, supporting go-to-market initiatives
- ▹Executed product launches cross-functionally with RevOps, Marketing, and Product; contributed to 3+ major GTM campaigns
Case Studies
Distributed Contact Management at Scale
Challenge
Design and operate a distributed system managing billions of contact entities for thousands of customers. System must support sub-millisecond query latency, complex filtering, real-time updates, and horizontal scaling across shared infrastructure.
Solution
Architected a multi-layer system: PostgreSQL with sophisticated indexing strategies and query optimization, Redis caching layer for hot data, event-driven updates via Kafka for consistency, and Docker-based microservices enabling horizontal scaling. Implemented connection pooling, query plan analysis, and automated index management.
Impact Delivered
Billions
Contacts Managed
Sub-millisecond p99 latency across 10K+ concurrent users, enabling real-time product experiences
Stateless Architecture Migration
Challenge
Transform monolithic stateful system into stateless distributed architecture. Existing system unreliable at 95% uptime, with 50+ legacy services tightly coupled. Requires zero-downtime migration while improving reliability.
Solution
Led platform-wide migration strategy: rewrote services for stateless design, implemented distributed tracing and correlation IDs, deployed load balancers with session affinity for gradual rollout, built automated failover and health checking. Implemented canary deployments and feature flags to enable safe, incremental migration.
Impact Delivered
99.9%
Uptime Sustained
50+ services migrated with zero customer-facing downtime; 80% reduction in manual incident response
Onboarding & Growth Systems
Challenge
Build scalable onboarding pipeline supporting rapid user growth (10K+ signups/month). System must handle multi-channel OTP delivery, fraud detection, referral tracking, and billing initialization—all without impacting signup conversion.
Solution
Designed end-to-end onboarding system: async processing for non-critical paths, SMS/Email OTP delivery with retry logic, fraud scoring combining reCAPTCHA and behavioral analysis, referral tracking with eventual consistency, and billing initialization with rollback capabilities. Optimized database queries and caching to maintain sub-500ms signup flow.
Impact Delivered
45%
Bot Signup Reduction
10K+ monthly signups sustained; 99.8% legitimate user acceptance rate maintained
Other Key Initiatives
Fraud Detection & Signup Security
Engineered comprehensive signup security system combining reCAPTCHA validation, device fingerprinting, and behavioral anomaly detection. Reduced fraudulent signups by 45% while maintaining 99.8% legitimate user acceptance—enabling confident signup growth.
Feature Flags & Safe Rollout Infrastructure
Built internal feature flag and experimentation platform enabling controlled rollouts across 50+ microservices. Supports canary deployments, A/B testing, and instant rollback without redeployment—improving release confidence and reducing rollout risk.
Centralized IAM with LDAP Integration
Architected enterprise-grade identity and access management system supporting LDAP federation, role-based access control, and audit logging. Enabled 200+ organizations to use platform with enterprise security requirements.
Real-time Calling Infrastructure
Designed and shipped scalable calling system handling 500K+ monthly calls with intelligent routing, call recording, analytics integration, and CRM webhooks. Powers sales and support workflows for thousands of businesses.
Billing & Usage-Based Pricing
Delivered complete billing system supporting usage-based pricing, subscriptions, recurring billing, and SaaS metrics. Supports thousands of customers with 99.99% transaction accuracy—enabling confidence in revenue operations.
Scalable Onboarding Pipeline
Built end-to-end onboarding system supporting 10K+ monthly signups with OTP verification, fraud scoring, referral tracking, and billing initialization. Optimized for speed (sub-500ms signup flow) and conversion without sacrificing security.
Technical Skills
Backend Engineering
Architecture & Scale
Data & Storage
Infrastructure & Delivery
Reliability & Observability
Product Systems
Core Competencies
Distributed System Design
Architecting microservices, stateless services, and horizontally scalable systems handling billions of operations at high throughput and low latency.
Operational Reliability
Improving system behavior under scale through distributed tracing, self-healing infrastructure, automated failover, and incident response automation.
Service Modernization
Leading migrations of legacy monoliths to distributed architectures; designing rollout strategies that enable zero-downtime deployments.
Backend Platform Engineering
Owning critical growth systems (onboarding, billing, fraud detection) and reliability systems that enable product velocity without sacrificing quality.
Engineering Execution
Driving cross-functional collaboration, establishing technical standards, improving CI/CD velocity, and mentoring teams on architecture and production hardening.
Production Hardening
Building observability, health checks, automated rollback, circuit breakers, and incident response automation to operate complex systems confidently.
Build Scalable Systems Together
Let's Ship Reliable, Scalable Systems
Open to backend engineering, platform architecture, and engineering leadership roles. I'm focused on systems that scale without fragility, teams that ship with confidence, and technical leadership that moves products forward.
Or reach out directly at arunavmalhotra1998@gmail.com