Shannu

Maruvada Shanmukha Sriram. Shannu, if you're talking to me. Senior AI engineer at a Hyderabad startup, unofficially the IT and compliance person too. Lately, also the one who rebuilt an entire architecture in a weekend because the old plan didn't hold up under review.

I started as an unpaid trainee. Then a paid intern. Then an engineer. Then, in under a year, senior — faster than tenure alone would explain. Mostly because I could sit in front of a client and explain what we were building and why. Code is table stakes. Judgment is what actually gets asked for.

I run somewhere around seven workstreams at once, which sounds impressive until you realize it mostly means I've gotten disciplined about triage. I lead client-facing work on a live lease management platform, translating engineering into a language a VP of Product will actually sign off on. I built and run internal IT infrastructure for the company from the ground up — assets, access, audits, the whole unglamorous backbone nobody notices until it breaks. I design and review architecture before writing a line of code, because paper is cheaper than a rewrite. I mentor interns. I show up in meetings I wasn't technically invited to, if I think I can be useful there — that's how I ended up where I am, and where I may be in the future.

Systems and narrative are the same discipline. I draw them on the same sheet of paper before I trust either. A codebase has a plot — cause, consequence, the parts with agency, the parts that just react. Understanding one makes you better at the other.

I don't trust hype, including my own. If something works, it goes to production quietly, and I talk about it after, with numbers. If it's not ready, it sits in stash.

I'd rather diagnose a problem correctly and slowly than solve the wrong one fast. Most of what looks like a technical decision is actually a judgment call wearing a technical costume.

Trainee → intern → software engineer → senior AI engineer, each jump earned by being useful in the room, not by tenure. Alongside the engineering track, I picked up IT ownership almost by accident — someone had to, I did it, and now I have the authority to reject a badly signed-off request. Strange thing to end up in charge of.

I've since been named a compliance contact for our ISO certification — the kind of title that sounds bureaucratic until an audit happens and someone needs to actually be accountable. I'd rather be that person than pretend the gap doesn't exist.

Inside the company: toward a role that formally covers both AI engineering and IT/compliance leadership. Not for the title — the authority should have a name on it, especially when an audit asks who's accountable.

Outside the ten-year window: a quieter picture. A small business with my cousin, back in the village. A slower life that still has room for the same restlessness, just aimed at land instead of systems.

If you only read the career line, the last two years look like a clean climb. They weren't. The professional graph went up and to the right while the personal one did the opposite on its own schedule — a run of health that didn't cooperate, some of it lasting, some of it just badly timed. I'm not going to dress it up as a lesson. It wasn't one. Control is mostly an illusion and timelines are a suggestion; you treat what's treatable, adapt where you have to, and keep shipping, sometimes unevenly. Not everything needs a silver lining. Sometimes the work getting done anyway is the whole point.

I ride — long solo routes, the kind that need a full weekend and a good reason. I come back with a sore back and a settled head, in that order.

I write — story concepts I take seriously enough to structure properly, even the ones that stay in a drawer. A few have outlines longer than the stories will ever be.

I podcast with my cousin about Telugu cinema. The audio is bad and neither of us is doing anything about it.

I read philosophy that picks a fight and won't let go. I annotate in the margins and lose the argument again in the shower a week later.

All of it runs on the same engine: I pay close attention to things, including myself, and I write down what I notice.