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Open to full-time Engineering Manager roles (product/SaaS), consulting engagements & remote advisory

Guru Prasath Ragavendran

Engineering Leader & Technical Consultant · Production LLM/RAG Systems · Web Platform Architecture

Independent technology consultant and engineering leader with 22+ years of hands-on delivery. Sole engineer-owner of ChatPress.ai, a live, revenue-generating RAG chatbot SaaS (Remix, Cloudflare, Supabase pgvector, OpenAI, Together AI). Previously led high-impact engineering initiatives at PayPal, BNP Paribas, and Tech Mahindra (Verizon account). Certified in Agentic AI & Applications (IITM Pravartak — IIT Madras, 2026).

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Portrait of Guru Prasath Ragavendran
Years of experience
22+
Technical interviews conducted
800+
Client websites managed
100+
PayPal homepage load time
11s → 3.5s

01 — About Me

Building technology organizations that endure

I am an independent technology consultant and hands-on engineer. Clients work with me directly — no account managers, no delivery layer in between. Whether you need a production LLM/RAG system designed and shipped, a WordPress or e-commerce platform stabilized at scale, or senior technical judgment on an AI roadmap or acquisition, you get 22+ years of hands-on delivery applied to the problem. I am equally open to full-time engineering leadership roles where the mandate is to build and lead a team.

My background spans enterprise product companies (PayPal, BNP Paribas, Tech Mahindra) and a decade of independent consulting (118Group, ChatPress.ai). I have conducted 800+ technical interviews as the final decision-maker, scaled engineering teams from 40 to 130 and from 30 to 80 through direct involvement in hiring, and cut PayPal's homepage load time from 11 seconds to 3.5 seconds. Today my focus is shipping production LLM systems that actually work — I am the sole engineer-owner of ChatPress.ai, a live, revenue-generating RAG chatbot SaaS.

  • Ship over slides

    I deliver working systems, not decks. Every engagement ends with something live in production.

  • Technical depth meets business outcomes

    Good AI architecture is invisible. What matters is the revenue, cost reduction, or product capability it unlocks.

  • You talk to the engineer

    No account managers, no filtering layer — direct access to 22 years of hands-on experience.

  • Right-sized AI

    I will tell you when a well-built RAG pipeline beats an agent, and when you do not need AI at all. Certified in agentic AI (IITM Pravartak, IIT Madras), I can also tell you honestly where agents belong in your roadmap.

02 — My Story

Two decades, one constant: shipping what matters

From an early engineer at a logistics startup to leading a global technology organization — each chapter taught me something about people, systems, and scale.

  1. 2016 — Present

    Independent Technical Consultant

    Independent Practice · Primary client: 118Group (US digital agency)

    Sole technical consultant since 2016; primary client 118Group since 2017. Led technical due diligence and the go/no-go recommendation for the acquisition of ChatPress.ai (closed Feb 2025), then became its sole engineer: completed and shipped the product — Remix (React, TypeScript) on Cloudflare Pages/Workers, RAG pipeline on OpenAI embeddings and Together AI inference with Supabase pgvector, Helicone for LLM observability. Owns the live, revenue-generating product end-to-end. Also manages infrastructure, hosting, DNS and security for 100+ client WordPress sites (peak: 210 sites across a 16-person team), delivered the real-time Excel → Google Sheets → JSON → WordPress data sync that became the agency's flagship solution, and provides WCAG 2.0/2.1 accessibility remediation and performance optimization across the portfolio.

  2. Oct 2014 — May 2016

    Project Lead

    BNP Paribas India Solutions

    Led a 9-person engineering sub-team delivering a multi-platform wealth management application (iOS, Android, iPad, Desktop) for high-net-worth clients, built on IBM MobileFirst and AngularJS. Grew the Chennai wealth management team from 30 to 80 through direct involvement in hiring decisions. Delivered 5 successive product releases coordinating cross-geography with Singapore-based leadership in a regulated banking environment.

  3. May 2013 — Aug 2014

    Technical Manager

    Tech Mahindra · Verizon account

    Led a 10-person cross-functional team (Python/Django, Ruby on Rails, QA, UI) delivering a confidential healthcare IoT platform including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device integration. Coordinated delivery between the India onsite team and US-based design/product teams. Led UI delivery for a Magento e-commerce platform launch reporting directly to the client VP.

  4. Jun 2006 — Nov 2012

    Senior Software Engineer → User Interface Engineer (Full-Time)

    Covansys → CSC → PayPal India

    Started on the PayPal program as the sole technical code reviewer for a 130-developer India development centre, directly hired ~80% of the team's growth from 40 to 130 engineers and conducted 800–900 candidate interviews as the final technical decision-maker. Led UI for a company-wide, multilingual redesign across every page of PayPal.com and cut homepage load time from 11 seconds to 3.5 seconds. Converted to full-time PayPal employee via Build-Operate-Transfer; built a WCAG 2.0-compliant UI component library adopted org-wide, co-defined the architectural migration from the legacy XPT framework to Java ("Project Sparta"), and trained the UI developer organisation.

  5. 2002 — 2006

    Web Designer / Developer

    Xerago · ProTechSoft · Sify Ltd.

    Early career across three companies delivering HTML prototyping, Flash/XML platforms, and enterprise web development. Clients included Citibank, Tibco, and Globus retail group. At Sify, produced 30–60 templated business website builds per day for a pan-India B2B hosting platform.

03 — Skills & Tech Stack

Depth across strategy, architecture, and execution

Core expertise

  • Production LLM/RAG Implementation92%
  • Web Architecture & Performance96%
  • AI Product Development88%
  • WordPress Ecosystem & Platform Ops95%
  • Client Advisory & Technical Strategy88%

LLM & RAG Systems

  • Production RAG Pipelines
  • OpenAI — Embeddings & Moderation
  • Together AI — LLM Inference
  • LangChain
  • Prompt Engineering
  • Helicone — LLM Observability
  • Supabase pgvector — Vector Search
  • Agentic Architecture — IITM Pravartak (certified)

AI Product Development

  • End-to-End SaaS Delivery
  • Multi-Tenant Architecture
  • Conversational Design
  • Quotas & Rate Limiting
  • Technical Due Diligence
  • AI Product Strategy

Frontend & Web

  • Remix (React)
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript (ES6+)
  • WordPress / WooCommerce
  • PHP
  • WCAG 2.0/2.1 Accessibility
  • Web Performance
  • Figma

Infrastructure & Platform

  • Cloudflare — Workers, Pages, KV, R2
  • Supabase
  • AWS — EC2, S3 (personal projects)
  • Hosting, DNS & Security Operations
  • Paddle Billing
  • Sentry
  • CI/CD — principles
  • Browser Performance APIs
  • YSlow / WebPageTest

Observability & Integrations

  • Cloudflare Observability
  • Google Sheets / JSON API Integrations
  • Excel-to-Web Data Pipelines
  • Email Automation (Loops)
  • Agile (Scrum)
  • Waterfall Delivery

Client Advisory

  • Requirements Discovery
  • Solution Architecture
  • CXO Stakeholder Management
  • Go/No-Go Recommendations
  • Technical Hiring (800+ interviews)
  • Regulated-Environment Delivery

04 — Selected Projects

Platforms that moved the business

A selection of initiatives I led end-to-end — from the first architecture review to sustained operation at scale.

118Group (Retained Consulting)2025 — Present

ChatPress.ai — AI Chatbot SaaS for WordPress

Led technical due diligence and the go/no-go recommendation for the acquisition of ChatPress.ai (closed Feb 2025). Post-acquisition, became sole engineer: completed and shipped the remaining product — Remix (React, TypeScript) on Cloudflare Pages/Workers, RAG pipeline on OpenAI embeddings and Together AI inference with Supabase pgvector, Helicone for LLM observability. Owns the live, revenue-generating product end-to-end.

Live, revenue-generating AI SaaS product

  • RAG
  • Remix (React)
  • TypeScript
  • OpenAI
  • Together AI
  • Supabase pgvector
  • Cloudflare Workers
  • Helicone
Covansys / CSC (PayPal Program)2007 — 2009

PayPal SiteSpeed Initiative

Led the global front-end performance effort for PayPal.com. Cut the homepage from 11 seconds to 3.5 seconds using YSlow, WebPageTest, and custom JavaScript timing instrumentation, as part of an optimization sweep spanning 35+ major international user flows. Built performance-measurement infrastructure across international offices and trained 150–200 developers.

11s → 3.5s homepage load · 35+ international flows

  • Web Performance
  • YSlow
  • WebPageTest
  • JavaScript
  • Akamai
118Group (Retained Consulting)2018

Excel-to-WordPress Real-Time Data Sync

Designed and delivered a real-time Excel → Google Sheets → JSON feed integration that syncs spreadsheet data directly into WordPress client sites. Became the agency's flagship client solution and primary ongoing revenue engagement.

Agency's primary ongoing client engagement

  • WordPress
  • Google Sheets
  • JSON
  • API Integration
  • PHP
PayPal India2010 — 2012

PayPal WCAG Component Library

Built a reusable, WCAG 2.0-compliant UI component library adopted org-wide at PayPal — one of the company's early design-system initiatives. Co-defined the architectural migration from the legacy XML-based (XPT) framework to Java ("Project Sparta") and trained the broader UI developer organisation.

Adopted org-wide across PayPal

  • Accessibility
  • WCAG 2.0
  • Design System
  • JavaScript
BNP Paribas India Solutions2014 — 2016

BNP Paribas Wealth Management App

Led a 9-person team delivering a multi-platform wealth management application for high-net-worth clients on IBM MobileFirst and AngularJS. Delivered 5 successive product releases across iOS, Android, iPad, and Desktop coordinating with Singapore-based leadership. Grew the Chennai team from 30 to 80 through direct involvement in hiring decisions.

5 product releases · Team scaled 30 → 80

  • AngularJS
  • IBM MobileFirst
  • iOS
  • Android
  • BFSI

05 — Credentials

Education, certifications & recognition

Education

  • Sep 2025 — May 2026

    Professional Certificate Programme in Agentic AI and Applications

    IITM Pravartak · IIT Madras

    Classroom grounding in agentic architectures, multi-agent design patterns, and production LLM deployment considerations.

  • Sep 2019 — Jul 2020

    Product Management Certification

    UpGrad in partnership with Duke University

    Product strategy, roadmapping, go-to-market execution, and user research.

  • 1999 — 2002

    Bachelor of Electronic Science (B.E.S.)

    University of Madras

    Foundation in electronics and engineering science.

Certifications

  • Professional Certificate Programme in Agentic AI and Applications

    IITM Pravartak (IIT Madras)2026

  • Product Management Certification

    UpGrad / Duke University2020

Awards & Honors

  • 2008

    Superstar Award

    Covansys India

  • 2010

    Technology Leader Award

    PayPal India

06 — Recommendations

In the words of colleagues

“I had the privilege of working with Guru on several large and important projects during my time at PayPal. The details of those projects seem like distant memories to me now but Guru's attention to detail, his tireless work ethic and his incredible passion for delivering an excellent user experience through his mastery of front-end web development technologies sticks with me even today. Beyond his career talents, though, Guru also has a sense of humor and a humility that make him an absolute pleasure to work with as well. I would consider myself very fortunate indeed to be able work with Guru again at some point in the future.”

Danny Cota

Information Technology Consultant to Small Business & Non-profits

Danny was Sr. Manager to Guru at PayPal.

“Guru is one of the most talented web developers I have had the pleasure of working with and managing. His knowledge of front-end web standards is both broad and deep and his dedication to producing quality code is world class. He is an excellent communicator, works well across cultures, and was an ideal host when I visited India. I give Guru my highest recommendation!”

Kimberly Blessing

Senior Software Engineering Manager at FanDual UK

Kimberly managed Guru at PayPal.

“Guru keeps a cool head and is quite dilligent about his output. A dependable member of any team.”

Yagna Raman

Chief Product Officer, Purpleteal

Yagna managed Guru at Xerago.

07 — Contact

Let’s talk about what you’re building

Whether you're hiring an Engineering Manager, need a production LLM/RAG system shipped, or have a web platform that needs an owner — my inbox is open.

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Open to full-time Engineering Manager roles (product/SaaS), consulting engagements & remote advisory.