/about
Hi, I'm Vishnu.
I'm a software engineer at FactSet, where I work on data-intensive systems that financial professionals lean on to do their actual jobs. The work pays the rent. The obsession is the part that doesn't — building things, breaking them on purpose, and figuring out what's really load-bearing about a design.
I think a lot about judgment— the unglamorous part of engineering that doesn't fit on a resume. Most decisions in software have a defensible version and a careless version. The career is the practice of choosing the first one when nobody's looking.
Outside of code: long walks, slow reading, the kind of coffee that takes too long to make. In another life, I would have taught — and I think the best engineers secretly do.
§01 · what i believe
The short version of
how I read code.
§02 · the path
Three years, four titles,
one practice.
Joined FactSet as an intern. Found that I cared less about being right than about being honest about what I didn't know yet. Converted to full-time within six months.
Took ownership of a critical pipeline. Cut a recurring on-call page by chasing the actual root cause instead of papering it over. Learned that the boring fix is usually the right one.
Built Chat with PDF and VoiceFlow on weekends — both shipped to real users. Side projects are where I test the version of myself I want at work.
Promoted to SWE III. Started leading architecture conversations rather than just executing on them. Mentoring engineers who joined after me.
“The best way to learn is to build, break, and rebuild.”
§03 · the bar
What I'm looking for.
And what I'm not.
open to
- senior IC roles at AI-first product companies
- infra / devtools companies (linear, vercel, stripe-shape)
- early-stage startups (series A–B) building real systems
- remote-first or bay area teams
not looking for
- agency / contract gigs
- generic full-stack roles with no judgment surface
- blockchain, web3, or crypto
- anything that requires relocating before late 2027
Cleared the bar?
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