Blurb:
About Gautham Narayanan:
Gautham has a strong track record in applied AI, backend systems, and product-focused engineering. He spent over 1.5 years contributing to Microsoft’s internal Viva Insights platform, where he worked on building data feedback pipelines for data scientists, business managers, and engineering leads across eight Teams-integrated apps.
In parallel, he’s been leading technical development on his own platform, Forward, where he serves as an AI + backend engineer. The product is a career co-pilot tailored for engineers in non-software fields (aerospace, mechanical, semiconductor), bridging the gap between career counseling and job search using AI. The project is already in closed pilots with several organizations including San Jose State University, Mom Relaunch, City of Santa Cruz Workforce Development, and Christo Rey Schools.
He actively experiments with cutting-edge technologies and puts them into production through Forward—including GPT-4o and DeepSeek LLMs, LangChain, and vector databases like Milvus and Pinecone. He’s experienced across backend (Node.js), frontend (React, Next.js), and cloud (Azure, AWS), with CI/CD through GitHub Actions and Docker.
Gautham is a proactive engineer who consistently seeks out complex, impactful problems and builds practical, scalable solutions—whether in industry or through his own initiatives.
Shorter version: Gautham is a strong backend and AI engineer with experience at Microsoft on Viva Insights and as the technical lead of Forward, an AI-powered career platform for engineers in non-software fields. He works across Node.js, React, Azure, AWS, LangChain, and GPT-4o. His work is already in pilots with San Jose State, Santa Cruz Workforce, and others. He brings production-level skills and a focus on real-world impact when presenting a solution.
Updated version:
About Me(Current Impact)
Gautham is a strong backend and AI engineer with experience at Microsoft, where he built internal data pipelines serving business managers, data scientists, and engineering leads. He is also the founder of Forward, an AI-enabled career exploration platform designed for engineers outside the software industry. He works across a diverse tech stack including Node.js, Next.js, Azure, LangChain, GPT-4o, Gemma2, Pinecone, and Flask.
Forward is already in pilot with San Jose State University, Mom Relaunch, and the Santa Cruz Workforce Development Board. His recent success with short-term data analysis at Sattvic Meals Foundation helped secure $16,000 in government grants to address student hunger across four California community colleges.
With diverse experience across product engineering, applied AI, and community-driven initiatives, Gautham brings a cross-functional mindset that strengthens team adaptability, supports interdisciplinary collaboration, and drives meaningful product outcomes.