Software engineer
Ritvik
IIT Ropar, ex-Rakuten
I've spent three stretches on other people's engineering teams — BYJU'S, Rakuten, and a two-million-download learning app — and the year since as the only engineer on five different products, from idea to something a client's customers actually use. Same instinct either way: find what's actually broken, build the smallest thing that fixes it, and don't let the codebase get away from you as it grows.
now
- Sole technical owner on a handful of client engagements right now — architecture, delivery, no team behind me.
- Most recent build: a multi-tenant automation platform, five external APIs, an LLM handling the judgment calls, in production across a client base.
- Considering one full-time or contract seat this month, if the fit is right. Remote, async-first.
how I use AI
I use Claude Code the way I'd use a very fast, very literal junior engineer — it's excellent at producing a first draft and terrible at knowing when the first draft is wrong. My job hasn't changed, it's just moved earlier: deciding what should be built, catching the plausible-looking thing that's actually broken, and being the one who owns it when the pieces have to fit together. Every project below has a moment where the obvious AI-generated answer wasn't the right one, and I built the thing that actually was.
how I decide
Diagnose before you optimize.
The fix is usually not “add a cache” — it's finding what's actually slow first.
Keep AI away from anything where a wrong guess costs money or trust.
Everywhere else, let it move fast.
Build it custom only when reuse will actually pay for the extra work.
Otherwise, wire together what already exists.
Assume every step gets retried eventually.
Make retrying safe from day one, not after the first incident.
the work
What I've actually built
more work
Five-Minute Site Agent
Give it a Google Maps link, get back a live, deployed website with its own design choices already made — logo, colors, layout — in about five minutes. Built first for local clinics in India, but the pipeline itself — scrape, decide, build, deploy — isn't specific to either the industry or the country. I also built and ran the sales motion around it myself: cold outreach, a demo-first pitch, real pricing, a real close rate.
what this isn't for
Probably not a fit if the job is built around being in meetings all day, or if “engineer” really means “implement exactly this spec, no questions.” I like having a team around — three of my last four roles were on one — but I want to own the outcome of what I build, not just the ticket.
If this looks like a fit, reach out. Happy to get specific once I know what you're actually solving for.