Raghu Kona

Philips Hue — Cloud & Smart Home Integrations

Led technical initiatives involving the design, development, modernization, and reliability of cloud and local integrations connecting Philips Hue devices with major smart-home ecosystems. Key Contributions: Designed and evolved distributed integration architectures connecting cloud services, connected devices, and third-party platforms. Led engineering initiatives involving Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, and other smart-home ecosystems. Contributed to the modernization of Google smart-home integrations, including cloud infrastructure migration and service development using Go. Developed and optimized REST API workflows, device communication mechanisms, and integration services. Improved reliability through automated testing, monitoring, performance investigations, and architectural enhancements. Coordinated cross-functional engineering efforts involving cloud platforms, embedded firmware, product teams, and external technology partners.

Matter Device Security & PKI Infrastructure

Matter Device Security & Certificate Revocation Infrastructure Contributed to the design and implementation of cloud-based security infrastructure supporting Matter device identity, certificate validation, and certificate revocation workflows. Key Contributions: Developed certificate revocation processing infrastructure using Google Cloud Functions, Cloud SQL, and Cloud KMS. Worked with Matter Device Attestation Certificates (DAC), Product Attestation Intermediate certificates (PAI), and Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs). Designed certificate processing and signing workflows supporting secure device identity validation. Worked with large-scale certificate datasets and optimized database access patterns. Addressed security, reliability, and integration requirements across cloud services and connected-device ecosystems.

Intel IoT — Connected Device Reference Platforms

Developed IoT prototypes, reference implementations, and developer demonstrations using Intel's emerging connected-device platforms. Key Contributions: Built connected-device prototypes using Intel Edison, Galileo, and gateway platforms. Integrated sensors, wireless connectivity, local processing, and cloud services into end-to-end IoT solutions. Developed application logic, backend services, and web interfaces using Python, Node.js, and JavaScript. Explored interoperability between embedded devices, communication protocols, and cloud applications. Created technical demonstrations, reference implementations, and documentation for developer communities. Supported technology evaluation and developer adoption through workshops and technical knowledge sharing.

Aerospace Engineering Team Turnaround — SAAB ODC

Joined an aerospace engineering team developing flight-system subsystems during a challenging period marked by leadership changes, unclear requirements, delivery pressure, and strained relationships between management and engineers. Leveraged previous aerospace and defence engineering experience to bridge technical and organizational gaps, restore trust, and improve team effectiveness. Key Contributions: Identified Root Causes: Conducted one-on-one discussions with management and engineers to understand delivery challenges, communication gaps, and team concerns. Improved Requirements Clarity: Worked with client stakeholders, developers, and QA engineers to clarify technical requirements, resolve ambiguities, and establish shared expectations. Aligned Management & Engineering: Improved communication between management and the delivery team, helping ensure that project commitments reflected technical understanding and delivery realities. Rebuilt Team Trust: Organized informal team interactions and encouraged open communication to strengthen relationships and collaboration. Established Positive Team Culture: Introduced celebrations of incremental achievements, including team lunches involving both engineers and management. Strengthened Team Capability: Supported the addition of engineers, encouraged knowledge sharing, and helped the team become more collaborative and self-sufficient. Outcome: Over eight months, helped transform a pressured and disconnected engineering team into a more cohesive, productive, and self-sufficient unit. Received management recognition for the contribution. Focus Areas: Engineering Leadership, Requirements Engineering, Stakeholder Management, Team Development, Aerospace Systems, Cross-Functional Collaboration.

AI-Powered Cloud Architecture Advisor

Developed an AI-assisted cloud architecture prototype combining retrieval-augmented generation with structured architecture recommendations. Key Contributions: Developed backend APIs using Python and FastAPI. Integrated Azure OpenAI with Azure AI Search to support retrieval-augmented generation. Designed retrieval workflows to provide relevant technical context to language models. Implemented structured JSON responses for architecture recommendations. Explored the application of generative AI to system design, architecture research, and technical decision-making.

Adaptive Decision Runtime — TARVATA

Exploring an adaptive runtime architecture for determining where computational workloads and intelligent decision-making should execute across cloud and edge environments. Research Objectives: Investigate dynamic workload placement based on latency, connectivity, computational resources, cost, and operational constraints. Compare cloud-only, static-edge, and adaptive execution strategies. Design policy-driven decision mechanisms for distributed execution. Develop simulation and benchmarking approaches to evaluate architectural trade-offs. Explore applications in intelligent connected systems, industrial automation, and distributed AI.