Voices of Nium with Madhukar Mulpuri, Senior Staff Software Engineer

Madhukar Mulpuri is Nium’s Senior Staff Software Engineer and has a two-decade strong track record of delivering innovative payment products, niche software frameworks and customer-focused platforms with impressive international reach. Madhukar accumulated his extensive knowledge with global tech giants such as Meta, Apple and Yahoo. Today, he leads initiatives such as AML systems, batch processing, payouts and experimentation/passive integration.  

Madhukar’s passion for engineering began in the garden with his early childhood fascination of trying to decipher how various fruit blossomed from seedling to delicious delight. In this “Voices of Nium” feature, Madhukar tells us the story of how his green fingers evolved into building a billing system for a workshop, and then years later positioned him in the global driving seat for software engineering teams. Proudly, he spearheaded the transformation of Apple Maps' data analytics and experimentation platform, introducing innovative technologies, like Druid, to enable real-time data analysis and experimentation capabilities. 

When I was younger, I always had a fascination with exploring how things worked and enjoyed delving into various interests, such as examining how fruit ripened in our garden. This curiosity naturally led me towards a career in the technology sector, where I could continue to explore and understand complex systems by "opening up" and diving into them. The desire to understand and tinker with the inner workings of things ultimately influenced my career path towards technology. 

My first job was collaborating with a friend to build a billing system for a workshop. In this role, I was responsible for designing and developing the entire system, while my friend handled gathering requirements and acquiring the necessary printer and accessories for bills and receipts. This early exposure to software development and teamwork laid a solid foundation for my career, emphasizing the value of collaboration, clear communication, and user-centric design in delivering successful projects. 

My proudest moment in my career was leading the transformation of Apple Maps' data analytics and experimentation platform, introducing innovative technologies like Druid to enable real-time data analysis and experimentation capabilities. This initiative was pivotal in revolutionizing how we processed, analyzed, and utilized vast amounts of data to enhance user experience and product performance. I spearheaded the adoption of Druid, leveraging its multi-dimensional analysis capabilities and distributed architecture to empower teams across Siri, Safari, and Spotlight with real-time insights. I led talented engineers, overseeing the end-to-end process of data processing, indexing, ranking, evaluation, and rendering of search results. One of the most rewarding aspects of this project was reducing experiment rollout time from weeks to real-time, which significantly increased our experimentation capacity and allowed us to launch features faster and more efficiently. Through multi-layered experimentation strategies, we optimized traffic allocation, enabling the simultaneous running of up to 30% more experiments. 

A day in my life is dynamic and multifaceted. We thrive on solving large, ambiguous problems, leading multiple team-wide initiatives that contribute to key aspects of product lines like Payouts. From inception to launch, we demonstrate strategic impact by proactively anticipating scaling bottlenecks, simplifying solutions, and delivering a multi-quarter feature roadmap aligned with product objectives. Through communication and collaboration skills, we coordinate efforts across multiple teams, ensuring tight alignment with product goals, high-quality releases, and a strong engineering culture. Additionally, we actively contribute to the broader engineering community, championing Nium's values and driving continuous improvement in hiring processes and diversity initiatives. 

Nium's Software Engineering team requires proficiency in a wide range of technical skills tailored to each role's scope and impact. This includes expertise in AWS tech stack, Java programming, and understanding of security, privacy, and regulatory compliance in the context of payment regulations. Engineers must also excel in communication and collaboration, be adaptable to varying levels of guidance, and demonstrate a commitment to adhering to coding standards and company values while delivering high-quality features aligned with product objectives. 

Yes, I would say the critical steps are: 

I would highlight: 

Outside of work, I like to keep active and enjoy nature through a few hobbies. I've been playing badminton once or twice a week consistently. While I haven't hiked or played volleyball recently, I'm hoping to get back into both soon. With summer starting, I'm excited to set up my garden for planting vegetables and tending to plants. These hobbies are a great way for me to unwind and stay connected with the outdoors. 

One of the best things about San Francisco, in my opinion, is its unique and pleasant weather. The city enjoys a moderate climate year-round, characterized by mild temperatures and relatively low humidity.