Aakarshit Uppal
Platform Architect committed to building efficient and functional systems that scale.
About
As a platform architect, I specialize in designing large-scale systems and frameworks, managing complex infrastructure, and removing process-level inefficiencies. I strive to create environments where people can do their best work and have led multiple teams in delivering successful projects. Recognized as a subject-matter expert in backend systems and infrastructure (Kubernetes, observability, JVM systems, messaging, caching), I'm currently deepening my expertise in distributed systems theory and agentic systems.
Work Experience
99acres (Info Edge)
Technical Architect
- Led the Data Center (DC) migration of the 99acres platform from a DC that had been in use for over a decade. Drove planning, automation, and validation across infrastructure components, diagnosing and resolving over a dozen critical blockers down to the BIOS and achieving a seamless cutover.
- Expanded and modernized observability across applications and infrastructure with a focus on making it more accessible for both humans and AI agents. Built a debugging agent on top of it to enable automated RCA for production issues.
- Rolled out LiteLLM Proxy as the org-wide AI gateway, with automated pricing synchronization and usage monitoring, ensuring observable and accurately budgeted AI use.
- Introduced Traefik as a dedicated API gateway layer for centralized security and Kubernetes-native routing.
99acres (Info Edge) Exceptional Achiever Award Gold Team Award
Tech Lead
- Transformed 99acres to a video-powered platform by building in-house solutions for automated video creation, seamless user uploads, and optimized serving and playback for videos.
- Eliminated malicious crawling by coordinating platform-wide changes and developing novel login-less authentication mechanisms using hardware and software signals.
- Led the first post-Kubernetes disaster recovery drill, planning and executing the bring up of the entire 99acres infrastructure on AWS, ensuring a seamless switch from our Data Center to AWS.
- Created GAIA v2 to accelerate backend development with declarative upstream (DB, MQ, cache, functions) orchestration supporting different triggers (HTTP, MQ, cron) – enabling quick delivery of capability and stack upgrades across microservices.
- Reduced platform incidents from frequent to very rare by enabling Kubernetes migration through extensive JVM resource tuning, integrating resilience and observability primitives in microservices, and selectively introducing the reactive stack.
- Led an 8-member Platform Backend team spearheading initiatives like in-house Zuul replacement, crawler-network ID, and WebP format rollout for all user images.
- Built GAIA, a stateless, declarative API aggregation framework – eliminating boilerplate and fast-tracking API aggregation for all public endpoints and content for outgoing campaigns.
- Built a unified, multichannel campaign management platform supporting flexible fund allocation with a built-in wallet.
- Mentored developers and maintained multiple microservices in anti-crawling and media systems.
- Built near-real-time crawling detection pipelines and low latency security microservices with Spring Boot and Kafka.
- Maintained and evolved central media management services.
- Helped develop dockerization scripts for Spring applications.
Education
Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
- President @ IET On Campus, BIT Mesra Chapter.
- Founder @ Hack-A-BIT, BIT Mesra's National Hackathon.
- Developed and released two Android applications for technical and cultural fests.
Technical Proficiencies
Personal Projects
jsondiff-rs
A fast JSON diff CLI with colorful, path-annotated output. Uses SIMD-accelerated parsing, histogram diffing, and memory-mapped I/O, with ordered, set, multiset, and key-matched array comparison modes. Performance is tracked continuously with CodSpeed benchmarks.
Build Your Own Kafka
A Rust implementation for the Build Your Own Kafka challenge by Codecrafters, done with the threefold intent of learning advanced Rust concepts like proc-macros, low-level network programming, and getting acquainted with Kafka internals.
Zero2Prod
A Rust implementation for the "Zero To Production In Rust" book by Luca Palmieri for learning Rust best practices and getting acquainted with the ecosystem crates. Includes some tweaks to reflect the current state of the Rust ecosystem.
Apple Music Playlist Passport
Automation for cloning an Apple Music playlist that lives in another storefront (country/region) into your Apple Music library – entirely locally, no Apple developer token required. Built as an experiment with "vibe coding" while solving a personal itch!
Rusted Reindeer
Solving Advent of Code (AoC) 2023 edition in Rust, with the intention of getting hands-on experience with Rust after completing the Rust Book.
Obsidian Importer
A tweaked version of the Obsidian Importer allowing for advanced transformations such as codeblock language detection, preserving icons, and other features that make the transition from Notion more seamless.
Kobweb AUR Package
A package for Kobweb CLI for the Arch User Repository (AUR) to allow Arch Linux users get easily up-and-running with Kobweb. Auto-updated on new releases via GitHub Actions.
Update AUR Package
A GitHub action for packaging and releasing Arch User Repository (AUR) packages using tagged releases. Created for keeping the Kobweb CLI AUR package up-to-date.
Codestats Box
A GitHub action to update a gist to contain your Code::Stats stats, which can then be pinned to show-off your stats on your GitHub profile page!
kTis The Season
Solving Advent of Code (AoC) 2021 edition in Kotlin, with the intention of refamiliarizing myself with Kotlin while sharpening functional programming abilities.
Bitotsav '19
Official app for the 2019 edition of Bitotsav, a national socio-cultural festival hosted by BIT Mesra. Explicitly developed to serve as a reference for the state of the art of Android development in 2019.
FabCalc
A fun and colorful calculator app created while learning Android Development with Material Design.