Bhawna Saxena
Fremont
Summary
Results-oriented Director of Engineering skilled in managing teams to achieve operational excellence. Focus on process optimization and strategic planning leads to increased efficiency and successful project delivery. Effective communicator and leader fosters teamwork and timely completion of objectives.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Head of Engineering, P2P Backend
PayPal Inc
San Jose
01.2021 - Current
- Led global engineering organization of 30+ members across Send Money, Request Money, and Contact Management.
- Defined OKRs and engineering strategy with Product to align with PayPal’s core consumer growth initiatives.
- Spearheaded Visa+ interoperability across PayPal and Venmo, rewrote legacy Send and Request flows using GraphQL.
- Consolidated money movement entry points into unified flow, improving first-time user conversion by one basis point.
- Leading the execution Meta P2P partnership, driving engagement and projected contribution of over $7 billion in annual total payment volume.
- Expanded organization by hiring Engineering Manager in Bangalore and promoting tech lead in San Jose.
- Developed comprehensive SDLC plan for P2P organization, ensuring consistency and quality across cross-functional teams.
- Cultivated culture of ownership and continuous delivery, mentoring senior engineers to enhance delivery velocity.
Engineering Manager, SRE
PayPal
San Jose
03.2017 - 12.2020
- Directed teams in developing core platforms for Incident Management and Change Management.
- Achieved 40% increase in adoption of SRE Incident Portal, reducing MTTR by 25%.
- Transformed operational culture by implementing test-driven development and Agile practices.
- Delivered self-service provisioning lifecycle via Nutanix Private Cloud automation, supporting cloud-first architecture.
Member of Technical Staff, SRE and Payments
PayPal
San Jose
03.2014 - 06.2016
- Developed and implemented custom auto-triage platform for incident management using Node.js and Java microservices, enhancing triage speed and accuracy.
- Automated release process for 400-member CSPD organization, eliminating outdated rotation model and saving hundreds of hours quarterly.
Sr Software Engineer, Ops, Checkout and Onboarding
PayPal
San Jose
02.2008 - 02.2014
- Delivered full-stack systems, including POS for Home Depot.
- Developed a rule-based Unified Merchant Onboarding process for PayPal Business App.
- Rearchitected checkout stack to incorporate Continuous Checkout Availability solutions.
- Transitioned Ops tools (IVR, Admin, Case Management) to Service-Oriented Architecture, enhancing modularity and reuse.
Education
Master of Science - Computer Science
Indian Institute of Technology
Delhi, India06-2004
Master of Science - Computer Applications
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Delhi, India06-1999
Skills
- Project management
- Software development
- Cloud architecture
- Incident management
- Agile methodologies
- Data analysis
- Technical roadmap and OKR ownership
- High-EQ leadership
- Distributed systems and scalable architecture
- Full-stack and backend engineerin
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Career growth and performance managemen
- Site reliability and DevOps
Affiliations
President, Mission Valley Staff Association
Worked as the President on the Mission Valley Elementary PTO Board. In the 2 years of tenure, transitioned the school from Covid times to full in person school attendance with introducing a lot of engaging and enriching programs for the students to foster learning and collaboration
Timeline
Head of Engineering, P2P Backend
PayPal Inc
01.2021 - Current
Engineering Manager, SRE
PayPal
03.2017 - 12.2020
Member of Technical Staff, SRE and Payments
PayPal
03.2014 - 06.2016
Sr Software Engineer, Ops, Checkout and Onboarding
PayPal
02.2008 - 02.2014
Master of Science - Computer Science
Indian Institute of Technology
Master of Science - Computer Applications
Jawaharlal Nehru University
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