When Gautam Madaan first joined Twilio in 2019, the teams’ machine learning infrastructure was nearly nonexistent. Aiming to boost its technological capabilities in order to serve its customers better, Twilio tasked Gautam with creating a machine learning landscape that included data gathering, data validation, data sanitation, model training, and more. His work made it possible for Twilio to use machine learning solutions to help classify support tickets, support intelligent searches with continuous learning, and more advanced information processing than ever before.
For Twilio, a company that offers its clients software solutions to boost customer engagement and create communities, processing data and turning that data into action was a requirement for success. Now, thanks to the foundation he built, Twilio can drive insights from customer interactions, suggest resolutions to customer challenges, and automate the routing of support issues to teams. Work that would require multiple full-time employees can now be done automatically, and none of it would have been possible without Gautam’s early contributions. For example, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, he reduced the average ticket wait time by 2-4 hours and boosted Service Level Attainment by 2-4%. These small adjustments resulted in nearly half a million dollars in savings each year.
As the organization grew, Gautam stepped into a more strategic, managerial role. Currently a software engineering manager, he spends less time developing the organization’s technology and more time developing a team of software engineers. Taking on leadership challenges head-on, Gautam identified areas within the engineering arm of the organization that lacked transparency and worked to revamp processes entirely, making it easier for engineers to be successful in their roles and add value to the organization overall. To reinforce colleague recognition, he started an internal review process that was created to identify and award those going above and beyond. This created a stronger culture and resulted in a more cohesive, collaborative team.
He worked hard to understand each team member’s professional goals and career aspirations, forging deeper relationships and fostering a healthy team dynamic. To help quantify individual achievements and propel each engineer to a place of professional satisfaction, Gautam implemented a new review process within his team. Successfully starting an engineering team from the ground up required careful planning and flawless execution, and as always, he delivered.
Prior to joining Twilio, Gautam was applying his talents at PayPal, a major payment platform that services individuals and businesses all over the world. In his first year working there, he was a key member of the team that helped the onboarding platform scale to over 200 countries. Responsible for incorporating multiple languages into PayPal’s user experience, he conducted thorough A/B testing and language rollouts in just a year and a half.
Despite working on tight development timelines, Gautam’s natural leadership skills began to shine almost immediately. He helped hire, on-board, and get new team members up to speed regularly. He also started a “developers meet” cadence for the team to collaborate, highlight technical bottlenecks, and brainstorm solutions. Though it seemed simple to Gautam, this collaborative effort resulted in a decrease in last-minute technical changes, and improved development productivity. His hard work resulted in multiple awards from leaders in the organization.
It can be challenging to find effective leaders within technical industries. Managing complex projects and platform updates while creating a culture of collaboration and teamwork takes a unique skill set and an open mind. Ready to meet every problem with a thoughtful solution, Gautam is recognized as a transformative leader and a skilled resource.
Under his leadership, his teams at PayPal and Twilio have been able to achieve more, reduce errors, and create premier products. There’s no doubt that his engineering skills played a role in getting him to where he is today, but his dedication to his colleagues has been the true key to his success. With a long career ahead of him, it’s clear that Gautam will continue to have an impact as a software engineer and an innovative leader.
