Gaurav Rustogi

Ozaro.fit — Fitness platform (mobile + web) · Gurugram

• Architected and built cloud-native microservices backend on AWS from scratch using an API-first design approach.
• Designed polyglot persistence architecture (SQL + NoSQL) optimised for domain-specific access patterns and platform scalability.
• Established a structured AI-assisted development workflow — engineering detailed technical prompts covering implementation specs, class structure, API signatures and edge cases — while retaining full architectural ownership of microservices design, database schema and coding standards.
• Collaborated with business co-founder on product roadmap, feature feasibility assessment and go-to-market decisions as joint decision-maker.
• Delivered product from zero to launch within 2 months; achieved early commercial traction within first quarter.

Rummy Passion — Regulated real-money gaming platform · 10M+ registered users · ~10,000 API requests/minute · Gurugram. Joined as Head of Technology in April 2020; promoted to CTO in July 2025.

• Owned full technology strategy, roadmap and budgeting for a regulated real-money gaming platform under RBI, KYC and state-level compliance frameworks.
• Led end-to-end engineering across backend, frontend (Angular + Cordova, later migrated to Unity/C#), DevOps, QA and data teams.
• Reduced infrastructure cost by 65% through architectural redesign and AWS managed services adoption; achieved 99.99% uptime and reduced crash frequency by 95%.
• Migrated live monolith to distributed, event-driven architecture — latency 140ms to sub-40ms, zero downtime, no dedicated sprints, delivered in parallel with product roadmap.
• Led and cleared annual BDO tech and financial systems' compliance audits — platform security, access controls, change management logs, fraud prevention, payment systems integrity and regulatory compliance.
• Drove migration from 5+ individual payment gateways (Paytm, PayU, Cashfree, PhonePe, Airtel Payments) to JusPay as a unified aggregator — reducing maintenance overhead and streamlining reconciliation workflows.
• Built lightweight in-house player behaviour analytics platform — demonstrating ROI of clickstream tracking without third-party tool budget, delivering insights that directly informed product decisions on onboarding flows and game format defaults.
• Hired, structured and scaled a 40+ member cross-functional engineering team; defined org structure, delivery processes and engineering culture.

Client: Forbes Media (US) — BrandVoice ad analytics, campaign management & automated client reporting platform · Gurugram

• Worked directly with Forbes Media's US-based product managers, managing cross-timezone delivery as their embedded engineering team.
• Led a team of 20 engineers to build a unified data aggregation platform stitching real-time data from 10+ sources including Google 360 (via BigQuery), Moat (Oracle), DFP, Outbrain and Taboola — reducing analytics turnaround from weeks to minutes — powering ~40 metrics and ~20 report types.
• Oversaw engineering delivery of the BrandVoice automated client reporting system — enabling campaign owners to select metrics, export dynamically generated PPTs with live graph rendering, editable tabular data with real-time reflection and auto-populated narrative placeholders.
• Managed delivery of a DFP campaign management module with creative management, line items, budget allocation and a rule-engine-driven daily budget optimisation.
• Increased Forbes Media revenue by 60% over 2 years by improving campaign data accuracy and surfacing misconfigurations previously invisible across fragmented analytics tools.
• Managed ETL pipelines via Domo connectors, pulling from BigQuery and operational databases into processed reporting dashboards for stakeholder visibility.
• Established QA processes, release workflows and data integrity validation mechanisms across engineering team.

SlotsBash, GSN Casino — Real-time social gaming · 500K+ DAU · 100M+ registered users · Bengaluru

Principal Engineer (Sep 2012 – 2014, Bash Gaming)

• Joined as the first and sole backend developer; designed and built backend systems from scratch for SlotsBash through to launch.
• Reported to VP Engineering (India); built and led a team of 6 backend developers as the platform scaled post-launch.

Engineering Manager (2014 – Dec 2016, post-acquisition by GSN Games)

• Promoted to Engineering Manager following GSN Games' acquisition; reported directly to VP Engineering in San Francisco.
• Managed 70% leadership / 30% hands-on — architecture, tech documentation, delivery and weekly cross-timezone syncs with San Francisco engineering leads.
• Visited GSN Games' San Francisco HQ for technology and product knowledge transfer.
• Designed dynamic game ROI mechanisms in collaboration with US-based game designers, improving game performance and revenue outcomes.
• Reduced new game room onboarding to under 2 days by simplifying backend architecture and improving configurability.

ESeal — B2B2C SaaS platform for product authentication and supply chain tracking · Mumbai

• Led backend development and system design for enterprise clients in product authentication and logistics tracking.
• Designed and implemented service-oriented architecture, improving system modularity and scalability.
• Hired and built initial engineering team; worked directly with enterprise clients to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

Skenzo — High-scale contextual ad-serving platform · 100M+ requests/day · Mumbai

• Contributed to backend systems powering a contextual ad-serving platform at 100M+ requests per day.
• Rewrote and optimised core components of the ad-serving framework to improve scalability and throughput.
• Implemented SOA and MVC-based architecture patterns; participated in large-scale system refactoring and performance optimisation.
• Worked on performance-critical distributed system components in a high-traffic production environment.