NIKHIL SKARIAH SAMUEL

I'm a Lead Backend Engineer with 9+ years of experience designing and building scalable enterprise backend systems using Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, REST APIs, distributed systems, and cloud technologies. Throughout my career, I've worked on high-volume SaaS platforms, enterprise integrations, and resilient backend services, contributing across solution design, hands-on development, code reviews, technical mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration. I enjoy solving complex engineering problems while balancing scalability, maintainability, and business outcomes. As a technical leader, I own the backend development cycle and drive the engineering strategy for my team. I translate high-level business goals into scalable architecture and predictable release roadmaps. My leadership extends across all experience levels, from managing and upskilling a large cohort of junior developers to providing upward mentorship. When a new manager joined our project, I coached her through the transition, guiding her on team dynamics and project workflows to ensure continuity. A major part of my impact involves serving as the domain anchor. Because the team lacked project-specific context, I took charge of domain code reviews for both junior and senior engineers. While seniors had strong general skills, they needed domain guardrails. I used these reviews to transfer crucial context, elevate code quality, and align the entire team with our system's unique requirements. I also have extensive experience integrating OpenAI architectures and Large Language Models into software systems, specifically leveraging ChatGPT, Codex, and GitHub Copilot to drive both product innovation and team velocity. In a recent project, I led the backend strategy to integrate GitHub Copilot capabilities directly into our application to power an intelligent, context-aware user support feature.