Nikhil Garg
Full-stack engineer and technical architect with 12+ years of experience across Google, Coursera, and Palo Alto Networks. Co-founded a cybersecurity startup (Gamma AI, acquired by Palo Alto Networks). Led a 55-person engineering org on a $50M+ ARR SaaS security product.
Recently shipped an LLM-powered financial advisory platform with AI-generated portfolio analysis and compliance evaluation pipelines. Available for freelance - hands-on architecture, development, and technical leadership for AI-integrated products.
REVIEWS FROM CLIENTS
Invest Yadnya - Full-stack financial planning platform for a wealth advisory firm in India. Django/DRF backend, React...
Invest Yadnya - Full-stack financial planning platform for a wealth advisory firm in India. Django/DRF backend, React/TypeScript frontend, PostgreSQL, deployed on GCP Cloud Run with Terraform IaC. The platform covers portfolio management, goal planning, budgeting, insurance, and loan tracking with a multi-step onboarding wizard.
On the AI side, built two LLM-powered offeringns: (1) an advisory report pipeline that separates deterministic financial computation from LLM-generated narratives (Gemini, structured Pydantic output, async execution via Cloud Tasks), and (2) a conversational financial advisor chatbot with server-side context injection of the user's full financial state. Security was central given the sensitivity of the data - session-based auth, user-scoped data isolation, license-gated access, and structured logging across all AI interactions.
Amal (AskMeAnything.life) - Paid AMA session marketplace connecting mentors with aspiring founders. Next.js 15 (App Router) + Django backend, Razorpay payments, OTP-based mobile auth, role-based session views (anonymous, attendee, mentor, admin), SEO-optimized mentor profiles with JSON-LD structured data, and a full admin dashboard with CSV exports.
Led end-to-end development and engineering strategy for Prisma SaaS API Security — a core component of PANW's SASE strategy gener...
Led end-to-end development and engineering strategy for Prisma SaaS API Security — a core component of PANW's SASE strategy generating $50M+ ARR with 1.5–2x annual growth targets.
- Scaled the India CASB team from 5 to 55+ across Backend, Frontend, DevOps/SRE, ML Engineering, Data Science, and Cybersecurity Research — distributed across Gurgaon (40) and Bengaluru (15)
- Site lead for PANW's Gurgaon R&D center — stood up the office from scratch, managing cross-functional coordination with Ops, Security, HR, and Finance
- One of 8 key leaders for PANW India (1,300+ employees) — contributed to India-wide strategy, brand building, and center-level decisions
- Managed 4 engineering managers and collaborated with architects and distinguished engineers to drive product and platform roadmap
- Drove alignment with US-based sister teams on broader CASB strategy and stakeholder management with senior leadership
Acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2021
Co-founded a B2B SaaS data security product. Built the company from idea to acqu...
Acquired by Palo Alto Networks in 2021
Co-founded a B2B SaaS data security product. Built the company from idea to acquisition as a team of 6–8.
- Architected the entire product from scratch — Python microservices, RabbitMQ, Docker, deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine
- Grew the product to paying enterprise customers with multiple funding offers before accepting acquisition by Palo Alto Networks
- Owned the full stack end-to-end: product, backend, infrastructure, DevOps, monitoring, alerting, performance, security, and third-party integrations
- Hands-on across the entire codebase while also managing hiring, sales, and go-to-market