📍 SF Bay Area (Open to Relocate) 🎓 M.S. CS, Syracuse — May 2026 💼 SWE / Backend / Full-Stack 🛂 F-1 OPT (STEM, 3-yr eligible) 📧 gaikwadatharva394@gmail.com 📞 (315) 575-8511 📄 Resume
Atharva Gaikwad
📍 San Francisco Bay Area 🎓 M.S. CS — Syracuse May 2026 ✅ Open to Work 🛂 Authorized to work in US (F-1 OPT, STEM)

Hello, I'm

Atharva Gaikwad

Software Engineer | Backend, Full-Stack & Distributed Systems

M.S. CS @ Syracuse (May 2026). 2+ years shipping production backend systems — microservices for Cerence Assistant (deployed in 5M+ vehicles) and a health-tech platform serving 5K+ daily requests at Syracuse iConsult. I work in Python, TypeScript, Java, Node.js, and AWS.

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5M+
Vehicles deployed
5K+
Daily API requests
40%
Faster deploys
1M+
Events/month processed
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Experience

Where I've Worked

Building impactful solutions across industries

Syracuse University (iConsult Collaborative)

Oct 2024 - Jul 2025

Software Development Engineer

  • Architected a microservices-based health-tech platform with React.js frontend and Node.js backend services, integrating REST APIs that served 5K+ daily requests and delivering 12+ production features through Agile sprints
  • Designed responsive UI components with Redux state management and Material UI, implementing Redis caching and PostgreSQL query optimization that improved page load performance by 25%
  • Programmed CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions with Docker containerization, automating test suites across staging and production environments and reducing deployment cycle time by 40%
  • Maintained 95%+ test coverage with Jest and Cypress, standardizing Swagger/OpenAPI documentation for all API contracts and enforcing code quality through systematic peer reviews
React.js Node.js Redux PostgreSQL Redis Docker GitHub Actions

Cerence AI – Cerence Assistant Platform

Jan 2023 - Jul 2024

Software Development Engineer I

  • Engineered server-side microservices and REST APIs for Cerence Assistant, an AI-powered voice assistant deployed in 5M+ vehicles, supporting natural language understanding with sub-200ms latency
  • Constructed real-time data synchronization services using Firebase and SQLite with ORM-based persistence, handling 50K+ daily sync operations and implementing Redis caching that improved retrieval speed by 35%
  • Fortified the event-driven media processing pipeline with Apache Kafka and async background threading, processing 1M+ events monthly while scaling to 500+ concurrent sessions
  • Standardized architecture-level troubleshooting guides and API documentation in Confluence, reducing new engineer onboarding from 3 weeks to under 2 weeks
Microservices REST APIs Firebase SQLite Redis Apache Kafka

Cerence AI – Cerence Assistant Platform

May 2022 - Aug 2022

Software Development Engineer Intern

  • Remodeled legacy backend services following Repository and Factory design patterns in Java, improving code readability by 25% and reducing API response latency by 20%
  • Operated regression testing across 50 test cases and tracked deliverables through JIRA, decreasing app crash rate by 18% while maintaining sprint velocity across a 15-member team
Java Design Patterns JIRA Regression Testing
Recommendations

What People Say

Feedback from colleagues and managers I've worked with

"

Working with Atharva was a great experience. He is helpful, respectful, and has a very positive attitude. He has good knowledge of Java and Android and strong analytical skills. He learns quickly and collaborates well with the team. I am confident he will do very well in his career. Best wishes.

Tushar Purohit
Manager II, Software Engineering (R&D) @ Cerence Inc.
Managed Atharva directly · February 2026
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Projects

Featured Work

Building the future, one project at a time

Hackathon Winner

Free Flow

ETHGlobal New York 2025 • Flow Builder Pool Prize Winner

🏆 ETHGlobal NYC 2025 Prize Winner — Flow Builder Pool

Built a full-stack multiplayer platform with React/Redux frontend and Node.js/Express microservices backend using event-driven architecture via Socket.io, handling 50+ concurrent users with sub-100ms latency. Integrated OpenAI GPT for natural language command parsing and ElevenLabs API for real-time speech synthesis, powering 15+ AI-driven commands that reduced manual input by 60%.

React Node.js Express Socket.io PostgreSQL Docker OpenAI GPT
View on ETHGlobal GitHub
Claude API

Intelligent Bistro

AI-Powered Restaurant Ordering • Claude API Tool Calling

🤖 Production-grade Claude API integration with zero client-side trust

Engineered a full-stack AI restaurant ordering app with React Native/Expo mobile frontend and Node.js/Fastify backend, integrating Claude Sonnet via Anthropic's tool-use API to convert natural-language orders into validated structured cart actions — eliminating client-side state manipulation and ensuring 100% server-enforced order integrity. Designed a Zod-to-JSON-schema pipeline unifying the LLM tool contract and server-side validators as a single source of truth, covering 4 discriminated cart action types with 23 unit tests and a zero-cost mock mode enabling offline iteration without API spend.

TypeScript React Native Expo Node.js Fastify Claude Sonnet Zod Anthropic API
Watch Demo GitHub
Skills

Tech Stack

Technologies I work with daily

Languages

Python Java JavaScript TypeScript C++ SQL Bash

Backend

Node.js Express.js FastAPI Spring Boot Flask Django REST APIs GraphQL Microservices Event-Driven Architecture Kafka Redis Pub/Sub

Frontend

React Next.js Angular Redux Material UI HTML/CSS Responsive Design Webpack

Databases

PostgreSQL MySQL MongoDB Redis DynamoDB Firebase Query Optimization Data Modeling ORM Caching ETL

Cloud & DevOps

AWS Lambda EC2 S3 RDS API Gateway ECS SQS CloudWatch Docker Kubernetes GitHub Actions Jenkins Linux Monitoring

System Design

Scalability High Availability Load Balancing Distributed Systems Design Patterns SOLID TDD MVC

AI/ML & Tools

LLMs RAG LangChain LangGraph Anthropic API OpenAI API Git JIRA Confluence Postman Swagger/OpenAPI Agile/Scrum
Education

Academic Background

Foundation of knowledge and continuous learning

M.S. Computer and Information Science

Syracuse University - College of Engineering and Computer Science

Aug 2024 – May 2026 • Syracuse, New York

GPA: 3.66/4.0
Agentic AI Data Structures and Algorithms Operating Systems Computer Architecture Natural Language Processing

B.Tech Information Technology

University of Pune

Aug 2019 - May 2023 • Pune, India

GPA: 3.4/4.0
Engineering Mathematics Cloud Computing Data Structures & Algorithms Web Development Big Data Analysis Theory of Computation
Certifications

Professional Credentials

Industry-recognized certifications validating expertise

AWS Certified Generative AI Developer

Professional Level

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Issued: March 2026 Expires: March 2029
Verify Credential
Opportunities

What I'm Looking For

Let's find the right fit together

🎯
Full-time SWE / Backend / Full-Stack roles
📅
Start date: June 2026
📍
Based in SF Bay Area — open to Seattle, NYC, Boston, Austin
⚡
Particular interest: distributed systems, developer platforms, AI-integrated products, fintech
🛂
Authorized to work in the US — F-1 OPT (STEM-eligible, 3 years)
📧
gaikwadatharva394@gmail.com
About Me

Passionate About Building

Creating seamless digital experiences through code

const async return import App.tsx 1 2 3 4 5 6 import React from 'react' const App = () => { return ( <div> Terminal ➜ ~/projects npm run dev ▸ Starting development server... ✓ Ready in 1.2s ▸ Local: http://localhost:3000
2+
Years Experience
10+
Projects Built
1
Hackathon Prize

About Me

I'm a Software Engineer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, completing my M.S. in Computer Science at Syracuse University (May 2026). I specialize in backend systems, distributed architecture, and full-stack development — with 2+ years of production experience at Cerence AI and Syracuse iConsult.

I care deeply about correctness, scalability, and clean API contracts. Whether it's designing event-driven microservices for millions of vehicles or integrating LLMs with server-enforced tool-calling, I gravitate toward systems where the details matter.

Outside of work I compete in hackathons (ETHGlobal NYC 2025 winner), contribute to open source, and stay current with AI/ML tooling. I'm actively seeking full-time SWE / Backend / Full-Stack roles starting June 2026.

Backend Systems Full-Stack Web Distributed Systems AI-Integrated Products Cloud Architecture
Contact

Let's Build Together

I'm always open to discussing new projects, creative ideas, or opportunities to be part of your vision. Let's connect and create something amazing.

LinkedIn GitHub Email

Or drop me a line at gaikwadatharva394@gmail.com