Rapid Circle takes immense pride in announcing Omkar Khair as the new Fellow. Omkar who joined Rapid Circle (then Zevenseas) as an Intern in 2011, rejoined in 2014 after running his own start-up for three years. Since then, Omkar, like a true technology agnostic, has worked on wide spectrum of technologies ranging from SharePoint, Azure, Mobile to Blockchain. Possessing innate leadership skills and an enterprise mindset, Omkar is a perfect blend of technology and innovation with of course great sense of humor. His inexplicable ability to grasp complex aspects, be it big or small, technical or non-technical, makes him stand out of the crowd.
Omkar has been a valuable contributor to various technical communities, both local and global. Being awarded as ‘Intel Software Innovator’, winning countless hackathons, proactively volunteering in communities like Pune User Group and being a walking repository of random interesting fun-facts, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration if he is called a perfect all-rounder.
With his unique style of leadership, compassion and empathy, Omkar has made Innovation Lab of Rapid Circle to evolve and relevant to the business. Read on to know how Omkar defines #peoplemakingimpact and #aheadofthecurve values of RC:
What are you working on currently? Give some details about the role you play and technology stack.
I’m leading the technical efforts in the Innovation Lab (Leap) at Rapid Circle where we focus on building products that help our customers achieve more with Microsoft Azure. Over the last 2 years we have focused on building Leap DNA, a cloud governance platform that helps enterprises extend self-provisioning capabilities to their work force by automating cloud resource provisioning in a compliant manner. For example, Cloud Admins do not have to manually setup resources like Data Factory before handing them over to the Data Science teams. They can automate these workflows and do more in terms of compliance administration.
In this role, I participate in customer interviews to capture problem statements and coordinate information with our Business Lead (Amir Khan). This helps us formulate a roadmap and design our products to addresses common customer problems.
What is the most favourite part of your job?
I enjoy engineering challenges and I find them at every step in my current role. In addition to that I have the opportunity of working with a high caliber engineering team that keeps on raising the bar. It is difficult to find a person around who hasn’t contributed to my learning.
What was your most challenging project so far? What were the take-aways?
Building Leap DNA in my current role has been quite a challenge. Designing and delivering a platform that can cater to rapidly evolving requirements of multiple customers was the first challenge I faced. However, engineering challenges were quickly overshadowed by the dynamics of a multi-vendor environment. Engaging with multiple stakeholders and creating a win-win situation for everyone at the table required a lot of learning.
It has been a priority for the team to maintain excellent technical communication to help assure internal and external stakeholders and drive successful deliveries. At the same time maintaining a clear vision for the product has been essential for long term success. Day to day activities with Leap DNA have been about maintaining a balance between short-term and long-term goals.
How has your job/responsibilities changed over the years working at Rapid Circle?
I first joined Rapid Circle as an intern working on ASP.net and JavaScript. After trying my hands on my own startup for 3 years, I joined Rapid Circle as a .NET Developer in 2014. I got the opportunity to contribute to Attini (Intranet News platform). I helped refactor APIs, build companion apps for Windows/Windows Phone. Alongside I started getting acquainted with SharePoint a platform on which most of our intranet solutions were being developed. This gave me the much-needed exposure while working with our European customers, understanding their business requirements, and formulating technical solutions.
Over time I was fortunate enough to be part of teams that build Intellectual Property (IP) with projects like Charts365, Organisational Pulse, Leap ALM, Leap ID and now Leap DNA. As the Technical Lead of Leap DNA, I find the opportunity solve problems beyond engineering; working with customers and identifying new opportunities for our products to address.
What are your best memories working here?
It is very difficult to pin down a single memory; but this one from 2014, few weeks since my joining stands out. I was new to the Attini team still finding ways to contribute. Sarang Kulkarni was the lead and had given me some time to figure things out. Around 6pm one day, while we were about to wrap for the day, a severe bug got reported by a customer intending to use the Intranet new platform to publish news for their few thousand employees. Sarang was back at his desk in minutes and indicated to the team that this is going to need some serious attention. I saw the whole team unpack and setup in a conference room. No one was obliged to stay but the team just came together to get this resolved.
As a young engineer fan of hack nights during university days, this was the real deal. I absolutely enjoyed the energy in the room. I don’t recall myself contributing materially to the bug busting efforts, but Sarang and the team ensured I was able to participate the way I can. Be it comparing branches or monitoring the build. Sarang had urged people to head home, but everyone stayed. We had teammates curling up on bean bags to catch sleep when they can. The bug was resolved, and a hotfix was released. We had spent the night at work. The next day morning we got a call from Suyog Patki (Director) who got news of the team staying back and dropped by to take us for breakfast and asked us to take the next day off.
This whole episode introduced me to the core values of the organisation. The team didn’t think twice before spending the night and exercising their responsibility due to their confidence in the empathetic leadership. This is just one of the many memories that will stick with me.
How would you summarise your journey with Rapid Circle?
After I had to take a difficult decision to shut down my startup, Rapid Circle was the obvious choice since I would operate in an environment that is transparent in its workings and help me learn what it takes to run a successful technology company. Seven years later when I retrospect this decision I can validate the rationale. I have had the unique opportunity to work with some of the smartest yet grounded people. I got the opportunity to witness how the organization has grown globally curating Cloud Pioneers and keeps creating value for customers.
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