Dakshita Thakkar

Senior Software Engineer @ Zscaler | Agentic AI and MCP | Java, Spring Boot, and Distributed Backend Systems

Chandigarh, India

About

I’m a Senior Software Engineer with 3+ years of experience building high-performance backend systems and scalable APIs for production-grade, customer-facing applications. My work spans distributed, event-driven architectures, secure authentication & authorization, and performance optimization across large engineering teams. I specialize in Java, Spring Boot, microservices, Kafka, PostgreSQL, and API design — solving complex problems such as high-throughput event processing (150K+ events/day), low-latency backend pipelines, and efficient role-based access control systems. I’m currently working on Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations for AI-driven workflows. I enjoy collaborating cross-functionally with frontend engineers, product owners, and designers to deliver features end-to-end and consistently improve system performance. I’m always open to discussing backend engineering, distributed systems, and AI integration in production workflows.

Experience

  • Zscaler ()
    • Senior Software Engineer
      Oct 2025 - Present · 10 mos

      • Built an event-driven workflow engine processing 150K+ events/day, improving end-to-end throughput by ~80% under production load. • Designed and implemented authentication & authorization systems for 8,000+ SSO users across 50+ services, enabling secure multi-role access control across product modules. • Leading the design of MCP-based backend integrations, defining context models and API boundaries for AI-driven workflows. • Delivered 8+ product features end-to-end, integrating backend logic with ReactJS UIs and REST APIs to enhance functionality and user experience.

    • Software Engineer
      Aug 2023 - Oct 2025 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      • Developed microservice-based backend modules for data aggregation and configuration management, handling 500+ concurrent processes using Java, Spring Framework, Hibernate/JPA, and PostgreSQL. • Optimized SQL queries and pagination strategies, reducing API response times from ~1 minute to under 3 seconds for core endpoints. • Designed and developed REST and GraphQL APIs for user management and RBAC, enabling self-service configuration and reducing manual effort by ~90%. • Implemented asynchronous processing pipelines to decouple request handling from downstream work, reducing latency by ~70% during peak traffic.

    • Software Engineer Intern
      Jun 2022 - Aug 2023 · 1 yr 3 mos

      • Designed Slack webhook integrations for deployment communication across 21 customer workflows in 3 production applications. • Contributed to backend development of production services using Java and Spring Boot, supporting key customer workflows alongside senior engineers. • Built 3+ backend integrations with REST APIs and databases, gaining hands-on experience with distributed systems. • Debugged and resolved over 15 high-priority backend bugs, significantly improving system stability.