Open to opportunities

Lakshmi Ponakala

@lakshmiponakala

Message

Java Full Stack Developer with 7+ years building scalable microservices and cloud-native applications.

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

I seek a senior engineering role delivering cloud-native Java microservices with strong observability, CI/CD automation, and collaborative Agile teams.

I am a Java Full Stack Developer with 7+ years of experience across the full SDLC, specializing in Java/J2EE, Spring Boot microservices, and cloud-native deployments. I have driven migrations from monoliths to microservices, implemented CI/CD pipelines, and built monitoring/alerting solutions using Grafana, Prometheus, Dynatrace, and ELK to ensure production reliability.

I deliver end-to-end solutions including REST/SOAP services, Kafka-based integrations, Docker/Kubernetes orchestration, and automation for test and deployment. I collaborate in Agile teams, lead production support efforts, and continuously improve system stability and observability while leveraging Java 8+, Kotlin, SQL and modern front-end frameworks when required.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Java Backend Developer

Walmart

Mar 2025 - Aug 2025 (5 months)

Migrated workflows from a legacy application to microservices, developed orchestrator APIs to enrich and route data, improved test coverage and automated E2E functional tests, and supported production deployments on Walmart private cloud.

Java Spring Boot Microservices Docker Kubernetes Kafka Maven CI CD

Production Support Engineer

Walmart

Jul 2024 - Jan 2025 (6 months)

Provided L2 production support, resolved incidents within SLAs, implemented monitoring and alerting with Grafana/Dynatrace/Splunk, and performed RCA on data pipeline issues using the ELK stack.

Splunk Grafana Dynatrace ELK Postman Troubleshooting Incident Management

Java Backend Developer

Citi Bank

Aug 2021 - Jun 2024 (2 years 10 months)

Led backend development across SDLC, converted monolith to Spring Boot microservices, built REST APIs, implemented Kafka messaging and test automation, and deployed services to PCF/AKS with monitoring via Splunk.

Java 8 Spring Boot Microservices Kafka PCF REST Hibernate Selenium Splunk

Software Engineer

CGI

Jun 2020 - Aug 2021 (1 year 2 months)

Converted monolithic apps to microservices using Spring Boot, developed REST services, implemented Spring Batch and job scheduling, and used MySQL/PL-SQL with Splunk for log analysis and CI/CD pipelines.

Spring Boot Microservices REST MySQL Pl SQL Splunk Jenkins Docker

Software Engineer

Assurant

Apr 2018 - Jun 2020 (2 years 2 months)

Developed front-end features with Angular/React and back-end REST APIs in Spring, implemented CI/CD pipelines, supported batch jobs and production fixes, and contributed to DevOps and Elasticsearch POCs.