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Damodaran Chingleput Sathyakumar joined eBay in 2015. It was an opportunity to lead a project to overhaul eBay’s user experience, an endeavor that aligned with his area of expertise. Since then, Damodaran has displayed a remarkable ability to tackle complex challenges with a first-principles approach. His career trajectory from Bangalore to San Jose, and now Utah, has been marked by solving intricate problems.
“Every page at eBay had its own technology stack, themes, frameworks, and release cycles. Interfacing with each of them was a monumental task,” recalls Damodaran. This insight shows how his works helped reshape the tech environment of a global e-commerce giant.
Transforming user experience
Two key platforms — Universal Render and Header & Navigation UX platforms — are central to Damodaran’s achievements. These platforms were not mere upgrades; they were solutions to critical issues that had long affected eBay, such as notifying users about unsupported browsers and ensuring GDPR compliance across various pages and devices.
He expanded upon this problem. “How do we render and deliver targeted UX anywhere on any page, screen, or device while simplifying the navigational experience?” This question guided him as he developed these platforms. His approach involved decoupling static and dynamic parts of the system, enabling independent updates, reducing dependencies on partner pages, and more. The outcome was a system capable of efficiently managing over a billion impressions in site traffic.
Technical expertise and creativity
Damodaran’s experience is evident in the advancements behind these platforms. Request collapsing, pipelining, multi-tier caching, and micro-frames were some techniques to ensure the system could effectively manage large traffic loads with ninety-fifth percentile response times of less than 50 ms. This was a significant accomplishment, given eBay’s large and complicated operations.
Damodaran also worked on techniques involving asynchronous rendering, native browser and NodeJS streaming, and a custom asset optimization pipeline. These developments have increased performance, scalability, and dependability. “Our system’s static portions alone can serve peak traffic with 50% less hardware,” he notes.
Going beyond technical merits
The impact of Damodaran’s work includes an uptick in eBay’s business metrics. From coupons and tooltips to notifications, guidance modules, and ads, his platforms have boarded over 30 eBay partner teams, serving over 150 UX modules that provide a range of dynamic experiences. The improvements have increased module traffic by 10 percent, module customer satisfaction ratings by five percent, and module conversion rates by four percent.
Damodaran has received several honors for his achievements, including the American Business Awards by Stevie, the Titan International Business Awards, the Globee Technology Awards, and the Critical Talent Award from eBay. The Global Recognition Awards also recognized him for his software engineering contributions. He is also a recipient of the 2024 Utah’s Best of State for Web Development and a finalist in the Utah Innovation Awards by Foley & Lardner.
These honors highlighted his leadership and accomplishments in digital technology. As a thought leader in software engineering, he has also contributed his knowledge and expertise in research publications and conference lectures.
Thought leadership and future directions
As an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) senior member and a recognized full-time member of Sigma Xi, Damodaran continues to push the boundaries of software engineering possibilities. His future projects will build on his past successes and explore updates in artificial intelligence (AI) integration and enhanced user personalization.
“I believe in tackling problems with first principles, thinking of stripping them down to the bare essentials and then building solutions from there,” says Damodaran. This philosophy addresses immediate challenges and lays the groundwork for broader applications.
Damodaran’s creativity and leadership have helped enhance both the UX and eBay’s UX engineering field. He adds, “Success is not just about solving today’s problems, but about envisioning and building for the future.” This sums up his approach and the promise of what lies ahead.
