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Nisal Palliyaguru

AI & Cloud-Native Software Engineer

About me

I'm a software engineer with 10+ years building production systems: cloud-native backends in Go and NestJS, real-time platforms on AWS and Kubernetes, and more recently machine learning that runs on real hardware rather than in a notebook. I started freelancing in 2015 and never stopped, which is where most of the 40+ clients came from.

Most of my work has been the unglamorous half of the job: multi-tenant microservices for a government ministry, GitOps pipelines that let small teams deploy without fear, election dashboards that had to stay up on the one night that mattered, and detection models compiled to ONNX so they run on edge devices instead of a GPU cluster.

I'm currently finishing an MSc in Data Science and AI at the University of Moratuwa, which keeps the theory honest. But what I actually sell is judgement about what to build, what to skip, and what will still be maintainable in a year.

Experience

Software Engineer

Econsulate

Mar 2025 – Present
Remote
  • Led the development of a real-time dashboard to visualize sensor and detection data from UAVs and UGVs developed by the Xavier AI team.
  • Engineered an automated talent acquisition solution utilizing OCR and the Gemini API to extract unstructured data from resumes and populate candidate profiles.
  • Orchestrated the deployment of a multi-tenant microservices platform and the official website for a Sri Lankan government ministry, utilizing AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure provisioning.
  • Developed and optimized machine learning models for real-time detection and classification tasks using PyTorch, YOLO, and OpenCV.
  • Evaluated and deployed models using ONNX to achieve efficient inference across edge devices.
  • Implemented WebSocket-based data streaming to ensure seamless live monitoring of robotic and surveillance operations.
GoNestJSReact.jsAWSKubernetesPyTorchYOLO

Senior Software Engineer

Derana Macroentertainment - Macro Labs

Jan 2024 – Feb 2025
Hybrid
  • Led development of a scalable social media platform for volunteers, focusing on data management, containerized deployments, and backend scalability.
  • Designed cloud-native architectures using Go, NestJS, and AWS for scalability.
  • Built real-time dashboards to enhance insights and content management.
  • Integrated microservices and CI/CD pipelines to streamline deployment.
GoNestJSPostgreSQLAWS EKSReact.jsKubernetes

Software Engineer

Derana Macroentertainment - Macro Labs

Dec 2022 – Jan 2024
Hybrid
  • Developed high-traffic web applications for news platforms, optimizing performance and scalability.
  • Built a cloud-based content delivery system with a dashboard for scheduling and tracking.
  • Developed a real-time election data visualization system for accurate updates.
  • Led development of an online marketplace with a scalable architecture.
  • Enhanced frontend performance using Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and AWS.
Next.jsDjangoAWS LambdaRedisPostgreSQL

Software Engineer Intern

Insharp Technologies

Jan 2022 – Jun 2022
Hybrid
  • Contributed to a professional networking platform, improving user engagement.
  • Worked in agile teams, enhancing collaboration, planning, and time management.
  • Gained experience in full-stack development, optimizing frontend-backend integration.
  • Developed backend services with Django, React.js, and cloud technologies.
DjangoReact.jsMySQLExpress.js

Freelance Software Developer

Independent

2015 – Present
Remote
  • Delivered 50+ projects for 40+ clients across Asia, Europe, and North America, from single-page marketing sites to full web platforms.
  • Worked directly with founders and small teams: scoping the problem, building it, deploying it, and handing over something they could run themselves.
  • Built and maintained web applications in JavaScript, React.js, Node.js, and Python, with the hosting, domains, and analytics that go around them.
  • Ongoing alongside full-time roles, which is where the client and project counts come from.
JavaScriptReact.jsNode.jsPythonMySQL

Skills

Programming Languages

PythonTypeScriptGoJavaScript

Web Development

React.jsNext.jsNode.jsNestJSDjangoGinExpress.js

Databases

PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBFirestore

Cloud & DevOps

AWS (EKS, RDS, CloudWatch, Aurora, CodePipeline, Lambda)KubernetesDockerArgoCDGitOps

Backend Technologies

GraphQLREST APIsMicroservicesCI/CD PipelinesServerless Architecture

Caching

Redis (Single Instance, Redis Cluster)Firebase Realtime Database

Frontend Technologies

Tailwind CSSGoogle AnalyticsFirebase

Data Engineering & AI

Data PipelinesBig Data AnalyticsMachine Learning

Version Control & Tools

GitGitHubGitLabLaTeXMarkdownPostman

Education

MSc in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Jan 2025 – Present

University of Moratuwa

Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Bachelor of Computing (Software Engineering)

Jan 2020 – Mar 2023

Curtin University

Perth, Australia

Certifications

AWS Academy Graduate – Cloud Data Pipeline Builder

Amazon Web Services

Feb 2025

Data Analytics, Amazon CloudWatch, Data Pipelines

AWS Academy Graduate – Data Engineering

Amazon Web Services

Feb 2025

Data Pipelines, AWS SageMaker, AWS Glue, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Amazon Kinesis, Data Engineering

AWS Academy Graduate – Microservices and CI/CD Pipeline Builder

Amazon Web Services

Jan 2025

Microservices, CI/CD, AWS CodePipeline

NVIDIA – Getting Started with Deep Learning

NVIDIA

Dec 2024

Deep Learning, Neural Networks

Competitions

  • SLIIT CodeFest 2021 – Algothon

    Runner-Up · 2021

    Competitive programming event, team Nasty_Owls

  • SLIIT CodeFest 2021 – Capture the Flag

    Runner-Up · 2021

    Cybersecurity challenge, team Nasty_Owls

  • SLIIT Xtreame 2021

    Runner-Up · 2021

    IEEE Computer Society event for competitive programming, team Nasty_Owls

Think we'd work well together?

If any of the above lines up with what you're trying to build, the fastest way to find out is a short call.

Or email me instead

30 minutes, free, no pitch. Just scoping the problem.