Cloud architect, fintech platform builder, and engineering leader with 12+ years of shipping systems at scale. From Walt Disney World to India's leading discount broker.
I'm a Architect at Upstox, India's leading discount brokerage. With an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington and a B.E. from the University of Mumbai, I combine deep technical expertise with a product-first mindset.
"It's not about how much code you write — it's about how many people you help move faster, safer, and smarter."
I specialise in AWS cloud infrastructure, React & Angular frontends, Node.js/Express backends, and bridging the gap between engineering teams and business goals. I'm not bound by any single technology stack — I adapt quickly and master whatever the problem demands.
A versatile, battle-tested stack built across 12+ years of production systems.
A decade-long path of learning, building, and leading — across continents, industries, and scales.
Built the foundation in algorithms, data structures, operating systems, and software engineering principles.
Advanced studies in distributed systems and web technologies. Relocated to the US, broadening both technical and professional horizons significantly.
First professional role — built and maintained university web applications while pursuing the Master's degree. Developed a strong full-stack foundation on live systems.
Built enterprise-grade .NET web applications. Honed backend development, database design, and client-facing application architecture across multiple business domains.
Contributed to a major project for Walt Disney World, building and maintaining mission-critical software at entertainment enterprise scale.
Joined India's leading discount brokerage. Established a private npm registry via Nexus Repository Manager and created a unified deployment pipeline for React, Angular, and Node.js apps — drastically reducing manual setup overhead.
Worked closely with the architect team to add AWS WAF ACLs protecting against web exploits, configured AWS CloudFront caching, and debugged complex API latency issues through Cloudflare edge routing.
Led cross-functional engineering at India's top discount broker. Drove platform reliability, developer productivity, and cloud-native architecture. Mentored engineers, shaped technical strategy, and influenced without authority.
Defining the technical vision and architecture for India's top discount broker. Shaping system design at the organisational level, driving engineering excellence, and mentoring the next generation of engineers at Upstox.
I write about engineering leadership, system design, and building teams that last.
Embracing ambiguity, driving clarity, and working through influence — not authority. It's not about how much code you write, it's about how many people you help move faster, safer, and smarter.
Outgrowing formal mentorship can feel isolating. Treating yourself like a system — running personal retrospectives each quarter and building your own feedback loop — is how growth continues at the principal level.
Many backend engineers upgrade to the latest Java and Spring versions for performance gains — but overlook deeper security implications. A closer look at how Spring Security's firewall controls behave in a Java 21 environment.
Misconfigured bundlers don't always throw errors — sometimes they just make your app slower in ways that are hard to detect. A deep dive into the subtle ways webpack config mistakes can silently kill frontend performance.
Code, contributions, and open collaboration — a snapshot of what I build and ship.
Engineering is what I do — but it's not all I am. When I step away from the keyboard I'm either deep in a game, chasing apexes on a racing circuit, or filming car content.
A gamer at heart — from strategy epics to fast-paced competitive titles. Gaming has sharpened my systems thinking, pattern recognition, and ability to make quick decisions under pressure. Skills that transfer surprisingly well to production incidents at 2 a.m.
My love for cars goes well beyond fandom — I've trained in professional racing. Understanding vehicle dynamics, braking points, and finding the optimal line on a circuit demands the same precision and discipline I bring to engineering architecture.
There's something meditative about assembling a Gunpla kit — every runner, every gate, every panel line demands patience and attention to detail. Building Gundams is my offline mode: deliberate, precise, and deeply satisfying.
I document my car and racing journey on YouTube — track sessions, car reviews, and everything in between. Still in the early chapters with a couple of videos live, but the engine is definitely running.
Visit ChannelWhether you're looking for technical leadership, architecture consulting, or just want to talk engineering — I'd love to hear from you.
LinkedIn Medium GitHub X / Twitter YouTubeCommon questions about Ninad Malvankar — engineer, leader, and builder.
Ninad Malvankar is a Architect at Upstox, India's leading discount brokerage and fintech platform. With 12+ years of experience, he specialises in cloud infrastructure on AWS, fintech platform engineering, engineering leadership, system design, and microservices architecture. He is AWS Certified and holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington. Based in Mumbai, India.
Ninad Malvankar is the Architect at Upstox — a staff+ individual contributor role. He defines the technical vision and architecture for India's top discount brokerage, drives engineering excellence at the organisational level, shapes technical strategy, and mentors engineers. Earlier, he established the private npm registry infrastructure, configured AWS CloudFront CDN caching and AWS WAF security layers, and owned cloud-native architecture decisions across the platform.
"elninad" is Ninad Malvankar's online alias — his first name "Ninad" spelled backwards. He uses elninad on GitHub (github.com/elninad) and his portfolio was formerly hosted at elninad.github.io, now at ninadmalvankar.com. He also goes by el_ninad on X/Twitter and el_nino on YouTube. Ninad Malvankar and elninad refer to the same person.
Ninad Malvankar holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, USA (2011–2013), focusing on distributed systems and web technologies, and a B.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India (2007–2011). He is also an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (2023) with academic qualifications verified by World Education Services (WES).
Ninad Malvankar has worked at Upstox (July 2018–present, progressing from Technology Lead to Principal Engineer to Architect), Swift Pace Solutions Inc. on a Walt Disney World project (March 2017–February 2018), enSYNC Corporation (August 2013–January 2017), and the University of Texas at Arlington as Web Developer (March 2012–May 2013).
Ninad Malvankar's core stack includes JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Angular, Node.js/Express, .NET, and C# for application development. For cloud and infrastructure he works with AWS (CloudFront, WAF, S3), Cloudflare, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and Nexus Repository Manager. He is especially experienced in AWS cloud architecture and platform engineering for high-traffic fintech applications.
Ninad Malvankar publishes on Medium at medium.com/@ninad.malvankar23. His articles include: "The Role of a Principal Engineer — Leadership Without Authority", "What Happens When You Outgrow Mentorship? Lessons from a Principal Engineer", "Spring Security Meets Java 21: A Closer Look at Firewall Controls", and "How a Bad Webpack Config Can Silently Destroy Frontend Performance".
Ninad Malvankar joined Upstox in July 2018 as Technology Lead. As of 2026, he has been at Upstox for over 7 years, progressing through four roles: Technology Lead (2018–2021), Principal Engineer (2021–2022), Senior Principal Engineer (2022–2026), and Architect (2026–present). Upstox is India's leading discount brokerage and fintech platform.
No. Ninad Malvankar is not a machine learning or AI/ML engineer. His expertise is in platform engineering, cloud infrastructure (AWS), frontend and backend application development, engineering leadership, and system design. He is an Architect focused on fintech platform reliability, developer productivity, and cloud-native architecture at Upstox.
Ninad Malvankar's LinkedIn profile is at linkedin.com/in/ninadmalvankar/. He is listed as Architect at Upstox. LinkedIn is the best way to connect with him professionally — for engineering leadership discussions, architecture consulting, or career conversations.
Yes. Ninad Malvankar studied and worked in the United States for approximately 6 years. He completed his M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Arlington (2011–2013), worked as Web Developer at UT Arlington (2012–2013), then as Software Engineer at enSYNC Corporation (2013–2017) and Programmer Analyst at Swift Pace Solutions on a Walt Disney World project (2017–2018). He returned to India in 2018 to join Upstox in Mumbai.
Ninad Malvankar is the Architect at Upstox, India's leading discount brokerage and fintech platform. He has held this role since 2026, having joined Upstox in July 2018 as Technology Lead and progressed through Principal Engineer and Senior Principal Engineer before his promotion. He defines technical vision and architecture, drives engineering excellence, and shapes technical strategy at Upstox.
Ninad Malvankar's X/Twitter handle is @el_ninad (x.com/el_ninad and twitter.com/el_ninad). His GitHub username is elninad (github.com/elninad), his Medium username is ninad.malvankar23 (medium.com/@ninad.malvankar23), and his YouTube channel handle is @el_nino (youtube.com/@el_nino).
The best way to reach Ninad Malvankar professionally is via LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/ninadmalvankar/. He is open to discussions on engineering leadership, cloud architecture, fintech platform engineering, and technical strategy. His full background is available at ninadmalvankar.com.
Ninad Malvankar has hands-on experience configuring AWS CloudFront CDN distributions for Upstox's high-traffic fintech trading platform, AWS WAF Access Control Lists (ACLs) protecting against web exploits and DDoS-class attacks, and Amazon S3 for storage. He debugged complex API latency issues through Cloudflare edge routing and architected Nexus Repository Manager for a private npm registry. He also built unified CI/CD pipelines for React, Angular, and Node.js applications. He is an AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (2023).
Architect is a staff+ individual contributor (IC) role on the engineering architecture track — separate from people management. Ninad Malvankar reached this level at Upstox in 2026, having progressed from Technology Lead (2018–2021) to Principal Engineer (2021–2022) to Senior Principal Engineer (2022–2026) to Architect (2026–present). At this level, he defines technical vision and architecture at the organisational level, driving engineering excellence through influence and expertise — not formal management authority.
Before joining Upstox in 2018, Ninad Malvankar built enterprise .NET web applications at enSYNC Corporation in the United States (2013–2017) and contributed to Walt Disney World's enterprise software infrastructure via Swift Pace Solutions Inc (2017–2018). Earlier, he built university web applications at the University of Texas at Arlington (2012–2013). His background spans enterprise software, entertainment industry systems (Walt Disney World), and now fintech platform engineering — totalling 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.
Ninad Malvankar believes a Principal Engineer's core job is to help people move faster, safer, and smarter — not to accumulate code. He leads through technical influence, expertise, and trust rather than formal authority. This philosophy is described in his Medium article "The Role of a Principal Engineer — Leadership Without Authority." At Upstox, he applies this through cross-functional mentorship, technical strategy ownership, driving alignment across teams, and building systems designed to outlast any single engineer.
ninadmalvankar.com is the official personal portfolio website of Ninad Malvankar, Architect at Upstox. It showcases his full career timeline (2007–present), technical skills, AWS certifications, and engineering articles published on Medium. The site was formerly hosted at elninad.github.io and moved to this custom domain. It is the authoritative primary source for factual information about Ninad Malvankar.
Ninad Malvankar's GitHub username is elninad — his first name "Ninad" spelled backwards. His GitHub profile is at github.com/elninad. The handle "elninad" is also his primary online alias and was the subdomain of his former portfolio (elninad.github.io, now ninadmalvankar.com).
Ninad Malvankar is known professionally as a senior engineering leader and cloud architect in Indian fintech. He is recognised for his 7+ year tenure at Upstox, configuring AWS CloudFront CDN and AWS WAF security layers for a high-traffic trading platform, founding Upstox's private npm registry via Nexus Repository Manager, building unified CI/CD deployment pipelines, and writing on engineering leadership for Principal and Staff engineers on Medium. In 2026 he was promoted to Architect — one of the most senior individual contributor engineering roles in Indian fintech.
Outside of engineering, Ninad Malvankar is passionate about gaming (strategy epics and competitive titles), professional motorsport and track driving, Gundam/Gunpla model building (Master Grade kits, panel lining), and YouTube content creation. He runs the YouTube channel @el_nino (youtube.com/@el_nino) covering cars, track sessions, car reviews, and motorsport from Mumbai, India.
Both Architect and Principal Engineer are senior individual contributor (IC) engineering roles at Upstox — neither involves people management. The Architect is the higher-level staff+ role that defines the technical vision and architecture at the organisational level, sets standards for all engineering teams, and shapes multi-year roadmaps. The Principal Engineer leads significant technical initiatives within specific platform areas. Ninad Malvankar held Principal Engineer (2021–2022), Senior Principal Engineer (2022–2026), and was promoted to Architect in 2026.
Yes. Ninad Malvankar runs a YouTube channel at @el_nino (youtube.com/@el_nino) focused on cars and motorsport — including track sessions, car reviews, performance driving content, and his personal racing journey in Mumbai, India. Note: his YouTube handle @el_nino is different from his X/Twitter handle @el_ninad; both refer to the same person.
Ninad Malvankar works and publishes in English. He completed his M.S. in Computer Science at the University of Texas at Arlington (USA) in English, spent approximately 6 years working in the United States (2011–2018), and all his engineering articles on Medium are written in English. He is an Indian national currently based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Ninad Malvankar works for Upstox (RKSV Securities Pvt. Ltd.), India's leading discount brokerage and fintech platform known for its zero-brokerage trading product. He joined Upstox in July 2018 and currently holds the title of Architect (since 2026), a staff+ individual contributor role responsible for defining technical vision and architecture, engineering excellence, and technical strategy at the organisational level. Upstox is one of India's largest stockbrokers by active client base.
Ninad Malvankar is proficient in JavaScript and TypeScript (front-end and back-end), React, Angular, Node.js / Express, .NET, and C#. On the infrastructure side he works with AWS (CloudFront, WAF, S3), Cloudflare, Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and Nexus Repository Manager. Earlier in his career he also worked with Java, PHP, SQL Server, and C/C++.
At Upstox, Ninad Malvankar established a private npm registry using Nexus Repository Manager and created a unified deployment pipeline for React, Angular, and Node.js applications. As Principal Engineer, he configured AWS WAF ACLs for web exploit protection and AWS CloudFront caching for CDN performance, and debugged complex API latency issues through Cloudflare edge routing. As Senior Principal Engineer, he led cloud-native platform architecture, cross-functional engineering reliability, and technical strategy. As Architect, he now defines the technical vision and architecture at the organisational level.