Amith Pallankize
MBA Candidate · Ex-Microsoft SWE III · Data & AI
Education
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
2025–2027MBA Candidate · AI for Business, Operations & Information Systems
GMAT 100th percentile (765). Working at the intersection of AI product strategy and enterprise systems — built an agentic AI financial forecasting system with UKG Enterprise AI, combining model design with a conversational agent for finance leaders.
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
2014–2019Dual Degree — Computer Science & Economics · GPA 8.3/10
Dual degree that grounded both engineering depth and systems-level thinking. Led campus operations as Chief Sponsorship Head and Chief Student Staff of the Alumni Association — roles that built the stakeholder management instincts used throughout Microsoft.
Research
Research summers at two top institutions. At the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute (2019), worked on multi-modal transfer learning for robotic grasping — teaching vision models to handle transparent and specular objects that break standard perception pipelines. At the Indian Institute of Science (2018), built simulation environments to generate synthetic training data for self-driving models, bridging the gap between sim and real-world deployment.
IEEE RA-L / ICRA 2020
"Multi-Modal Transfer Learning for Grasping Transparent and Specular Objects"
Experience
Microsoft Corporation
2019–2025Software Engineer I → III · Enterprise Data Platform & Intelligence · Hyderabad
Built data platforms, business intelligence tools, analytics dashboards, and automation bots that enabled 40,000+ employees to deliver value across a $2B+ Azure business. Three fast-tracked promotions in 52 months (vs. the standard 66); became the youngest vendor team lead. The through-line: turning messy enterprise data into trusted, governed, actionable intelligence — and progressively layering AI on top of that foundation.
Digital Transformation
Redesigned the data and analytics stack end-to-end for AI readiness — evaluated platforms on cost, governance, and performance, then designed the target data model and refresh strategy. Created a single source of truth across sales, delivery, support, renewals, and finance. Halved data refresh times and saved ~$2M/year.
Data & Analytics
Pioneered LLM-assisted process mining on event logs to map real workflows across intake, staffing, and time tracking — then automated the bottlenecks, delivering $4.7M in annual savings. Owned the centralized telemetry layer behind 250 dashboards used by 40K+ employees, cutting analysis time ~70% while lowering compute costs.
Data Security
After a security incident, redesigned data access with a metadata-based policy engine and automated persona-based approvals across 15+ data stores. Cut provisioning from ~72 hours to minutes, increased governed usage ~50%, and reduced security tickets 60%. Built a privacy-first ML sandbox that let 8 teams train on production-grade signals without touching sensitive data.
Enterprise BI
Designed and launched an AI tool that analyzes incoming work requests and recommends standardized delivery assets instead of custom builds — 75% match accuracy, modeling $100M+ in quarterly upside at 10% adoption. Wrote the PRD, defined success metrics, and pitched leadership to secure the investment.
Patent Award — Data access & security framework with automated provisioning and auditing
Mid-Year Talent Investment Bonus — Rare recognition, third year at Microsoft
Domains & Skills
Data Engineering & Analytics
AI & LLM Applications
Cloud & Security
Product & Strategy