VP Systems Engineering · Solace

Thomas Kunnumpurath

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I lead a team of 15 engineers across the Americas, helping enterprises move to real-time event-driven architectures — and I still write code, ship open source, and give talks.

Thomas Kunnumpurath

About

Engineering leadership, still hands on keys

A technical leader with a proven track record of scaling teams, driving innovation, and delivering enterprise-grade solutions.

As Vice President of Systems Engineering at Solace, I lead a team of 15 engineers across the Americas, focusing on Event Driven Architecture and cloud-native solutions. My journey spans over 15 years in the financial services and technology sectors.

I'm passionate about building scalable systems, mentoring engineering talent, and evangelising modern architectural patterns — from hands-on development through to executive-level technical strategy.

Event Driven ArchitectureCloud SolutionsTeam LeadershipTechnical StrategyPublic Speaking
01
15+
Years Experience
Financial services & infrastructure
02
3x
Team Growth
Scaled the Americas SE org
03
10+
Speaking Events
re:Invent, EDA Summit, podcasts
04
100+
Customer Engagements
Architecture to executive

Currently

Role
VP, Systems Engineering
Company
Solace · since 2018
Team
15 engineers, Americas
Focus
Event mesh & cloud-native

Day to day

Solace PubSub+Apache KafkaRedpandaAWSAzureGCPJavaGoLangElixirRustSvelteSpring BootSnowflakeDatabricksMuleSoftDell BoomiTIBCO EMS

Career

Professional Experience

Over 15 years of progressive leadership in systems engineering, from hands-on development to executive technical strategy.

Solace

2018 - Present Remote

Vice President of Systems/PreSales Engineering, Americas

Promoted to VP role with mandate to scale team, increase technical wins, contribute to product strategy, build product, lead partnership efforts and be a technical evangelist.

Key achievements
  • Scaled the Systems Engineering organization 3x (5 to 15 headcount) while maintaining culture and delivery velocity. Established hiring frameworks and mentorship programs to upskill the team on modern architectures.
  • Partnered with Sales leadership to open high-value verticals (Airlines, Manufacturing, SaaS), aligning technical pre-sales engineering with GTM strategy to exceed regional revenue targets.
  • Played a key role, with both architecture guidance and hands on coding, in the delivery of critical connectors (Databricks, Snowflake, GraphQL, DAPR). These integrations expanded the platform's Total Addressable Market (TAM) and reduced customer friction.
  • Served as Executive Sponsor for strategic alliances with major hyperscalers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and data platforms (Snowflake, Databricks). Facilitated high-level technical engagements to drive co-sell opportunities and ecosystem compatibility.
  • Helped define the company's voice on Event-Driven Architecture as a featured speaker at Tier-1 industry conferences (AWS re:Invent, EDA Summit) and podcasts, strengthening brand authority and developer relations.
  • Leading the Solutions Engineering effort in the Americas for Solace Agent Mesh, our breakthrough Agentic AI solution. Involved with market analysis, competitive positioning, product-market fit validation, and scaling the specialized team to support this next-generation AI infrastructure platform.
Event Driven ArchitectureAWSSnowflakeDAPRGraphQLMicroservices

CapitalOne

2017 - 2018 New York

Software Development Manager

Manager for a new team of engineers building microservices in AWS using agile methodologies for the upmarket credit card business.

Key achievements
  • Architected a high-performance microservices layer in GoLang to streamline integrations with fintech startups, accelerating the bank’s partnership ecosystem and reducing vendor onboarding time.
  • Engineered mission-critical Java Spring Boot services for credit card controls, delivering real-time restriction capabilities that enhanced risk management and regulatory compliance.
  • Designed scalable, event-driven architectures for identity verification. Implemented batch processing strategies to handle high-volume authentication triggers efficiently.
  • Piloted the engineering internship program for the team, mentoring a team of three developers. Successfully guided the cohort to deliver internal communication tooling (SNS/Slack) used for operational alerts.
GoLangJavaSpring BootAWSJenkinsMicroservicesREST APIs

Deutsche Bank

2008 - 2017 New York

Vice President, Lead Messaging Middleware Specialist

Lead for enterprise messaging middleware group supporting mission critical real-time trading systems. Multi-disciplinary role encompassing client management, technical expertise, and application development.

Key achievements
  • Spearheaded the firm-wide migration from legacy TIBCO Rendezvous to Solace messaging infrastructure. This multi-year initiative modernized the bank's trading backbone, significantly reducing latency and infrastructure TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
  • Architected and delivered internal middleware management platforms, reducing operational toil and providing self-service capabilities to global application teams.
  • Served as the Front Office Technology Lead for graduate and intern recruitment, establishing the hiring rubric and mentoring the next generation of fintech engineers.
  • Engineered low-latency trading support solutions using Core Java and KDB+, ensuring real-time visibility into complex trading environments.
TIBCO RendezvousSolaceCore JavaKDBAurelia JSInformatica UltraMessaging
2008 — start of the trail

Capabilities

Skills & Expertise

A skill set spanning technical leadership, architecture design, and business strategy, developed over 15+ years in the industry.

01

Leadership & Strategy

  • Team Scaling
  • Technical Strategy
  • Product Management
  • Public Speaking
4 areas
02

Programming Languages

  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • GoLang
  • Elixir
  • Rust
5 areas
03

Frameworks & Libraries

  • Spring Framework
  • Spring Cloud Stream
  • Spring Boot
  • AureliaJS
  • Svelte
  • VueJS
  • TailwindCSS
7 areas
04

Cloud Platforms

  • AWS
  • Azure
  • GCP
3 areas
05

Event Brokers

  • Solace PubSub+
  • Apache Kafka
  • Redpanda
  • TIBCO EMS
  • TIBCO RV
5 areas
06

Integration Platforms

  • Dell Boomi
  • MuleSoft
2 areas
07

Analytics Platforms

  • Snowflake
  • Databricks
2 areas
08

Architecture & Design

  • Event Driven Architecture
  • Microservices
  • Cloud Architecture
  • System Design
4 areas
09

Business Impact

  • Customer Engagement
  • Partnership Development
  • Technical Evangelism
  • Solution Architecture
4 areas

Selected work

Featured Portfolio

Open source projects, conference stages, podcasts, and publications — the work that happens outside the org chart.

Speaking

Solace Office Hours - Solace in Finance

I explained my experience deploying and building on Solace at an Investment Bank along with a 101 on Fixed Income!

Watch the talk
Project

Experimenting with Three.js, shaders and a Holographic Solly (Solace Mascot)

A 3D Interactive Web App using Three.js (via Threlte) that uses shaders to achieve a holographic effect

Learn more
Speaking

EDA Summit Talk - Jet Streams & Market Streams: Navigating EDA in Aviation and Proprietary Trading

I was the moderator for a panel discussion at the EDA Summit 2024 conference where we discussed the challenges and solutions of EDA with CTC and United Airlines.

Learn more
01/04

Credentials

Education & Recognition

Academic achievements, professional certifications, industry recognition, and community involvement.

Degree

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

New Jersey Institute of Technology · Newark, NJ

4.0 major GPA Class of 2005

Professional Certifications

AWS Certified Developer

2017

Google Cloud Certified Developer

2018

Chartered Financial Analyst Level 1

2010

Awards & Recognition

Solace Simply Stunning Award

Quota achievement

2022, 2023, 2025, 2026

Solace Individual Contributor Award

Cloud spending optimisation

2019

CapitalOne Hackathon Creative Award

Innovation winner

2017

Deutsche Bank My Recognition Award

Outstanding performance

2014

Corporate Volunteering

Habitat for Humanity

Career services and food packing initiatives

2006 – 2018

C1 Coders

Coding lessons to middle schoolers

2017

Coding Camp at St. Paul's School

Volunteer instructor

2022 – 2023

Boy Scouts of America - Cub Scouts - Den Leader

Volunteer Leader

2025 – Present

Writing

Latest Blog Posts

Insights on event-driven architecture, modern development practices, and emerging technologies — from real-world implementations.

Contact

Let's build something event-driven

Opportunities, collaborations, or speaking engagements — I'm always interested in connecting with fellow technologists and industry leaders.

Message me on LinkedIn

LinkedIn

/in/tkthetechie

Connect professionally

GitHub

@TKTheTechie

Code & open source

X

@tkthetechie

Tech commentary

Speaking engagements

Conferences, panels, and podcasts on event-driven architecture.

Consulting opportunities

Architecture review, platform strategy, and team scaling.

Always happy to connect

With fellow technologists and engineering leaders.

TK TheTechie

Building scalable systems, leading engineering teams, and evangelising modern architectural patterns.

Sections

Writing

Press ⌘K to jump anywhere

© 2026 Thomas Kunnumpurath. All rights reserved.

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