SBK

Hi, I'm Surendra Balakrishnan

Driving Technical Strategy and Team Excellence

I am a seasoned Technology Leader and Consultant with 20+ years of expertise in the full SDLC, specializing in defining and executing technical roadmaps for mission-critical applications.

My focus is on team leadership, mentorship, and effective stakeholder communication. I excel not only at translating complex requirements into robust, scalable architectures but also at transforming complex data into clear, actionable Power BI dashboards and reports for senior management.

I excel at driving modernization initiatives, managing the transition of legacy systems to modern .NET Core/MVC patterns, and implementing governance across development, database management (Oracle, SQL), and DevOps practices.

Featured Leadership Engagements

Application Development, Architecture, & Team Leadership

Jul 2017 – Present

Client: Ohio Department of Education | Technical Specialist & Consultant
Managed and mentored a cross-functional development team while dedicating to hands-on development. Involed in the strategic migration of core applications to Azure. Defined the SOA architecture and development standards for new educational web apps (Career Pathways, Adult Learner etc.). Responsible for database integrity, performance tuning (Oracle, SQL), and ensuring project delivery met state regulatory standards.

Hands-on Design & Development Team Mentorship Azure Migration

Legacy Application Modernization & Service Development

Jul 2016 – Jul 2017

Client: Ohio Department of Insurance | Sr. Consultant
Directed the analysis and rewrite of classic ASP/VB.NET applications into modern C# Web Forms and MVC5 patterns using a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Developed critical web applications used by insurance examiners to track complaints, audits, and licenses. Focused on client-side development using jQuery, Knockout JS, and AJAX for efficient data transfer and developed stored procedures in PL/SQL (Oracle) for data persistence.

Legacy Rewrite MVC5 & SOA Knockout JS

Financial Systems Technical Management

Sep 2014 – Jul 2016

Full-Time Employee (FTE) at JP Morgan Chase & Co. | Technical Lead / Sr. Associate
Led the full project lifecycle for the Global Regulatory Data Share (RDS) system. Served as a Certified Application Security Champion (JPMC), establishing secure coding standards, defining best practices for high-security applications, and managing the deployment pipeline (Jenkins/TFS). Key responsibilities included coordinating development efforts across all layers (C#/.NET 4.5, MVC5, SQL Server) and ensuring audit compliance for the high-volume data system.

Project Leadership Security Champion Process Optimization

Multi-Client Enterprise Solutions & Modernization

2008 – 2014

Clients: FedEx, Thomson Reuters, Pearson Education | Team Lead / Senior Developer
Successfully led small teams and contributed technically to the development and enhancement of large-scale systems (FSM, Eikon, Pegasus). Focused on full-stack development, transitioning legacy applications (ASP/VB.NET) to modern ASP.NET MVC/C# architectures. Expertise in 3-tier architecture, client-side optimization (jQuery/AJAX), and comprehensive testing for high-volume enterprise applications.

Legacy Modernization Full-Stack Development TDD & Unit Testing

Core Leadership & Technical Domains

💡 Strategic Leadership & Planning
Azure Cloud & DevOps Governance
SOA / MVC Architectural Design
DB Strategy (SQL Server, Oracle)
λ C# / .NET Core & Framework
👥 Stakeholder Engagement & Mentoring
📊 Data Visualization & Power BI Reporting
🔗 ORM (NHibernate) & WCF Services
🎨 Front-End (AngularJS, Knockout JS)
🔄 Agile Methodologies & Scrum Management

Let's Connect