About Saif Ali
Senior Software Engineer with 9 years of experience
- Expert in Golang, Python, Apache Kafka, Apache Druid, PostgreSQL and few others
- AdTech specialist - Ad Exchange, Ad Server, OpenRTB, Prebid, VAST, CTV
- Seasoned in building high performance and resilient distributed systems with the capability to drive multi-million dollars in revenue.
English
Fluent
Hindi
Native or bilingual
Remote only
Primarily works remotely
Experience
- Optimist TechnologiesCo-Founder & CTONovember 2025 - Today (9 months)Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Leading the technical strategy and execution for a suite of AI products designed to revolutionize how enterprises handle their core operations.
- My work centers around creating domain agnostic solutions to serve diverse market needs, and deliver high impact automation.
- Bright Mountain Media (via. AdsRemedy Media)Lead Software EngineerJune 2018 - October 2025 (7 years and 4 months)Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Joined as the first engineer in the Mumbai division, building, managing and scaling the tech team from 1 to 9 engineers.
- My responsibilities included engineering solutions, writing performant and maintainable code, taking technical interviews, hiring, mentoring, conducting code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
- I established development processes and led the architecture and development of high-throughput AdTech solutions driving multi-million annual revenue.
AdExchange v2.0-- Architected & led the AdExchange rewrite (150K QPS @ 100ms P99 latency), driving 200% average revenue growth.
- Migrated infrastructure from Docker Swarm to Kubernetes and established CI/CD & TDD practices, achieving 90%+ test coverage.
- Managed a 500K events/sec Kafka pipeline and used Apache Flink, reducing event-to- dashboard lag from 5 min to 1.5 min.
- Enabled bottleneck resolution by adding Grafana Observability and Slack notifications.
Audience Segmentation-- Engineered a high-throughput audience data service handling 60K QPS (1ms read / 3ms write latency).
- Opened a new revenue stream by enabling precise audience-based targeting.
- Built ETL pipelines to process multi-terabytes of Delta Lake files monthly.
AdExchange v1.0-- Upgraded the AdServer to an AdExchange by supporting programmatic bidding via. OpenRTB protocol.
- Built and optimized the system to handle 100K QPS @ 200ms using various techniques.
- Implemented real-time reporting, handling terabytes of data with sub-5-second query response times.
- Integrated support for OpenRTB, VAST, Prebid, and IVT scanning tools.
Display Ad Server-- Developed the company's first in-house scalable ad server, delivering ads in under 100ms.
- Built the technical foundation that supported the platform's growth from $0 to 5-figure revenue in its first year.
- acadnionWeb & Android DeveloperApril 2017 - June 2018 (1 year and 2 months)Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Developed an interactive native Android app using Java, enhancing user engagement through real-time quizzes.
- Implemented a live global scoreboard to foster competition among users, promoting a dynamic learning environment.
- Created video and article-based learning modules, enriching the educational experience for users.
- Integrated secure Google and email authentication, ensuring user data protection and privacy.
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Education
- Bachelor of Engineering in Information TechnologyThadomal Shahani Engineering College, University of Mumbai2018