Vivek Ranjan

Staff Software Engineer with 10+ years track record of leading agile teams and delivering high-impact, scalable, full-stack systems using Python, Java, TypeScript, React, Next.js, and AWS. Enjoys collaborating across teams to solve significant, real-world problems while relentlessly discovering ways to optimize software systems and organizational delivery processes.

Skills

Backend
Python, NodeJS, Java, SQL (MS SQL Server, Postgres)
Frontend
Typescript, React, Next.js
Infrastructure/Other
Agentic AI Coding (Cursor, Claude Code, Junie, etc), AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, SQS/SNS, ECS, ECR, Fargate, ElasticBeanstalk, Cloudformation, CDK, S3, EC2, RDS, IAM, etc), Datadog, Grafana (Loki, Prometheus, etc), CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes (kubectl, Helm, k9s, etc), Agile, Scrum, Shell

Work Experience

Staff Software Engineer

Capsule
April 2025 - Present
  • Designed and implemented an LLM-powered AI agent system using Pydantic AI that accelerated prior authorization processing by 70%, directly improving patient access to medication.
  • Designed event-driven task routing system using microservices to distribute prescription processing failures to pharmacists and technicians based on real-time availability
  • Improved database performance leading to 21% reduction in CPU usage, 35% reduction in IOPS and 50% reduction in costs.
  • Backend - Python, pytest, Django, PostgresSQL
  • Frontend - Typescript, Next.js, React, Vite
  • Infrastructure/Other - Docker, Kubernetes, AWS (Lambda, ElastiCache, EKS, RDS, SQS/SNS), Shell, CI/CD pipelines, Sentry, Grafana (Prometheus, Loki)

Staff Software Engineer

Renaissance Learning
February 2022 - April 2025
  • Proposed & led project: Achieved 73% cost reduction by moving batch jobs to AWS Fargate.
  • Created an IaC framework (Python, AWS CDK, Docker) that raised deployment frequency by 40% and streamlined batch‑job development for all teams.
  • Mentored multiple engineers leading to their promotions and improvement of their technical skills.
  • Backend - Python, pytest, Java, Spring (MVC), Groovy/Spock, Microsoft SQL Server
  • Frontend - Vue/Vuex, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Jest
  • Infrastructure/Other - Docker, AWS (ECS/ECR, Fargate, CDK, RDS, Aurora Serverless), Shell, CI/CD pipelines, Datadog, Cronitor

Lead Software Engineer

Renaissance Learning
June 2019 - February 2022
  • Led project: UX redesign implementation of crucial progress monitoring tool used by educators and millions of students. Modernized frontend (Vue, Vuex, Jest) and optimized backend (Java, Spring, REST, Hibernate, MS SQL Server, Groovy/Spock).
  • Proposed & led project: Reduced engineering effort by 4 weeks annually by building a microservice driven content‑management system on AWS Aurora Serverless, Lambda, and API Gateway with a Vue front‑end.
  • Proposed & led project: Doubled deployment frequency and saved 10 hrs/week by automating monolith deployments and adding end‑to‑end CI/CD tests with Docker and CloudFormation
  • Backend - Python, pytest, Java, Spring (MVC), Groovy/Spock, Microsoft SQL Server, AWS Aurora (serverless Postgres)
  • Frontend - Vue/Vuex, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Jest
  • Infrastructure/Other - Docker, AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, ElasticBeanstalk, CloudFormation, IAM, RDS, Aurora Serverless), Shell, CI/CD pipelines, Datadog

Lead Software Engineer

FastBridge Learning
February 2018 - June 2019
  • Led project to deliver a web application that provides easy access to millions of data points that help educators understand the performance of all students in a mid-western state.
  • Worked with a scrum team to build a datawarehouse in AWS Redshift, a microservice serving REST APIs using Spring Boot, and a JS-based frontend to render data as user-friendly reports.

Senior Software Engineer

FastBridge Learning
February 2017 - February 2018
  • Reduced load time by 98% for a web-based graphical and tabular report used by educators to inform instructional methodology for at-risk students.

Founding Engineer

FastBridge Learning
June 2015 - February 2017
  • 4th engineer at Seed-stage startup that reached $20M ARR and successful exit.

Education

Master of Science, Computer Science

University of Minnesota
2013 - 2016