RAJAT

Hi, I am Rajat Budhiraja. I work at Capgemini in the Gurugram office. I have been associated with the organization for 16 years and am currently working as a Director – Principal Engineer at the Software and Internet Business Unit of Capgemini Engineering.

How does a usual day working at Capgemini look like?

Every day brings with it new experiences that challenge me. A typical day begins with setting priorities for the day and answering mails. I set aside some time each day to meet with my team about ongoing projects, discussing ongoing activities, and brainstorming about potential blockers or challenges. After this, I work on my task list for the day which may include tech reviews, customer connects or new project development. When in office, I really look forward to interacting with our diverse teams. There is a culture of friendship and team spirit that enriches my experience in the office.

What excites you about your job and what makes it special working at Capgemini?

As a System Architect in the Software and Internet unit at Capgemini, I am responsible for leading product design along with technical deliverables across multiple projects in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Enterprise Applications. Capgemini is a global leader in Engineering and R&D that offers unrivalled opportunities and sectorial expertise. We work on impactful projects where my most recent one involved acceleration of design optimization process for Cognitive, Big Data and HPC environments. It was a great exposure as we architectured around customized machine learning algorithms along with highly complex objective and constraint functions. We designed and implemented the entire productization journey with latest tech-stack for this market-ready product which also provided a plethora of learning opportunities to everyone on board – comprising of software and hardware scalability, UI/UX, workload management and orchestration, high-performance middleware, CI/CD pipelines, user administration to name a few. Most importantly, the product was conceptualized to have wide-ranging impact in varied fields like CFD, Electronics design, Oil and Gas and even Drug Discovery and Molecular modeling. Going with the initial results, it yields a performance gain in orders of magnitude showing the potential impact this work brings. I have also worked on many market-leading, telecommunication signaling products in LTE core network like Diameter Router, Service Broker & Dispatch among others. Working with such state-of-the-art technology and leading innovative global projects that make a broader impact in the field really excites me. Alongside, I actively lend my focus towards customer value creation, building product roadmaps, end-to-end use cases, and helping seed new business opportunities through innovative solutions and creating demonstrable assets, which is very rewarding.

How does Capgemini enable you to upskill and reskill?

Capgemini invests a lot in employee skill development. Our digital learning platform NEXT is excellent and leverages top-notch digital libraries like Coursera, Harvard and Pluralsight. This offers wonderful learning opportunities to continuously enhance our skills through independent and self-paced development paths. Personally, I have been regularly using this platform to learn and stay updated on the latest technology.

How does Capgemini help create work-life balance for you?

The work-life balance at Capgemini is incredible, which also favors success at a personal level. The organization encourages transparent discussions with management and provides flexible pathways to work based on personal requirements. Whether it is pursuing higher education through part-time courses, following one’s passion or time-outs with family, the culture at Capgemini promotes a healthy work-life balance and employee well-being. Initiatives such as community forums and employee engagement events like Hackathons, sports competitions and numerous team get-togethers are great because they help me feel a sense of belonging and motivation at work!

How is Capgemini empowering and encouraging you to create your own career path and achieve your goals?

I initially worked on telecommunication projects for a decade, in enterprise applications for around 5 years and then aspired to gain expertise in the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence. Capgemini has a diverse portfolio of clients, and the company has empowered me to pursue my own interests, develop my skill set and work on projects that I am passionate about over the course of my career here. I have gotten timely opportunities to learn, work and contribute my best. There are internal job postings at all levels and even internal mobility at the leadership level to take care of employee aspirations. We are given the freedom to charter our own career paths diligently and are offered multiple opportunities to upskill and grow.

Tell us about the most memorable moment in your Capgemini journey?

There have been many memorable moments over the past 16 years, but the news about my patent getting through at USPTO was very special to me and gave a sense of achievement for all the work done over the years.

Come, Get the Future You Want at Capgemini!