Mukilan M

Forward Deployed Engineer

Summary

Client-facing Forward Deployed Engineer who maps client requirements to what a product can do, decides when a custom integration is worth building and when standard capabilities are enough, and takes solutions from scoping to go-live. Hands-on with API integrations, workflow automation and rolling out off-the-shelf platforms for a retail business. RHCSA certified; M.Tech, IIT Kharagpur.

Experience

Jun 2026 – Now

Forward Deployed Engineer, Picolo AI, Remote

Primary technical contact for clients: gather business requirements and turn them into technical specifications.
Research each client business, match its needs to existing product capability, and decide which client-specific integrations are worth building.
Design and build last-mile solutions and integrations for individual clients.
Automated customer-review reporting to find the causes of low ratings.
Built an automated voice-calling system with an opt-out for call recipients, saving 8 hours a week.
Day-to-day contact for client technical issues and escalations.

Jul 2025 – Jun 2026

IT Administrator, Muthu Optical, Tiruchirappalli

Led the digitization of retail operations with self-hosted applications on Docker and Ubuntu.
Configured and rolled out Invoice Ninja for invoicing and customer data, and Taiga for workflow tracking.
Built end-to-end automations in n8n and automated customer messages through the WhatsApp Business API.
Designed, built and deployed the company website.
Supported staff by diagnosing issues in Docker-based applications and Linux servers.

Sep 2021 – Jul 2022

GIS Analyst, Trimble Information India, Chennai

Worked with 8 teams of GIS analysts producing road-network maps of the US and Canada for commercial transportation.

Project

Ongoing

Self-hosted Proxmox homelab

Virtualized lab on Proxmox with multiple VMs, used for RHCSA preparation and as a test environment for Docker-based business applications.
Monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana, and a centralized file server.

Skills

Client implementation: Requirements gathering, Solution scoping, Platform configuration, Go-live support, Technical documentation, Escalation handling
Languages & automation: Python, TypeScript, Bash, n8n, WhatsApp Business API, REST APIs
Cloud & infrastructure: Google Cloud, Docker, Proxmox, RHEL, Ubuntu, Windows Server, Hyper-V
Monitoring & tools: Prometheus, Grafana, Git, JIRA, Taiga, Invoice Ninja
Geoscience: GIS, ENVI, Satellite image processing, Self-potential inversion

Certification

Sep 2025 – Sep 2028

Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), Red Hat

Education

2022 – 2024

M.Tech, Exploration Geosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur · GPA 9.33

2018 – 2020

M.Sc., Applied Geology, Anna University, Chennai · GPA 8.92

2015 – 2018