Akash Nikam - Senior Software Engineer

About me

I'm a Senior Software Engineer at John Deere, where I build systems software in C++ - real-time protocol stacks, connection lifecycle state machines, and large-scale embedded platforms running in production on agricultural hardware.

My focus is distributed systems and reliability: a CAN bus message parser decoding J1939/ISOBUS frames at up to 1,000 Hz with sub-millisecond latency, multi-path failover across CAN/FTP/MQTT, and a health monitoring system with sub-second heartbeat polling and a <0.1% false positive rate.

I also built Plant Brain, a production RAG platform that uses PostgreSQL as an ACID-compliant append-only audit log - which pulled me deeper into databases. I'm now studying TimescaleDB internals: hypertable architecture, compression, and how time-series engines extend Postgres at scale. Genuinely interested in moving from systems that use databases to systems that build them.

Before Deere, I spent 2+ years at Mavenir building Go microservices on SingleStore for telecom-grade analytics - high-frequency polling, concurrent goroutines, and distributed data storage in a production, Kubernetes-based environment.

Pune, IndiaOpen to remoteSystems & C++Databases

Experience

Where I've worked

5+ years building systems software in C++ and Go - real-time embedded platforms, distributed telecom infrastructure, and database-backed systems.

Full profile ↗

John Deere

Senior Software Engineer - AI Agents & Backend

Oct 2023 - Present · Pune, Hybrid

Wrote a CAN bus message parser in C++ - parsed raw J1939/ISOBUS frames into accurate structured messages with correct byte ordering, signal extraction, and timing-sensitive protocol handling for embedded agricultural hardware running at up to 1,000 Hz at sub-millisecond latency in production.
Designed and built connection lifecycle state machines from scratch in C++ - per-error recovery paths, sub-second async/non-blocking event processing, and graceful state transitions under real-time embedded constraints. Same discipline as database concurrency control and transaction state management.
Worked across a large-scale production C++14/17 codebase - navigated complex module dependencies, applied resource management, smart pointer ownership semantics, and polymorphic interface hierarchies. Authored Protocol Buffer schemas across 50+ .proto files for a layered data streaming stack with session management and file transfer services.
Designed multi-path failover architecture across CAN, FTP, and MQTT - independent health checks per path, automatic protocol switching on failure. Continuous data flow with zero manual intervention, even during partial infrastructure outages.
Built a production health monitoring system with 1-second heartbeat polling, RTT-based degradation detection 30–60s before failure, and a 150-second field-validated SLO threshold. Achieved <0.1% false positive rate and zero missed disconnects.
Architected a billing-critical distributed data pipeline - Collect → Persist → Reconstitute → Verify - using SQLite, protobuf serialization, and checksum validation at every stage. Zero data loss, zero duplication across all production revenue records tied to billing.
Built distributed M2M collaboration services (MQTT pub/sub + protobuf contracts) enabling real-time sharing of coverage maps, session context, and work state across coordinated machine fleets - consumed by 20+ equipment plugins across the organization.
Built Plant Brain, a production RAG platform that uses PostgreSQL as an ACID-compliant append-only audit log and full-text fallback layer - 3-lane parallel retrieval (Qdrant hybrid BM25 + dense vector search + entity graph, fused via RRF), secure multi-tenant isolation (RBAC scoping, prompt-injection defence), a 50-question eval harness with cross-model grading, and a 6-layer fallback architecture with zero silent failures. Pilot live - technicians querying in production.
Designed and shipped a 12-agent AI orchestration platform covering the full SDLC, deployed across 3–4 engineering teams and cutting engineering time by 50–70%. Also built a real-time machine visualization UI from scratch, delivered ~50% faster than the traditional estimate.

Mavenir

Member of Technical Staff I (R&D)

Mar 2022 - Oct 2023 · 1 yr 8 mos · Remote

Built a production Go service for a high-frequency analytics notification system - polls CouchDB every 100ms, matches epoch-time triggers, dispatches notifications, and auto-expires entries after 30 minutes. Used goroutines and channels for concurrent, non-blocking delivery at scale.
Used SingleStore for distributed data storage and document management across Go microservices in production - hands-on with its query model, distributed data patterns, and performance characteristics in a real-time service architecture. Also worked with CouchDB for document management.
Designed and implemented versioned OpenAPI specifications in Go for a microservice platform, making APIs fully configurable for future version changes and significantly reducing migration effort.
Contributed to NWDAF application development on a microservice architecture in Go - service-to-service APIs, distributed state management, and production deployment across Kubernetes-based infrastructure.
Worked with Go, Docker, and Kubernetes throughout R&D - containerized services, K8s deployment patterns, and service-mesh communication in a production microservice environment.
Collaborated cross-functionally with R&D teams to design, build, and ship Go services handling concurrent workloads, real-time data pipelines, and distributed notification systems at telecom scale.

Mavenir

Graduate Engineer

Mar 2021 - Feb 2022 · 1 yr · Remote

Worked hands-on with Go, Docker, and Kubernetes in a production microservice architecture - containerized service deployment, K8s service-mesh patterns, and inter-service communication across distributed components.
Wrote unit tests across 2–3 microservices, improving coverage and reliability of core services - disciplined about testing and regression prevention from day one.
Resolved bugs on the Prediction Application by triaging issues, identifying root causes, and shipping fixes under production constraints - building strong debugging instincts across distributed Go services.
Used CouchDB for document management alongside Go microservices in a distributed data architecture.

AkashNikam

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