Full Stack · AI/ML · Certified Cloud

Hi There, I'm Srihari Ponakala

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Computer Science Graduate with 2+ years of industry experience and expertise in building scalable web apps, backend systems, and AI-powered products across Full Stack Development. Specializing in optimizing backend(logic & Architecture), and crafting engaging User Experiences.

San Francisco, CA (Open to relocation)
Software Engineer @ Holiday Channel
Profile

About ME

Passionate full-stack developer crafting innovative solutions and leading teams to success

I'm a Full Stack Software Engineer with a strong foundation in Computer Science, AI/ML, and cloud technologies. With a background spanning backend engineering, frontend development, and machine learning, I enjoy building systems that are reliable, scalable, and meaningful to real users.

I hold a Master's in Computer Science with a specialization in AI/ML from SUNY Buffalo. Over the past few years, I've built and shipped production-grade web applications, ML-backed recommendation engines, and high-performance backend services across Python, C++, JavaScript/TypeScript, Django, Node.js, React, SQL/NoSQL, and AWS. My work spans designing APIs and data models, improving system performance, and deploying features through modern workflows.

Looking ahead, I want to take on meaningful engineering challenges—architecting scalable backend systems, building clean and efficient APIs, contributing to AI-driven products, and working with teams that value innovation, and engineering excellence. I'm excited to grow into roles where I can design systems end-to-end and contribute to technical decision-making that shapes impactful products.

Masters in CSE (AI/ML) - SUNY Buffalo Bachelors - NIT Calicut ~3 years industry experience

What I'm Looking For

I'm exploring on full-time Software Engineer or Full Stack Developer roles where I can build scalable backend systems, contribute to end-to-end product development, and work on real-world problems at the intersection of software and AI. I'm looking for teams that value Impact, ownership, continuous learning, and opportunities to work across modern tech stacks.

Experience

Roles where I've shipped production software and owned critical systems.

Software Engineer
Holiday Channel
Jul 2025 - Present
  • Engineered Python- and Node-based backend services and React frontends, increasing user capacity by 40% and improving customer experience.
  • Refactored backend CRUD operations and fixed UI/UX issues, cutting reported user issues by 25% and improving DB query performance by ~40%.
  • Implemented JWT auth and Redis rate limiting to reduce unauthorized API calls by 90% and mitigate DDoS-style traffic.
  • Integrated ML models and LLM APIs for personalized recommendations, contributing to a 15% boost in user retention.
Graduate Assistant
University at Buffalo
Jul 2024 - May 2025
  • Built a responsive Js-based web application to visualize and understand algorithmic concepts, improving student engagement by 60%.
  • Taught data structures, algorithms, OOP, and problem solving to 100+ students, mentoring them through projects and assignments.
Software Engineer
PiMitra Technologies
May 2022 - Dec 2023
  • Delivered end-to-end features in a Python and Django environment with 99.9% uptime for critical applications.
  • Designed PostgreSQL schemas and queries that improved storage and retrieval performance by 35%.
  • Built REST APIs that increased data throughput by 50%, enabling 2× transaction volume and integrating 3+ external services.
  • Deployed microservices with Docker and Kubernetes via CI/CD, cutting release time by ~10% and improving reliability.

Skills

The tools and technologies that power the products I build.

Languages & Backend

Robust and scalable APIs, microservices, & server-side logic.

Python C++ Java Node.js Django Flask Express FastAPI

Frontend

Modern, responsive UI with great UX.

JavaScript React TypeScript Next.js HTML CSS Tailwind

Databases

SQL, NoSQL & caching for scalable apps.

PostgreSQL MySQL Oracle MongoDB Redis

Cloud & DevOps

Deployments, CI/CD & scalable infra.

AWS Docker Kubernetes Git GitHub Jenkins

Concepts & Soft Skills

Strong CS fundamentals & communication.

DSA OOP System Design Clean Code Debugging Agile Team Collaboration

Projects

Selected work across ML, full stack & systems.

E-Commerce Website Full Stack

E-commerce platform built using Django with auth, cart, checkout & admin.

DjangoPythonHTMLCSS
Recommendation System ML

Flask-based Web app powered by ML model(Random Forest) to provide personalized recommendations.

PythonPandasFlaskML
DeepFake / Image Tampering Detection Computer Vision

Deep-learning(CNN) and Image Forencics based system to detect digitally manipulated images.

OpenCVCNNPython
Inventory Management System C++

OOP-based inventory management software with efficient data structures.

C++OOP
Lung Disease Detection AI/ML

CNN-based model to classify X-ray images & detect lung diseases.

PythonTensorFlowCNN
LeetCode Tag Remover Chrome Extension

JavaScript automating cleanup of LeetCode problem difficulty tags.

JavaScript
Portfolio Website Frontend

Created a Website to showcase my Experience, Skills and Interests.

HTMLCSSJavaScript
Fun Games with JavaScript JS

Collection of browser games using JavaScript and DOM manipulation.

JavaScriptHTMLCSS

Certifications

Courses & credentials.

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services

AWS - Solution Architect

Forage

AWS - ML and GenAI

Amazon Web Services

JavaScript for Developers

Coursera

Python Certified

HackerRank, LeetCode

SQL Certified

HackerRank, LeetCode

Publications

Academic & research work.

Deep Learning based Lung Disease Detection

Published in IEEE

Resume

Download the full version of my resume.

My resume highlights my experience across full-stack engineering, AI/ML, backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and production-ready software development.

Download Resume

Contact

Let's build future together.

Feel free to reach out for opportunities, collaborations, or questions.

ponakalasri13@gmail.com 470 344 5004 linkedin.com/in/srihari-ponakala