Software Engineer · Founder · Creative

Software Engineer.
Founder. Creative.

I'm Kush. I build backend systems, early-stage software companies, and cinematic visual work. By day I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg; before that, Amazon and Microsoft. On the side I'm building Savitr, a B2B SaaS company, and shooting weddings and events as Shot by Kush. My work sits between backend engineering, product thinking, and visual storytelling.

On time Building Savitr savitr.dev
Kush Patel holding a camera on the beach in Cancún
Departures EWR · Terminal KP
  1. 2025 KP 026 Bloomberg Sr SWE In Flight
  2. 2024 KP 025 Amazon SDE I Departed
  3. 2023 KP 024 Kinective SWE Departed
  4. 2023 KP 023 Microsoft SWE Intern Departed
  5. 2022 KP 022 Microsoft SWE Intern Departed
  6. 2021 KP 021 Rutgers IT Helpdesk Departed

01About

Engineer first, builder always.

I studied Computer Science at Rutgers, but most of what I care about I learned by shipping - at scale, on a deadline, with real users on the other end. I like software that touches real operations, not demos.

Today I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Bloomberg, working on identity and access infrastructure. Before that I built AI/ML systems at Amazon and distributed services on Azure at Microsoft, and earlier shipped banking infrastructure at a fintech startup. I care about ownership, speed, and taste - and about systems that are clean, scalable, and useful in the real world.

Outside engineering, I'm usually building Savitr (savitr.dev), shooting weddings and events as Shot by Kush, training, reading about markets and investing, or chasing good food, cars, and cameras. I'm drawn to the same thing everywhere I look - well-made systems and the discipline it takes to build them.

02Flight log

Stamps in the logbook.

Six airport codes that map the work and the life around it. Tap a card to read why it matters.

03Experience

Where I've shipped.

  1. Nov 2025 - Present New York, NY

    Senior Software Engineer · Bloomberg

    Identity & Access Management

    • Breaking a Python 2 monolith into discrete Python 3 microservices for an internal IAM platform.
  2. Dec 2024 - Oct 2025 Seattle, WA

    Software Development Engineer · Amazon

    Global Talent Management & Compensation

    • Built a Bedrock-powered rewrite copilot with retrieval-augmented prompting and safety guardrails - cut promotion-review cycle time 28% and manager drafting effort 2.8×.
    • Re-architected from Bedrock Flows to a Lambda-first orchestration layer with concurrency controls, fallbacks, and circuit breakers - 32% better p95 latency and 18% lower infra cost per 1,000 requests.
    • Shipped an LLM output evaluator (HELM-inspired) running 6k nightly evals wired into CI/CD release gates, cutting hallucinations 38%.
  3. Sept 2023 - Nov 2024 Rahway, NJ

    Software Engineer · Kinective

    Banking infrastructure

    • Built a mobile eSign product over SMS with Twilio + Azure Functions, driving a 115% improvement in document turnaround for banks and loan cores.
    • Shipped an in-house URL shortener (10-char hash) that lifted backend speed 34% across 10,000+ monthly transactions.
    • Re-architected the CosmosDB schema for elasticity - 28% cost reduction and faster reporting with fewer queries.
  4. May 2023 - Aug 2023 Redmond, WA

    Software Engineer Intern · Microsoft

    Azure Core Compute

    • Built an ML-backed microservice that cut Azure resource deployment latency 94% at P99, improving reliability under peak load.
    • Created 30 real-time Azure Monitor dashboards to sharpen service-health decisions.
    • Drove code coverage with unit tests across all major functions; ran point as Agile Scrum Master.
  5. May 2022 - Aug 2022 Redmond, WA

    SWE & PM Intern · Microsoft

    Azure Commerce & Ecosystems

    • Led a team of 3 interns building a scalable notification API that reduced latency .
    • Architected an API that minimized upstream calls and reused existing code, cutting resource usage 52%.
    • Modularized the codebase to speed up the dev cycle and accelerate feature rollouts.
  6. May 2021 - Sept 2021 North Brunswick, NJ

    Software Engineer Intern · Xupoli IT

    • Built full-stack apps serving 2,500+ daily users with end-to-end ownership.
    • Integrated 5+ patented innovations into product designs, contributing to a 21% lift in retention.
    • Engineered modern, intuitive Flutter front-ends across three applications.

04Building

What I'm building.

Founder Early-stage

Savitr

An early-stage B2B SaaS company building an integrated software suite for businesses in emerging markets - inventory management, point of sale, HR workflows, and background checking, in one operating layer. Built to be clean, scalable, and useful where the software that exists today isn't.

  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • React
  • Cloud infra
Visit savitr.dev
Creative Active

Shot by Kush

My professional photography and videography practice - South Asian weddings, events, and cinematic storytelling, shot on Canon R5 and R6 Mark II.

  • Photography
  • Video
  • Editing
  • Direction
Visit shotbykush.com

05Creative work

Shot by Kush.

I professionally shoot South Asian weddings and events - mehndi, sangeet, receptions, portraits, and full cinematic coverage - under Shot by Kush. Code teaches structure; creative work teaches timing, taste, emotion, and restraint. Photography on a Canon R5, video on a Canon R6 Mark II.

View full gallery

06Writing

Notes & thinking.

Coming soon

Notes on building useful B2B software

What it actually takes to build software that runs real operations - and the failure modes that look fine in a demo.

Coming soon

What photography teaches about product taste

Framing, restraint, and timing translate further into engineering and product than most people expect.

Coming soon

Systems, markets, and long-term ownership

Thinking about emerging markets, durable businesses, and why owning the outcome changes how you build.

Coming soon

Backend lessons from real-world constraints

Latency, cost, and reliability under load - what production teaches that tutorials never do.

07Toolkit

What I work with.

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • Java
  • C# / .NET
  • SQL

Backend

  • Node.js / Express
  • FastAPI
  • APIs
  • Microservices
  • .NET Core

Cloud & Infra

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Docker
  • ECS
  • RDS
  • CI/CD
  • Observability
  • Terraform

Frontend

  • React
  • Next.js
  • HTML / CSS

AI / ML

  • RAG
  • Prompt engineering
  • Agentic workflows
  • LLM evals
  • Guardrails

Creative

  • Lightroom
  • Photoshop
  • Premiere Pro
  • DaVinci Resolve
  • Canon R5
  • Canon R6 II

08Contact

Let's build something.

For engineering, startups, or technical collaboration - reach out directly. For wedding, event, or video work, head to Shot by Kush. Curious about Savitr? I'm always happy to talk shop.