Engineer → Product · documenting the switch

The ProductArchitect

I’m Ishaan — an engineer learning to build products, not just features. Following my path from software engineering into product management, in the open.

View the work
Open Command Center
Java · Spring BootMicroservicesOracle 23AIGenAI · RAGKubernetesCloud-NativeJava · Spring BootMicroservicesOracle 23AIGenAI · RAGKubernetesCloud-Native
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Profile

The person behind the work.

Ishaan Kalia

Ishaan Kalia

Engineer → Product

Open to work

For 3+ years I shipped enterprise banking systems at Oracle — Java microservices, high-concurrency Oracle 23AI databases, GenAI workflows. Now I'm making the move into product management: trading "how do we build it" for "what should we build, and for whom." This site is where I document that transition — the products I've worked on, the case studies I'm writing, and the product thinking I'm sharpening along the way.

Product

DiscoveryRoadmappingUser ResearchMetrics & North-StarsStakeholder MgmtFigma

Engineering Foundation

Java 8/11/17Spring BootNode.jsSQLPythonMicroservicesREST APIs

Cloud & Data

OCIAWSDockerKubernetesOracle 23AIMongoDBCI/CD

AI & Automation

GenAI RAGML PipelinesOCA AgentsLangChainRPA / UiPath
Engineering Roots

Where the product sense comes from.

Three years building and stabilizing core banking platforms at enterprise scale — the technical depth I now bring to product decisions.

Associate Software Developer

2025 — Present
Oracle·IC1 · Onsite ImplementationRemote, UK
  • Engineered and maintained Java-based microservices for Trade Finance modules (OBTFPM), optimizing release efficiency via automated DevOps pipelines for Zenith UK.
  • Owned technical workflows for Trade Finance Options/Derivatives and Import/Export Letter of Credit (LC) modules, balancing engineering effort against banking-compliance requirements.
  • Spearheaded onsite technical implementation of Trade Finance modules — sitting with the customer, translating their needs into patch-sets and end-to-end lifecycle stability.
  • Configured secure application gateways for Import/Export LC and Trade Finance Derivatives, ensuring platform reliability and data integrity.
  • Integrated OCA GenAI agents and ML pipelines to automate complex banking workflows and decision-making — my first real taste of shipping AI as a product capability.

Associate Technical Consultant

2024 — 2025
Oracle·Platform Development & MigrationBengaluru, India
  • Refactored core banking logic for v14.6 upgrades, resolving OBO library compatibility issues and ensuring zero-failure handoffs for Zenith Bank Nigeria.
  • Optimized SQL queries and execution plans in Oracle 19c to manage post-go-live stability for 41M accounts and 20M daily transactions.
  • Developed custom Node.js and JavaScript to automate OBPM parameter maintenance, eliminating manual configuration and boosting operational efficiency.
  • Led comprehensive sanity testing and Disaster Recovery (DR) rounds for eight core banking modules within strict 3-hour downtime windows.
Product Suite

Things I've built — through a product lens.

Projects from my GitHub, reframed the way I think about them now: the user, the problem, the outcome.

View all on GitHub

Cloud Automation

OCI ARM Hunter

Active

A self-serve playbook for the user who keeps hitting 'out of capacity' — automation, rate-limit strategy, and keep-alive that lands a free 4-OCPU / 24GB Oracle Cloud ARM box.

PHP10
PHPOCIBashAutomation
2026

Web3 · Crowdfunding

Handover

Live

A decentralised crowdfunding product — smart-contract-backed pledges wrapped in a front-end simple enough for non-crypto users to trust.

JavaScript32
JavaScriptWeb3EthereumSmart Contracts
2026
Execution Blueprints

Notes from the switch.

Deep dives into product decisions, scaling stories, and lessons from my move into product management — posted as I go.

View all case studies
TeardownJune 2026

I'm an engineer becoming a PM — so I built my portfolio like a product

look under the hood of a cinematic, self-updating portfolio with its own command center.

CareerProduct Thinking
5 min readRead

Outcome · A Command Center, not a dashboard prop.

EssayMay 2026

Why I'm trading the IDE for the product backlog

After three years shipping enterprise banking systems, I noticed the questions I cared about most weren't 'how do we build this' but 'should we, and for whom.' The honest reasoning behind my switch into product management.

CareerProduct Thinking
5 min readRead

Outcome · The thesis behind this whole site

Case StudyMay 2026

What stabilizing 41M accounts taught me about product trade-offs

A post-go-live story from Oracle: keeping Oracle 19c healthy across 20M daily transactions inside 3-hour downtime windows — and what it taught me about scope, risk, and the discipline of saying no.

Case StudyScaleBanking
8 min readRead

Outcome · Zero-failure handoff · Zenith Bank Nigeria

Foundations

Education & credentials.

National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur

B.Tech · Computer Science and Engineering

9.22 / 10Research: 8.87 / 10
Certification

University of Alberta

Software Product Management

92.30 / 100
Certification

The Johns Hopkins University

Social Computing Specialization

91.58 / 100
Product Metrics

The journey, instrumented.

A switch isn't a feeling. The Command Center tracks how I'm trading build time for product craft — and what I'm shipping along the way.

Open Command Center

Transition progress

62%+8% MoM

Case studies

3+3 this Q

Products worked on

2+1

PM skills leveling

12+4

Journey momentum

Learning vs. building · hours / month

LearningBuilding
Let’s build

Have a product worth
architecting?

Open to interesting problems and collaborations. The fastest way to reach me is email or a quick call.

kalia.ishaan5196@gmail.com
GitHub
+91 88943 89186