Suraj Adhikrao Gurav
Former CTO @ VPTech
About Me
Building What Truly Matters
From enterprise integration team member to founding-team CTO, the full arc of a modern tech career.
I'm Suraj Adhikrao Gurav. In my previous company, VPTech, I was promoted from Founding Engineer to a hands-on Chief Technology Officer, working on EliteMx, a healthcare technology platform designed to transform how healthcare operators and clinicians work. I'm now looking for new opportunities.
My career spans 5.5+ years across the full engineering lifecycle, from requirement gathering and SRS authoringthrough system design, solution architecture, full-stack delivery, and platform operations. I've owned complete SDLC end-to-end on projects at national scale.
At Tech Mahindra, I was effectively forward-deployed with LIC India and three major banks embedded on-site to extract domain logic, then architected and built the national payments platform (~300,000 payments/day), full-stack applications, and BI system (400+ reports) from the ground up.
I recently earned my Master's in IT (Software Development) from QUT with Dean's Commendation, and hold Anthropic Claude certifications on both Google Cloud Vertex AI and Amazon Bedrock, reflecting my commitment to AI engineering at the frontier.
I worked on Claude Code setup and an effective Agentic SDLC (ASDLC). I hold 24 certifications on LinkedIn, an IEEE publication, and 16 LinkedIn recommendations, including from senior stakeholders at LIC India and IDBI Bank.
Location
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Education
Master of IT · QUT (Dean's Commendation)
Previously
CTO @ VPTech · EliteMx Platform
Published
IEEE & IJSER Research Author
Featured Certifications
Career
Professional Journey
From Software Engineer to CTO, 5.5 years of consistent growth and impact.
Chief Technology Officer
VPTech · EliteMx: AI-Native Healthcare Platform
Feb 2026 – Jul 2026
Gold Coast, QLD · Hybrid
Full-time- ▸Promoted from Founding Engineer to Chief Technology Officer, contributing to product design and technical direction while staying hands-on in the code, proving that setting strategy and staying close to execution don't have to be mutually exclusive.
- ▸Worked on FHIR and SMART on FHIR interoperability capabilities, enabling secure, standards-compliant data exchange, and represented VPTech at the Sparked AU event, successfully delivering the platform's interoperability story.
- ▸Worked on the Agentic SDLC on Claude Code, building custom skills, hooks, and MCP servers into a multi-stage spec-to-reviewed-PR pipeline that shaped how the engineering team planned, built, and shipped software.
- ▸Developed a deep understanding of the end-to-end healthcare integration landscape, then planned and architected an integration strategy ahead of implementation.
- ▸Contributed to SRS writing and the team's technical documentation practice end-to-end, helping define how product and engineering specs were written and maintained.
Founding Engineer
VPTech · EliteMx: AI-Native Healthcare Platform
Aug 2025 – Jan 2026
Gold Coast, QLD · Hybrid
Full-time- ▸Joined as founding engineer and contributed to building the full-stack product end to end, working closely with the founding team to shape its direction.
- ▸Worked on AI agents, Agent-to-MCP integration, vector RAG pipelines, LangGraph, streaming, and text indexing.
- ▸Worked on AWS cloud computing across the platform's infrastructure, along with DevOps capabilities and infrastructure as code using GitHub, GitHub Actions, and AWS CDK to support the delivery pipeline.
- ▸Designed and built an internal data obfuscation tool using Python, ETL, and AWS capabilities.
Senior Software Engineer · Integration Technical Lead
Tech Mahindra · LIC ePGS: Forward Deployed
Jul 2023 – Aug 2024
Remote / On-site · India
Contract (VIS Band)- ▸Effectively forward-deployed across LIC India and three major banks; engaged senior stakeholders directly, gathered requirements, designed integration solutions, and led an integration team to deliver critical milestones on schedule.
- ▸Owned API integrations, infrastructure setup, IP whitelisting, and network debugging enabling secure, audited transactions across LIC systems and three banks for PMJJBY, GSLI, and Annuity scheme payment flows (per client recommendation).
- ▸Led Pentaho BI server management on Red Hat (high availability, performance tuning, proactive monitoring with Nagios); containerised deployments on OpenShift (OCP); administered Red Hat Fuse and 3scale API management.
- ▸Established CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Ansible, Bitbucket) with zero-downtime deployments and SFTP automation (GAMFT) for secure file exchange across regulated environments.
- ▸Owned ITIL change governance (CMRs with risk analysis, rollback plans, CAB approval) for all production releases on a nationally regulated insurance platform.
Software Engineer
Tech Mahindra · LIC ePGS: Full Stack, Payments & BI
Sep 2019 – Feb 2023
Mumbai, India
Full-time- ▸Owned full SDLC end-to-end on LIC ePGS, Life Insurance Corporation of India's enterprise platform for national group insurance and pension schemes: requirement gathering, SRS authoring, solution design, development, testing, integration, and production maintenance across Dev, SIT, UAT, QA, Production, and DR.
- ▸Built the LIC Payments Module (Pentaho PDI ETL) processing ~300,000 transactions/day across three major banks covering PMJJBY, GSLI, and Annuity scheme streams; built the Annuity Extraction System automating recurring pension disbursals for ~15,000 annuitants.
- ▸Contributed to designing and delivering 400+ Pentaho PRD reports and 50+ CDE dashboards as part of the team, including the high-impact Chairman Dashboard for LIC executive decision support.
- ▸Delivered government-scheme batch processes (Supplementary Additions, Voluntary/Involuntary exits, Policy Renewals, Revival) across PMJJBY, GSLI, Annuity, and Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana streams, integrated with central and state government agency systems.
- ▸Set up Pentaho BI servers on AWS then re-platformed to Red Hat / OpenShift (OCP); owned disaster recovery with a ~10-minute recovery objective and ran DR procedures and drills under ITIL change management.
Education
Master of Information Technology (Software Development)
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Feb 2023 – Dec 2024
Dean's Commendation for Academic Excellence
Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication
University of Mumbai · Xavier Institute of Engineering
2014 – 2018
1st Class · IEEE Research Publication
Expertise
Technical Skills
A broad, deep stack built across 5.5 years of enterprise and startup engineering.
Leadership & Delivery
Solution Architecture & SDLC
Agentic AI & LLMs
AWS Cloud
Full Stack Development
Data & BI Engineering
DevOps & CI/CD
Healthcare & Enterprise Integration
Research Publications
Interactive Scene Analysis
Vol. 9, Issue 3, March 2018 · ISSN 2229-5518
Work
What I've Built
Enterprise platforms at scale, and personal projects that push my skills further.
EliteMx
AI-Native Healthcare Platform · VPTech
Joined as founding engineer and contributed to building the full-stack product, then was promoted to Chief Technology Officer, where I continued shaping technology and AI strategy while staying hands-on in the code. Authored the SRS, worked on FHIR and SMART on FHIR interoperability, and represented VPTech at the Sparked AU event. Worked on AI agents, MCP tooling, vector RAG pipelines, and LangGraph, and worked on the Agentic SDLC on Claude Code. Worked on AWS cloud computing and DevOps, and planned a healthcare integration strategy.
- Promoted from Founding Engineer to Chief Technology Officer, staying hands-on in the code while shaping technology and AI strategy
- Worked on FHIR and SMART on FHIR interoperability, and represented VPTech at the Sparked AU event
- Worked on AI agents, Agent-to-MCP integration, vector RAG pipelines, and LangGraph
- Worked on the Agentic SDLC on Claude Code, and on AWS cloud, DevOps, and infrastructure as code using GitHub Actions and AWS CDK
- Planned and architected a healthcare integration strategy, and built an internal Python-based data obfuscation tool
LIC ePGS: Integration, Payments & BI
Life Insurance Corporation of India · Tech Mahindra · 5 Years
Delivered across the full LIC ePGS platform over 5 years, LIC's enterprise system for national group insurance schemes (PMJJBY, GSLI, Annuity, Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana). Owned end-to-end SDLC: requirement gathering, SRS authoring, solution design, development, testing, and production maintenance across Dev, SIT, UAT, QA, Production, and DR. Designed and delivered bank-LIC integration layer covering IP whitelisting, network security hardening, SFTP automation (GAMFT), and API connectivity across three major banks for scheme payment flows. Held full ITIL change governance: authored CMRs with risk analysis and rollback plans, presented to CAB for every production release on a nationally regulated, IRDAI-supervised insurance platform.
- ~300,000 scheme payments processed daily across 3 major banks: PMJJBY, GSLI, and Annuity streams
- ~15,000 annuitants automated via the Annuity Extraction System (fortnightly, monthly, quarterly disbursals)
- Contributed as part of the team to 400+ Pentaho PRD reports + 50+ CDE dashboards incl. Chairman Dashboard for LIC executive decision support
- Bank-LIC integration: IP whitelisting, SFTP/GAMFT automation, API connectivity with zero security incidents
- Full policy lifecycle batch processing across all four scheme streams integrated with central and state government agency systems
AWS Video Compressor
QUT Capstone · Cloud Architecture
Production-grade video compression web app built with React on AWS microservices (EC2, S3, ECS, CloudFront, Lambda). Designed for scalability and cost efficiency.
GardenGuru
React Native · AI / AR
Mobile app using AI and augmented reality for real-time plant health diagnostics. Users point their camera at plants to receive care recommendations.
Task Manager App
React · Node.js · MongoDB
Full-stack task management with real-time updates, JWT authentication, and collaborative features. Clean architecture, performant.
Recognition
Awards & Recommendations
16 LinkedIn recommendations and multiple industry awards across enterprise and academic work.
Dean's Commendation for Academic Excellence
Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Awarded for outstanding academic performance in Master of IT (Software Development).
ACE Award: Associates Consistently Excel
Tech Mahindra
Recognised for consistent excellence in technical delivery and team leadership.
Bravo Award (×3)
Tech Mahindra
Three-time recipient for depth of Insurance domain knowledge and Go-Live delivery leadership.
Automation Ninja Award
Tech Mahindra
Awarded for outstanding automation work in the Pentaho CI/CD and scripting domain.
Letter of Appreciation (×2)
Xavier Institute of Engineering, Mumbai University
Recognised for academic and extracurricular contributions during undergraduate studies.
What People Say
Handled the complete payments process between LIC and our bank, from requirement understanding to end-to-end execution across API integrations, infrastructure setup, IP whitelisting, and network debugging. Strongly recommend him for any role demanding technical ownership, stakeholder handling, and large-scale integration expertise.
Jai Prakash Sharma
Regional Head – Retail Assets · IDBI Bank
His never-give-up attitude… without his contribution the project could not have been completed. He was the life of the project. Tech Mahindra made special efforts to bring him back.
Deepa Rathore
Senior Product Manager · Ex-IDBI Bank
+ 14 more recommendations on LinkedIn
Contact
Let's Work Together
Open to AI Engineering, Founding Engineering, Senior Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Engineering Leadership, and consulting opportunities. Based in Brisbane, available for on-site, hybrid, or remote roles.
Location
Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Ready to build something great?
Whether you're looking for an AI engineer to build intelligent systems, a founding engineer to build your product from zero, a senior software engineer to architect your next platform, a data engineer to make sense of your data, or an engineering leader to guide your technology strategy. Let's talk.