Uber ropes in Amazon veteran Manikandan Thangarathnam as mobility head

The ride-hailing giant has also strengthened India tech team, taking ongoing hiring to 225 engineers

Uber has hired Amazon veteran, Manikandan Thangarathnam as senior director to lead all rider and platform engineering teams in Bengaluru. The ride-hailing firm is also hiring 85 more engineers in the country. This is in addition to 140 engineers Uber announced it was hiring last month. Uber is in fierce competition with rival company Ola, which is also based in Bengaluru.

Thangarathnam’s addition to Uber’s team is part of Uber’s overarching vision to strengthen its tech capabilities. The San Francisco-based company said it is positioning India as a technology hub, building and innovating for the world. 

Thangarathnam is a well-known face in tech circles. He comes with over 20 years of experience in spearheading engineering efforts across global majors, including a 13-year stint at Amazon, building several core platforms and products. In his most recent role, he led engineering efforts for the Amazon Appstore and was instrumental in bootstrapping the tech major’s Chennai office and building a vast team of engineers. 

“It’s an exciting opportunity to join Uber and work together to transform the mobility landscape across the globe,” said Thangarathnam.”As the world steps into a new normal, adaptability is going to be a key aspect to usher in growth. I look forward to leading the bright minds at Uber and innovating together for the world, one ride at a time.”

Uber’s tech expansion plans in India are in line with its vision to make mobility and delivery more accessible. The firm aims to become the backbone of transportation in thousands of cities across the globe.

Mobility and platform teams are responsible for building all technologies that move riders and enable drivers to earn on a dynamic marketplace platform in cities across the world. 

The Rider mobility team works on the challenge of enabling the next billion trips. They are doing this by building new services including high capacity vehicles (Uber bus), and car rentals, among others. The Marketplace team is building a highly-available and scalable self-serve gateway to configure, manage, and monitor application programming interfaces (API) of every business domain at Uber. 

Uber recently also hired Jayaram Valliyur as senior director to lead its global finance technology team, spread across multiple geographies. Prior to Uber, Jayaram, too, worked at Amazon for 14 years, where he was responsible for bootstrapping and scaling its India development centre.