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Hello! I’m Damodaran and thank you for the opportunity! I’m a staff engineer working for eBay's presentation engineering experiences. I’m from the city of Chennai, in India. I initially was with eBay at its Bangalore office and then made my way to San Jose, to work at its head quarters. Now I work for eBay at its Salt Lake office. So its has been a world of travel, learning, exploring, getting to know people and delivering value. I’m a critical talent award winner within eBay & was also recognized as Utah’s Best of state for web development, for the year 2024.
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Hello! I’m Damodaran and thank you for the opportunity! I’m a staff engineer working for eBay's presentation engineering experiences. I’m from the city of Chennai, in India. I initially was with eBay at its Bangalore office and then made my way to San Jose, to work at its head quarters. I currently work for eBay at its Salt Lake City office. It has been a journey filled with travel, learning, exploration, and building relationships while delivering value. I am a recipient of the Critical Talent Award at eBay and was also recognized as Utah's Best of State for web development in 2024.
Being a staff engineer with eBay, I work mostly on its presentation engineering platforms, for different products and services. Within eBay I have built its universal widget render & header platforms that collectively serve over a billion impressions in traffic. Besides, I have also been involved with building eBay's SEO pages - one of the company's first exploits into the practice of Progressive HTML render technology. I’m also responsible for enhancing eBay’s in-house web bundler termed Lasso JS. I have also authored some of eBay's Collectibles platforms & Refurbished experiences.
Being a staff engineer with eBay, I work mostly on its presentation engineering platforms, for different products and services. Within eBay, I have built its universal widget render & header platforms that collectively serve over a billion impressions in traffic. Apart from that, I have also been involved with building eBay's SEO pages - one of the company's first exploits into the practice of Progressive HTML render technology. I’m also responsible for enhancing eBay’s in-house web bundler termed Lasso JS. I have also authored some of eBay's Collectibles platforms & Refurbished experiences.
eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that brokers customer to customer and retail sales through online marketplaces in 190 markets worldwide. eBay is valued at close to 40 billion dollars and has over 130 million active buyers and over 1 billion listings, empowering people and creating economic opportunity for all.
eBay Inc. is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California that brokers customer to customer and retail sales through online marketplaces in 190 markets worldwide. eBay is valued at close to 40 billion dollars and has over 130 million active buyers and over 1 billion listings, empowering people and creating economic opportunity for all.
eBay is an e-commerce company. One of the firsts and one of the biggest in the world. It specializes in delivering e-commerce marketplace platforms and solutions across the world. eBay helps in connecting millions of buyers and sellers everyday, providing them with a platform and a marketplace to trade goods and services seamlessly, reducing friction and hassle, while enhancing trust.
eBay is a pioneering and leading e-commerce company globally, specializing in providing marketplace platforms and solutions. It connects millions of buyers and sellers daily, offering a seamless trading experience that reduces friction and hassle while enhancing trust.
Thanks! First of all a big congratulations to all my fellow award winners. Titan business award is truly a special honor for me. I did not expect to win in all the 14 categories that I was nominated for. It delivers a lot of belief in terms of rewarding good work, validating industry impacting contributions and most importantly peer recognition among industry experts. Within eBay, this has led to doubling down on the value that the platform I built, delivers, in terms of launching site wide UX in weeks instead of months.
Thanks! First of all, I would like to congratulate all my fellow award winners. The TITAN Business Awards is truly a special honor for me. I did not expect to win in all the 14 categories that I was nominated for. It delivers a lot of belief in terms of rewarding good work, validating industry impacting contributions and most importantly peer recognition among industry experts. Within eBay, this has led to doubling down on the value that the platform I built, delivers, in terms of launching site wide UX in weeks instead of months.
eBay has been a major part of my life and is fully responsible for anything I may have achieved. I’m happy to be playing a small part in giving back to eBay the much deserved spotlight. So, winning an international award for the work done in eBay has been a nice way in me being able to give back to a company that has done so much and continues to better the lives of so many buyers and sellers worldwide. This also provided me with a first hand experience in being able to see the value one can deliver to both the company and its consumers.
Given the diverse expertise of the judges, it’s important to be concise, clear, drive the value of your work while being able to explain it all, in simplified terms. Thereby judges of expertise in various areas are able to value, appreciate your work and give it the much required recognition. While it’s perhaps slightly easier to develop these solutions for small to medium size companies, developing it for a company of eBay’s scale is what makes it so much harder. This solution specifically had to cater to over 700+ production applications within eBay, while onboarding over 30 different partner teams. The additional complexities include different tech stacks, view frameworks, release cycles etc., all the while, ensuring none of the core web vitals of eBay’s pages and their current business metrics were impacted in any way. Above all, it involves coordinating with so many stakeholders within the company, bringing them together, getting a buy in and being able to honor the commitment and the value promised. Once launched, the value of the platform itself drives the much needed marketing within the company.
Given the diverse expertise of the judges, it is crucial to be concise, clear, and articulate the value of your work in simplified terms. This allows judges from various fields to appreciate and recognize your contributions fully. While developing solutions for small to medium-sized companies can be more straightforward, creating them for a company of eBay's scale is significantly more challenging. This particular solution had to support over 700 production applications within eBay while onboarding over 30 different partner teams. The additional complexities included managing various tech stacks, view frameworks, and release cycles, all while ensuring that eBay's core web vitals and business metrics remained unaffected. Moreover, it involved coordinating with numerous stakeholders across the company, securing their buy-in, and honoring the commitment to deliver value. Once launched, the platform's intrinsic value drives the much-needed internal marketing, showcasing its effectiveness and impact.
I think it’s important to address the root of a problem than drive at temporary solutions. I remember reading about a Venn diagram involving 3 qualities - good, cheap and fast. And you can have only 2 of them at any point. While it may take time to build truly good solutions that address the root of the problem, its totally worth the effort than attempting to do temporary bandaid solutions, that may work well for the short term, but fail long term. Next, it’s important to strip down a problem to the first principles and build a solution for it ground up. However, as always we are answerable to numerous stakeholders within a company and are constrained by time, so we would also have to be able to break down the solution and incrementally deliver it, thereby, the associated stakeholders are able to measure tangible results and appreciate the incremental impacts. This also reduces the feedback loop and helps to address concerns immediately.
I think it's important to address the root of a problem rather than drive at temporary solutions. I remember reading about a Venn diagram involving three qualities: good, cheap, and fast. You can only have two of them at any given time. While it may take time to build truly good solutions that address the root of the problem, it's totally worth the effort compared to attempting temporary band-aid solutions that may work well in the short term but fail in the long term. Next, it's important to strip down a problem to its first principles and build a solution from the ground up. However, we are always answerable to numerous stakeholders within a company and constrained by time. Therefore, we need to break down the solution and deliver it incrementally. This way, the associated stakeholders can measure tangible results and appreciate the incremental impacts. This also reduces the feedback loop and helps address concerns immediately.
I am firm believer in the thought by Simon Sinek that if your employees are well taken care of, they deliver great and impactful solutions which touch the lives of customers, making your customers the brand that drives your business. When the internals are taken care of, they impact and transform the externals.
I am a firm believer in Simon Sinek's idea that if your employees are well taken care of, they will deliver great and impactful solutions that touch the lives of customers, making your customers the brand that drives your business. When the internals are taken care of, they impact and transform the externals.
It is hard to make an impact at a large company like eBay. I believe, besides being able to think of a solution to an existing problem, the problem has to be big enough to be solved firstly. Next, the solution has to be something that can be expanded upon to create a much larger impact. For instance, while the problem statement we had was how to build widgets that were independent of host applications, it was expanded into how can we deliver any UX widgets anywhere onto any eBay page. As the impact of your solution grows, it begins to transcend organizational barriers, to make you successful. Besides this, always asking for feedback, working on critical feedback helps. You have to be thankful to those who offer critical feedback.
It is hard to make an impact at a large company like eBay. I believe that besides thinking of a solution to an existing problem, the problem itself has to be significant enough to warrant solving. Next, the solution must be scalable to create a much larger impact. For instance, while our initial problem statement was how to build widgets independent of host applications, we expanded it to how we could deliver any UX widgets anywhere on any eBay page. As the impact of your solution grows, it begins to transcend organizational barriers, contributing to your success. Additionally, always asking for and working on critical feedback is crucial. You must be thankful to those who offer critical feedback.
India is blessed with a huge startup ecosystem that continually pushes boundaries, drives new ideas, products, providing opportunity for a lot of engineers. Previously we did not have a lot of companies in Chennai. So Bangalore, the silicon valley of India, was naturally the destination for us. Now, I see a lot of companies, startups in Chennai too. I believe remote work has enabled a lot of engineers and companies in being able to expand to a lot of places. When I was with eBay at its Bangalore office, we had the opportunity of automating accessibility testing for eBay at scale and it helped us win the Quality Engineering award for excellence. That helped me get noticed within the company from seniors in eBay’s headquarters at San Jose.
India is blessed with a huge startup ecosystem that continually pushes boundaries, drives new ideas and products, and provides opportunities for many engineers. Previously, there were not many companies in Chennai, so Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, was naturally the destination for us. Now, I see many companies and startups in Chennai as well. I believe remote work has enabled many engineers and companies to expand to various locations. When I was with eBay at its Bangalore office, we had the opportunity to automate accessibility testing for eBay at scale, which helped us win the Quality Engineering Award for Excellence. This achievement helped me get noticed by seniors at eBay's headquarters in San Jose.
For eBay, since it doesn’t operate warehouses like Amazon and instead offers a marketplaces platform, shipping and logistics has been a challenge for the business. However, I think how one pivots their business in the midst of such challenging times, is what helps their survival and longevity. Despite such challenges, eBay, for instance, pivoted back to its core strength - refurbished goods and branded itself once more as a pioneer for re-commerce.
Right now I’m most excited about AI and its implications. While there is excitement, there is also a bit of scare involved, in terms of how it’s going to impact or transform the jobs landscape. Generative AI, Machine Learning, Computer vision, Robotics, Natural Language processing, Large language models are going to fundamentally transform the way we operate businesses and deliver services. Both scary and exciting times ahead!
It all begins with being able to identify a need and coming up with a service or solution aiming to fill the gap. Keeping tabs on the developments and happenings in your areas of interest goes a long way in being able to determine areas that can be fulfilled and the resources needed to develop a solution around the need. So a keen lookout, catching up with industry seniors and pioneers during meetup events, being active in the relevant community helps.
It all starts with identifying a need and devising a service or solution aimed at filling that gap. Keeping abreast of developments and events in your areas of interest greatly assists in identifying potential opportunities and the resources required to develop a solution. Therefore, maintaining a keen awareness, engaging with industry leaders and pioneers during meetup events, and actively participating in relevant communities can be very beneficial.
We are going to see businesses pivot towards Generative AI and other related technologies like Machine Learning, Computer vision, Robotics etc., A number of new companies are going to be built around this tech and we may see older established companies having a tough time or acquiring these new companies. It’s a great time to be alive and be building products and services. Overall it’s going to drive a lot of productivity, value and enable businesses in numerous ways that were previously not possible.
We are going to see businesses pivot towards Generative AI and other related technologies such as Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Robotics, and more. A number of new companies will emerge around these technologies, and we may see older established companies either struggling or acquiring these new ventures. It’s a great time to be alive and to be developing products and services. Overall, this shift is expected to drive significant productivity and value, enabling businesses in numerous ways that were previously unimaginable.
I think there is something to be inspired by anyone, of any age who has overcome a lot of odds and has achieved something. In that way, my kid is my biggest inspiration right now. But, as always, my wife and parents have always been a great pillar of strength & support to anything I have achieved or in getting through difficult periods, that life may throw at us. Besides that, when talking of public personalities, I am an Elon fanboy and have always been inspired by his achievements. I also look up to Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang and Guillermo Rauch of Vercel.
I believe there is something inspiring about anyone, regardless of age, who has overcome significant challenges and achieved something remarkable. Right now, my child is my greatest inspiration. However, my wife and parents have always been a strong pillar of support, helping me through tough times life throws our way. When it comes to public figures, I am an Elon Musk fan and find inspiration in his accomplishments. I also admire Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang, and Guillermo Rauch of Vercel.
I think it’s important for us to identify and believe in oneself, to start with. Even with this success story of mine, there are a ton of failures along the way for sure. So, having the will to push on and continue through times of failure, maintaining persistence and perseverance & in general, never giving up.
I believe it’s important for us to first identify and believe in ourselves. Even with my success story, there have been numerous failures along the way. Therefore, having the determination to push forward during times of failure, maintaining persistence and perseverance, and, in general, never giving up, are crucial.
For organizations, I would love for Stately.ai, Figma, Vercel to be nominated to participate in the Titan Business Awards. For individuals, I would love for Ryan Carniato of Solid JS, Michael Rawlings and Dylan Piercey of the Marko JS Dev Team to be nominated. These organizations and individuals have been pioneering innovation and pushing boundaries in the area of presentation engineering.