Hardik Kotangale

Engineering distributed LLM systems and production-grade full-stack infrastructure for large-scale nonprofit document intelligence, with a focus on pipeline reliability, trust and safety tooling, and secure cloud deployment.

• ▹Engineered a 3-stage distributed LLM pipeline processing 175,000+ nonprofit Form 990 records using Mistral-7B and Gemma-7B, orchestrated via Slurm on BigRed200 HPC with 1,000-row parallel batches, idempotent checkpointing, and structured observability logging for full pipeline reliability.
• ▹Built a production full-stack web application deployed on AWS with JWT access + refresh token auth, session invalidation, a 3-tier RBAC system (global_supervisor, local_supervisor, subaccount), user reporting, appeal flows, moderator dashboard, content flagging, and DuckDB analytical queries over Parquet-backed foundation data.
• ▹Hardened the production codebase by consolidating 3 duplicate model interfaces into shared Python libraries, migrating 12+ hardcoded credentials to secure environment-based config, and building an end-to-end unit, integration, and system test suite to surface logic gaps before every deployment.

Developed cross-platform AR/XR applications in Unity across mobile and headset devices, with a focus on spatial interaction, real-time rendering, and production-grade deployment reliability.

• ▹Built a cross-platform AR/VR/MR application deployed across 4 platforms (Meta Quest 3, iOS ARKit, Android ARCore, Unity XR Simulator) from a single C# + OpenXR codebase with Unity 2022.x and AR Foundation, achieving zero per-device build fragmentation.
• ▹Implemented high-fidelity hand-tracking and complex interactions (grab, poke, ray-cast, distance-grab) across all target devices using Unity XR Interaction Toolkit and Meta XR SDK with custom C# interaction patterns.
• ▹Achieved stable frame rates across all target devices with zero regressions before every deployment by optimizing URP, GPU HLSL shaders, and procedural mesh generation using Unity's Profiler.

Taught real-time graphics, XR development, and software engineering practices to graduate students through technical mentorship, structured code reviews, and hands-on project guidance.

• ▹Mentored 10+ students in software development and computer graphics with 1:1 feedback on code quality, debugging, and design.
• ▹Guided multiple AR and MR teams through the full SDLC using C# and Unity.
• ▹Supported project execution from requirements gathering through testing, documentation, and iteration.

Delivered and maintained production applications across multiple platforms as part of a collaborative engineering team, contributing full-stack features and structured release validation.

• ▹Accomplished delivery and maintenance of 3 production applications across 5 platforms by building full-stack features and applying Git/GitHub version control within a collaborative team, sustaining zero unplanned downtime across all releases.
• ▹Reduced production defects by 40% by discovering and fixing errors through structured testing, debugging procedures, and release validation — directly measured by fewer post-release issues.

Built and shipped a React + TypeScript learning platform while leading a 10-member team through frontend, backend, authentication, and delivery planning.

• ▹Built and shipped a React + TypeScript LMS serving 50+ users with responsive UI, Firebase backend, role-based authentication, real-time data sync, and REST API integration — leading a 10-member Agile team through 3 sprint cycles with zero critical bugs at launch.
• ▹Engineered 10+ reusable React components and a shared component library achieving 40% faster feature delivery and reduced UI defect rates across releases through structured code reviews and unit testing pipelines.