A bit about me.
I ended up in security almost by accident. I joined my first company wanting to be a developer, found my way into testing, drifted into security, and somewhere along the way started chasing bugs on the side - because finding what others miss felt like a puzzle I couldn't put down. That instinct has shaped everything since.
Four companies. Each one faster than the last. I've built security from scratch twice - once at an ecommerce company, once at one of India's fastest-growing fintechs through its IPO - at places where engineering ships daily and "no" isn't a strategy. That environment shapes how you think about security more than any certification.
What I care most about is building security that engineers actually want to work with - not a checkpoint, but a partnership that makes the product better. That's been my north star for twelve years.
Senior Engineering Manager - Security
What Happened
- At Groww, I built security as a company priority, not a bolt-on - defining OKRs, forming teams across Application Security, Cloud Security, Cyber Defence, and Data Security, and partnering closely with strong engineering and product leaders.
- What made this chapter singular was the company's own ambition: being part of the IPO journey, and having security be a genuine part of that story rather than an afterthought, is something I carry with pride.
What We Built
What I learned
- At scale, the problem shifts from "how do I secure this?" to "how do I build a team that can secure everything?" Leadership isn't an upgrade from engineering - it's a different discipline entirely.
- Being part of an IPO journey taught me that security at board level is a different conversation. Technical details matter less than the risk narrative. You learn to speak in outcomes, not findings.
- Having built security from scratch twice, I know the first hire matters more than the first tool. Culture is harder to retrofit than controls.
Security Manager
What Happened
- Hopscotch was a different kind of challenge: ownership. I joined with no existing controls, no processes, no team - and a mandate to build all of it.
- Perimeter hardening, application security, IT security, cloud security, cyber defence, incident management, data security, hiring, stakeholder alignment - everything from scratch. Working without a playbook forced me to stop thinking like an engineer and start thinking like a leader. This is where I stopped doing security and started owning it.
What We Built
What I learned
- Ownership is different from responsibility. When you're the only one, every gap is yours. That accountability changes how you think about building things that last.
- Security that engineers hate will always lose. The best programs I've seen are the ones engineers brag about - not tolerate.
Security Engineer II
What Happened
- A genuine turning point. Working alongside some of the sharpest security minds I've met, at the pace a product company demands, forced me to level up fast.
- The highlight was leading security for FoodPanda after Ola's acquisition - embedding security into a newly acquired company, aligning two engineering cultures, and doing it without slowing the business down. This is where product security became second nature: application security, API testing, mobile security, hardening, and security automation all came together here.
What We Built
What I learned
- A small security team in a fast product company teaches you to prioritize ruthlessly. You can't fix everything - and the attempt will make you irrelevant. Security that slows the product eventually gets routed around.
- Being surrounded by strong people early sets your bar permanently. Once you've seen what great looks like, you can't unsee it.
Security Engineer
What Happened
- This is where it all started. I joined wanting to be a developer, got placed into manual testing, and somehow ended up in security - and never looked back.
- Along the way I picked up automation testing, web application and network penetration testing, source code review, and even spent a year on Java backend development. That restlessness turned out to be a gift: crossing manual testing, automation, security, code review, and development gave me a foundation most specialists never get.
What I learned
- A critical vulnerability in a healthcare app is different from a critical vulnerability in a retail app - even if the CVSS score is identical. Business context is everything. Severity without business context is just a number.
- Spending time as a developer before becoming a security person changes how you see engineers - not as the problem, but as the only people who can actually fix it.
What I Know
How I Work
Leadership & Governance
Stock Broking & Wealth
Securing SEBI and RBI regulated investment products at scale - where a security gap isn't just a breach, it's someone's hard earned money.
Lending & Payments
The infrastructure layer of fintech — high-value transactions, RBI and NPCI regulated operations including UPI, and fraud risk baked into every flow.
Mobility & Logistics
Two platforms where location, identity, and money move together in real time - at tens of millions of daily transactions. In ride hailing and food delivery, fraud is fast, creative, and never stops.
E-commerce & Retail
Payment data, customer PII, and business logic that bad actors learn to abuse faster than most teams can patch. E-commerce security is as much about fraud as it is about compliance.
Enterprise IT - Healthcare & Banking
Healthcare records and financial data are the two most regulated and most targeted datasets in the world. Working across both early on shaped how I think about risk, compliance, and what's actually worth protecting.