Gagan Gopalaiah
Picture of me, last day of Cisco

Hey there, I'm a software engineer at Amazon Web Services working on DynamoDB. I'm broadly interested in distributed systems at scale.

Prior to joining UC San Diego, I spent 3 years building enterprise SaaS products at Cisco Systems. More specifically, I was part of the core team that developed the authorization framework for Cisco's CX Cloud.

I hold a Master's degree in Computer Science from UC San Diego. I also hold a bachelor's degree from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore.

Feel free to explore and get in touch with me for further inquiries or job opportunities.

Industry Experience

LitePoint - Software Engineer Cloud Intern
June 2023 - Sept 2023
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  • Designed and developed a web application to remotely demo LitePoint's testers to potential customers.
  • The project directly contributed to the company's revenue by enabling the sales team to conduct demos with customers across the globe, thereby reducing the need for travel and in-person meetings.
  • Tech Stack - Azure, Express.js, React, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Docker, Kubernetes, CosmosDB.
Cisco Systems - Software Engineer (Full Time)
July 2019 - July 2022
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  • My most significant contribution was developing an Authorization and Authentication framework for the Cisco Customer Experience Cloud.
  • We utilized the OAuth protocol to establish a secure access control framework for CX Cloud APIs, implementing Role-Based-Access-Control (RBAC) mechanisms. This not only ensured robust API security but also involved designing and managing Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies.
  • Prior to that, I developed microservices for multiple customer-facing teams (SW Version Recommendations and Business Critical Services teams) in Python and Java.
  • In each of these teams, I collaborated with the security team to ensure compliance with industry best practices.
  • Tech Stack - Golang, Python, Java, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, OAuth2.0, OPA, Okta

Research Experience

Systems and Networking Group - Graduate Research Assistant
April 2023 - Dec 2023
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  • Contributed to the GreenGrader project.
  • Our platform aims to optimize autograder container scheduling across cloud platforms with a focus on reducing carbon emissions.
  • Tech Stack - Python, Bash Scripting, Docker, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, AWS, National Research Platform (NRP)

Teaching Experience

CSE 210 Principles of Software Engineering - Fall 2023, Winter 2024
  • Graduate-level Software Engineering course, where I was responsible for facilicating in-class discussions, grading and mentoring teams on their course projects.
CSE 110 Software Engineering - Fall 2022, Spring 2023
  • Undergraduate SE course that focuses on the software development lifecycle and the various tools and techniques used in the process. As a TA, I was responsible for mentoring a total of 11 teams (110 students in total) in their course projects.
  • This role allowed me to gain valuable experience in Engineering Management while teaching and mentoring students, as well as develop my communication and leadership skills.
CSE 134 Web Client Languages - Winter 2023
  • This is a front-end technical course that aims to teach the students HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
  • As a TA, I was responsible for conducting weekly office hours, grading assignments, and assisting students with any questions or concerns they may have.