Open to opportunities

Akbar User

@akbaruser

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Strategic technology leader driving cloud, AI, and legacy modernization.

India

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What I'm looking for

I seek leadership roles driving cloud modernization and AI adoption in outcome-focused teams prioritizing agile delivery, upskilling, governance, and measurable business impact.

I am a strategic technology and transformation leader with 19+ years of international experience delivering cloud migrations, legacy system modernization, and AI-enabled solutions across healthcare, insurance, eLearning, and telecom.

I have led large cross-functional teams, managed multi-crore budgets, and executed enterprise-scale modernization programs that reduced costs and accelerated delivery—examples include COBOL-to-.NET migrations, Sybase-to-SQL Server data platform moves, and containerization on OpenShift and AKS.

I build practical AI solutions and governance: I led an internal RAG-based AI Knowledge Assistant (Python, ReactJS, ChromaDB), agentic AI for partner communications, and piloted GitHub Copilot rollouts with policy and usage patterns that drove measurable productivity savings.

I focus on people and outcomes—hiring and upskilling engineers, instituting Agile/SAFe practices, and implementing governance and observability to ensure predictable delivery, strong SLA performance, and measurable business impact.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Legacy Transformation Manager

Current

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee

Jun 2022 - Present (3 years 4 months)

Led enterprise-scale health data platform migration and legacy modernization initiatives, built an internal RAG-based AI Knowledge Assistant, and reduced modernization costs while improving deployment speed and scalability.

Cloud Migration SQL Server Python ReactJS ChromaDB RAG AI Governance .NET Containerization

Development Manager

SumTotal Systems

May 2019 - Jun 2022 (3 years 1 month)

Led delivery of three enterprise SaaS products and an 18-member cross-functional Agile team, modernized monoliths into real-time microservices, and increased sprint completion and engineering velocity through governance and CI/CD improvements.

C++Cassandra SQL Server Kafka Microservices Agile CI CD Team Leadership DevOps

Development Lead

SumTotal Systems

Mar 2016 - Apr 2019 (3 years 1 month)

Led migration of 300+ customers to cloud LMS with 99.5% migration success, authored deployment playbooks to reduce errors, and established 24/7 SWAT incident response to resolve high-severity escalations.

.NET SQL Server ETL Incident Management DevOps Release Management

Data Warehouse & ETL Specialist

SumTotal Systems

Apr 2014 - Feb 2016 (1 year 10 months)

Developed report migration utilities and integrated SQL Server CDC/replication into ETL pipelines, reducing job failures and turnaround times while improving post-deployment validation and recovery processes.

ETL SSIS SQL Server .NET Automation)Data Warehousing Automation

Reporting Module Developer

SumTotal Systems

Feb 2013 - Mar 2014 (1 year 1 month)

Enhanced advanced reporting for LMS using Jaspersoft and SSRS, optimized replication and ETL processes, and reduced critical incidents while improving reporting accuracy and user self-service capabilities.

ASP.NET SQL Server ETL Reporting Performance Tuning

Software Engineer

SumTotal Systems

Jan 2010 - Sep 2012 (2 years 8 months)

Built and maintained the ReportManager reporting backbone, developed ETL pipelines using CDC/change tracking, and implemented a migration tool that halved server-to-server migration time.

ETL SQL Server ASP.NET Java Reporting

Software Engineer

Tata Consultancy Services

Nov 2005 - Dec 2009 (4 years 1 month)

Delivered .NET and SQL applications across healthcare, travel, and telecom domains with full delivery adherence, performed onsite delivery in Canada, and improved report performance through query refactoring.