Sr. Engineering Manager @ Netskope

Srihari
MS

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20+
Years Experience
4
Startups Built
3
Acquisitions
Startup Journey

Experience

Netskope
Sr. Engineering Manager — Dataplane Team
Current
  • Continued and expanded role post Infiot acquisition by Netskope
  • Drove feature additions and enhancements to the dataplane product
  • Ensured successful customer deployments across global accounts
  • Built, mentored, and scaled engineering teams across departments
  • Owned release management and delivery cadence for the platform
Feature Development Customer Deployments Team Building Release Management Cloud Security
Infiot → Acquired by Netskope
Software Engineer
Previously
  • Founding member and principal developer of the dataplane team at this Gartner "Cool Vendor" in Cloud Networking
  • Helped establish the India Development Center from the ground up
  • Designed and developed initial PoC for core product features and drove them to production
  • Led IoT architecture implementation — Azure IoT stack, edge compute, multi-WAN connectivity (Wired, 4G/5G, WiFi)
  • Pioneered secure and intelligent access for remote users, sites, and IoT devices
  • Delivered a cloud service with zero downtime, leading to acquisition by Netskope
Dataplane IoT Azure Edge Compute India Dev Center Secure Networking
VeloCloud Networks → Acquired by VMware
Technical Lead — Dataplane Team
Previously
  • Day-one developer of the dataplane team, building the initial PoC that became the core product
  • Designed and developed the proprietary overlay protocol, packet pipeline, and session management
  • Built DPI engine for first-packet application detection
  • Developed High Availability protocol for CPE devices
  • Created distributed QoS algorithm for optimal bandwidth usage
  • Built algorithms for link steering, FEC, load balancing, and retransmission
  • Enabled secure branch-to-branch connectivity via cloud
SD-WAN Overlay Protocol DPI Engine QoS High Availability FEC
Juniper Networks
Software Engineer
Previously
  • Continued development on the caching filesystem and networking stack post Ankeena acquisition
  • Applied deep expertise in filesystem design and systems programming to advance Juniper's product portfolio
  • Contributed to transformative networking and content delivery solutions at enterprise scale
Filesystem Caching Systems Software Enterprise Infrastructure
Ankeena Networks → Acquired by Juniper
Technical Lead
Previously
  • Technical Lead at this high-growth startup, later acquired by Juniper Networks
  • Designed and developed a custom filesystem optimized for high-performance content caching
  • Worked on low-level systems programming for cache storage, retrieval, and eviction
  • Played a key role in building the technology that attracted Juniper's acquisition
Filesystem Design Caching Content Delivery Systems Programming
Xambala Inc.
Software Engineer
Earlier Career
  • Early engineer at this Sunnyvale-based startup building semantic processor technology
  • Developed cutting-edge networking and computing technologies for low-latency data processing
  • Worked across the company's U.S. and India development centers
  • Contributed to the foundational technology stack that powered the platform
Semantic Processing Low Latency Networking Startup
Execution & Impact

Key Highlights

🏗️

Startup DNA

A career built entirely in startups — from Xambala to Ankeena, VeloCloud to Infiot. Consistently chosen as a founding engineer, shaping products from first line of code to acquisition and beyond.

📡

Dataplane Architect

Deep expertise in packet forwarding, session management, overlay protocols, DPI engines, and high-performance networking — the critical infrastructure powering modern SD-WAN and SASE solutions.

🌐

India Dev Center Pioneer

Instrumental in setting up and scaling the India Development Center at Infiot — recruiting, training, and mentoring team members across engineering departments.

🤖

AI Enthusiast

Active participant and presenter at Netskope's global Promptathon, exploring AI use cases to enhance engineering workflows and product capabilities.

Technical Domain

Expertise

Dataplane Engineering
SD-WAN / SASE
Cloud Security
Packet Forwarding
IoT Architecture
Overlay Protocols
DPI Engines
High Availability
Edge Compute
QoS Algorithms
Azure IoT
WAN Technologies
Link Steering & FEC
Release Management
Team Leadership
Python
Academic Background

Education

🎓

Bharathiar University

Electrical & Electronics Engineering

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

📚

Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya

Higher Secondary Education

Villupuram, Tamil Nadu

Let's Connect

Interested in networking, cloud security, or building high-performance engineering teams? Let's talk.

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