Raj Mehrotra

I am an Engineering Manager living in New York. With over a decade of professional experience, I've worked on many different projects, from audio signal processing programs to online education platforms to ML-powered financial insights products, and now lead engineering teams shipping in regulated environments. I love learning, tinkering, building, and developing software solutions tailored to users.

More to share on what's next soon.

1. who am i

Hi, I'm Raj. I am an Engineering Manager with over a decade of professional experience. As a developer, I've been able to work on a wide range of projects, enabling me to constantly learn new technologies while also pushing me to master core concepts of the developmental tools or languages I am adopting. I am passionate about building efficient, tailored applications focused on users and their needs. I get excited by the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to data and how those insights can enhance the impact of programs and companies.

Over the past few years I transitioned from IC to engineering management at Plaid – founding the Income Verification product as its first engineer, scaling it to GA, and now leading teams building ML-powered financial insights products in regulated, FCRA-compliant environments.

I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013 with a Bachelor's in Psychology and a minor in History, and again in 2014 with a Master's in Computer Science.

I currently live in New York, NY, with a new chapter on the horizon.

2. experience

My career has spanned founding-engineer work at an early-stage health tech startup and building 0→1 products at Plaid – first as an IC and tech lead, and now as an engineering manager leading teams that ship in complex, regulated environments. Across both companies I've enjoyed being self-reliant, creative, and collaborative as I design, build, and now lead teams building software tailored to users.

Plaid July 2019 – January 2026

Engineering Manager · New York, NY · January 2023 – January 2026

• Architected the 12-month technical strategy for the Plaid Check (CRA subsidiary) platform – driving alignment with senior engineering, product, and legal/compliance partners – and led the redesign of its product APIs into a cohesive, composable interface. Derisked and delivered three MVP products within 10 months while establishing FCRA-compliance tooling and controls.
  technical strategy fcra/cra api design system design go
• Partnered with data science and MLE teams to build ML-powered cashflow insights products, serving 100+ customers in production within two years of launch. Designed shared workflows for model documentation that enabled internal knowledge sharing and external regulatory explainability.
  ml sagemaker tecton airflow
• Recruited, hired, and onboarded four engineers and one peer EM in the last 18 months while coaching existing engineers through promotions via weekly 1:1s and quarterly career conversations.
  hiring mentoring career planning

Tech Lead Manager · New York, NY · July 2022 – January 2023

• Transitioned to people management while maintaining technical leadership of the Income Verification product – growing the team from 2 to 5 engineers and doubling the customer base via data-driven conversion improvements built on Airflow pipelines that personalized the user experience based on historical patterns.
  people management airflow python data pipelines
• Reduced KTLO burden by integrating with additional data partners, simplifying internal system architecture and increasing reliability through a multi-provider strategy.
  system design reliability

Senior Software Engineer & Tech Lead · San Francisco, CA & New York, NY · July 2019 – July 2022

• Founding engineer and interim PM of Plaid's Income Verification product – owned it end-to-end from customer discovery through architecture, building a waterfall system (automated payroll integrations + OCR fallback) for 100% user coverage and a full-stack solution (APIs, data models, React) that scaled from prototype to Beta with 15+ customers as primary engineer and eventually team tech lead.
  0→1 product go typescript react.js system design
• Translated complex requirements into a year+ technical roadmap by collaborating cross-functionally with product, design, and legal partners.
  roadmap planning cross-functional leadership

Sparo Labs May 2014 – July 2019

Senior Software Engineer · San Francisco, CA (remote) · May 2014 – July 2019

• First engineering hire at a health tech startup (team of 4). Built an FDA-cleared respiratory monitoring platform from concept to 10K users, wearing multiple hats across signal processing algorithm development, project management, and customer support.
  founding engineer fda hipaa
• Architected and shipped two 0→1 FDA-cleared products: Wing (Python signal processing for a proprietary medical device) and Lift (full-stack pulmonary rehab platform), building scalable AWS/MySQL infrastructure while ensuring FDA/HIPAA compliance.
  python signal processing aws full-stack

3. skills

4. interests

When I'm not coding, I like to spend my time away from the computer screen. I play with my dog Echo as her designated ball-thrower and hiking companion. As a lifelong fan, I love to play and watch soccer, particularly Arsenal Football Club. I'm an avid and self-taught chef who enjoys making his own pasta from scratch and learning cooking techniques from different cultures.