Meet Kartik Kaipa: What We Can Learn From The Genius Behind Uber’s Gulfstream Project

Today’s consumers can pay for goods and services with the push of a button on their smartphones or computers. These advanced payment systems have grown so commonplace that many take them for granted; however, behind every transaction on Google Pay or Uber ride to the airport are advanced payment systems that must be geared to meet industry standards for security and reliability.

As tech companies expand their user bases across the globe, the architecture for these systems must also be scalable to meet demand.

Kartik Kaipa is an industry professional who has made major contributions to today’s global payments systems. After falling in love with computers and technology at a young age, he has made many important contributions to tech that have impacted the industry. His expertise and leadership skills have led to the success of major projects such as Uber’s Gulfstream Project, which rewrote the popular app’s entire payment system and prepared the company for IPO readiness.

Kartik has enjoyed interacting with computers for as long as he can remember. Growing up, his family kept a PC at home with an internet connection. One of Kartik’s early technological revelations was when he performed a Google search for the time. He was astounded by how swiftly the search engine could find him almost any information!

Throughout his life, Kartik has remained inspired by the power of technology. For instance, when he used Uber to book a cab for the first time, he was intrigued by the accuracy of the ETAs for how soon his driver would arrive and how payments and invoices were handled automatically through the app. Little did he know that he would one day help improve this system for users across the globe.

With a passion for computers and technology, Kartik put diligent focus into his school studies, securing an All India Rank of 296 out of roughly 300,000 candidates and studying computer science and engineering at IIT Kanpur.

After receiving a bachelor’s and master’s from The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Kartik decided to work for a tech firm and begin building systems instead of continuing to a PhD or research. In pursuit of this ambition, he took a position with Google India, where he worked on the subscription system for Google Apps for businesses. This project gave him valuable experience with billing systems that he would go on to utilize throughout his career.

Kartik transitioned from Google India to Google U.S. and continued building his expertise with billing systems. In this position, he started working on the authorization side of payments, making sure that users who accessed the system were authorized to do so and minimizing security risks.

After leaving Google, Kartik worked at Uber for close to two years. Initially, his primary task was to make sure that Uber’s drivers were paid on time and accurately.

A large challenge with this project was scalability. Uber operates across 70 countries and 10,000 cities with a large and diverse user base, and to achieve its growth goals and serve its drivers, it needed to achieve reliable and smooth financial transactions across the globe. Around the end of 2016, Uber was focused on its IPO, which meant that its entire payment system required a complete re-architecture in order to be auditable.

Kartik was one of the leads on the Gulfstream Project, a major rewrite of the payment system. As Uber processes billions of dollars each year, Kartik would need to find solutions that were both scalable and reliable.

Kartik’s work on the Gulfstream Project provided him with invaluable leadership experience. He not only made technical decisions but also aligned them with Uber’s business objectives, ensuring that the payment system could support the company’s growth and IPO goals. The project also reinforced his understanding of how to build flexible architectures that can adapt to future needs.

Creating a new architecture for Uber’s entire payment system proved daunting. Kartik had to make some tough calls early in the process, even if they seemed risky.

Difficult decisions arose throughout the Gulfstream Project. Only four days before they were scheduled for General Availability, Kartik decided to change the underlying framework to simplify the bugging process and improve system reliability. This decision proved critical to the long-term success of the project.

The Gulfstream Project gave Kartik key technical and leadership experience, as well as a newfound appreciation for the importance of scaling systems, including the need for greater flexibility in architecture.

The project demonstrated how he could align technical decisions with business goals, particularly when preparing for major events such as an IPO.

In 2018, Kartik rejoined Google and worked on the online Google Pay systems. He and his team developed the “Pay with Google” button that is now commonly used across many apps and websites.

Since 2019, Kartik has served as the tech lead of Google’s org policy team, where he works on cloud security and a key product referred to as “org policies,” which allow customers to secure their workloads and enterprises to stay safe and compliant with industry standards.

More recently, Kartik’s team has been working on custom org policies that allow companies to define their own security policies and provide customers with a consistent experience around error handling, violations, and simulation.

Looking ahead, Kartik plans to continue working in cloud security to tackle emerging cybersecurity threats. He aspires to develop next-generation security frameworks that simplify compliance. He also intends to continue his leadership roles in tech and share his knowledge by mentoring future leaders.

From being awed by tech as a kid to contributing to how companies reach users across the globe, Kartik’s story demonstrates the power of passion and ingenuity. His work on the Gulfstream Project played a key role in Uber’s IPO readiness and created auditable and reliable payment systems.

As Kartik Kaipa turns to new challenges across the tech world, his work continues to influence the scalable payment systems that make these technologies possible.