Seattle, WA
Vasu Patel
Software engineer building and securing production systems.
- Experience
- 4+ years Software Engineering
- Focus
- Pivoting to Security Engineering
- Credential
- Per Scholas Junior Network Technician grad, CompTIA Security+ ce
- Location
- Seattle, WA — open to remote
About
I'm a software engineer with a Master's in Computer Science and 4+ years building production backend systems, currently deepening my focus on security operations through a hands-on Per Scholas cybersecurity cohort (Splunk SIEM, incident response, vulnerability management). Recent work includes a FastAPI backend serving 30K+ monthly users hardened with RBAC and encryption, and KYC automation that cut compliance processing time by three days. I'm open to Software Engineering and Security Engineering roles.
30K+
monthly users served
75%
faster deployments
8x
alerting visibility
6
certifications & nanodegrees
5+
apps shipped at Headstarter
Experience
- —Engineered a FastAPI/Docker backend serving 30K+ monthly visitors, enforcing RBAC and data encryption to protect customer records across all endpoints.
- —Secured an AI chatbot with prompt-injection controls and input validation, blocking adversarial inputs and preventing customer-data leakage.
- —Built 5+ full-stack applications using TypeScript, Next.js, and FastAPI, deployed via Vercel CI/CD.
- —Fine-tuned LLMs and performed hyperparameter tuning, achieving roughly 95% accuracy on model responses.
- —Built RAG pipelines integrating ChromaDB, vector search, and embeddings for semantic document retrieval.
- —Automated client KYC identity validation in Python and PowerShell, cutting compliance processing time by 3 days under regulatory data standards.
- —Migrated Pentaho ETL pipelines via PowerShell scripting, cutting manual access to sensitive data and reducing deployment time by 75%.
- —Instrumented automated alerting across deployments and test cycles, raising change-event visibility and cutting unmonitored activity roughly 8x.
- —Triaged and escalated 10–25 cross-vendor incidents monthly, driving timely resolution of infrastructure vulnerabilities and service outages.
- —Developed 10+ RESTful APIs (Node/Express, Flask, FastAPI) with auth middleware, input validation, and RBAC to enforce least privilege.
- —Built React/Redux frontends with secure state and token handling, reducing client-side exposure of user data.
Freelance Web Developer & IT Support
Self-Employed
Ahmedabad, GJ
Apr 2019 – Dec 2019
- —Hardened endpoints and servers for 3 business clients, configuring access controls and patching to reduce common vulnerabilities.
- —Provided IT support and system troubleshooting for manufacturing operations, restoring uptime and securing local workstations.
- —Built and deployed WordPress sites (including umabellows.com, technicaladvisor.me, and mentallyfirm.me) on AWS EC2 for local business clients.
- —umabellows.com ↗
- —Trained 5 engineers on secure development practices, including version control, CI/CD security, and Git/GitHub.
- —Authored onboarding materials on Agile and secure deployment pipelines, establishing a security-first development culture for new hires.
Projects
ClaimEase
Jun 2025Insurance claims automation platform
Architected a secure microservices platform with an API gateway, using OCR and NLP for automated document verification and access-controlled routing across claim-processing services.
Read case study →
AI Video Chat Application
May 2025Encrypted peer-to-peer video platform
Engineered an encrypted peer-to-peer video platform on WebRTC and FastAPI, with secure session management and authenticated API endpoints for real-time communication.
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Containerized Flask API on AWS EKS
2020Cloud-native microservice with full CI/CD
Containerized a JWT-authenticated Flask API with Docker and deployed it to a production Kubernetes cluster on AWS EKS, with secrets managed via AWS Parameter Store and a full CI/CD pipeline (CodePipeline, CodeBuild) triggered automatically on GitHub commits. Udacity nanodegree coursework, not professional infra work.
Read case study →
To-Do Manager MCP Server
Jul 2025Model Context Protocol server for task management
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI assistants like Claude Desktop a real task manager to call — Redis-backed with TTL-based auto-expiry on to-dos, deployed on Vercel.
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Comprehensive Linux Guide
2022–2025Interactive Linux learning platform
A structured Linux reference and practice platform — cheat sheets, a contributing guide, and interactive tutorial/practice-exercise scripts, built iteratively for beginners through advanced users.
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Casting Agency API
2020Role-based access control across three permission tiers
A Casting Agency API (actors, movies) with full CRUD, gated by Auth0-issued JWTs across three roles — Casting Assistant (read-only), Casting Director (read/write, no delete-movies), and Executive Producer (full access). Udacity nanodegree coursework.
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Trivia Quiz App
2020Quiz API with search, categories, and a real test suite
A trivia quiz app — question CRUD, category filtering, search, and quiz-play logic that avoids repeating questions — backed by a full test suite. Udacity nanodegree coursework.
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PropertyMatch
Jun 2025ML-driven real estate matching
A real estate matching platform over a real 9,820-property Kingston, Ontario dataset, using a scikit-learn Random Forest model to rank matches (79.6% accuracy on the trained task).
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Multi-Model Video Processor
Jun 2025Video pipeline with transcription and frame extraction
A video processing pipeline — upload or pull from YouTube, transcribe with Whisper, extract frames, and persist results to Postgres.
Read case study →
Journey
Certifications, nanodegrees, and coursework — the learning behind the work above.
Four nanodegrees completed in one stretch: Full-Stack Developer (server-side app design, relational databases, auth, API development), Data Structures & Algorithms (80+ practice problems, route planning, private blockchains), Natural Language Processing (text processing, POS tagging, machine translation), and AI for Trading (co-created with WorldQuant — ML techniques applied to quantitative trading strategies).
Graduate coursework in data visualization, database systems, computer networking, and computer security.
Five-course specialization: Introduction to AI, Maximize Productivity With AI Tools, Discover the Art of Prompting, Use AI Responsibly, and Stay Ahead of the AI Curve.
CompTIA Security+ ce (SY0-701)
Per Scholas — Junior Network Technician Program
Issued Aug 2026 · expires Aug 2029
Earned as part of Per Scholas's Junior Network Technician program, covering security architecture, security operations, threat/vulnerability management, and security program management — alongside hands-on Splunk SIEM, incident response, and network defense training.
10-module penetration testing program: information gathering, vulnerability scanning, social engineering, exploiting wired/wireless and application-based vulnerabilities, cloud/mobile/IoT security, and reporting.
Skills
Cybersecurity
Programming
Backend
AI / ML
Cloud & DevSecOps
Education
Cybersecurity Program
Per Scholas · Seattle, WA
Apr 2025 – Present
Master of Computer Science — GPA: 4.0
University of Illinois Springfield · IL, USA
Relevant coursework: Data Visualization, Database Systems, Computer Networking, Computer Security.
Aug 2023 – Dec 2024
Bachelor of Information Technology
LDRP-ITR · Gandhinagar, GJ, India
Aug 2014 – Jun 2018