Kaif Shaikh
Full Stack Developer
Cooking since 2021 👨🍳Full-stack engineer based in Kolkata. I build things end-to-end and ship them — from a blank architecture doc to production.
Currently building Rahigo, a group vehicle rental marketplace born out of 1 year of actually running a travel agency and seeing every broken part of the industry up close. Open to remote full-stack roles at product-focused teams.
Technical Stack
Node.js
TypeScript
JavaScript
React
Next.jsReact Native
Redux
Zustand
Express
WebSockets
WebRTC
Puppeteer
Redis
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
TailwindCSS
Shadcn UI
AWS
Docker
Postman
GitWork Experience
- arrow_forwardTwo-Sided Marketplace: Built two production React Native apps — a customer app to post trip requirements and a partner app for verified operators to submit competing quotes — alongside a Next.js web platform with SSG route pages targeting high-intent search traffic.
- arrow_forwardReal-Time Bidding Engine: Designed a WebSocket system where a shared room is created per trip request, allocating operators and the customer together so quotes appear live against a dynamically calculated reference price.
- arrow_forwardAWS Infrastructure: Deployed on AWS with a CI/CD pipeline, Lambda functions and SQS queues for async processing, and S3 for vehicle photo and document storage.
- arrow_forwardVerification & Trust Layer: Enforced automated 6-month vehicle photo expiry blocking outdated operators from quoting. Integrated Exotel for phone number masking — neither party sees the other's real number until departure day.
- arrow_forwardNotifications & Failover: Alerting operators the moment a matching request is posted, with a breakdown replacement flow that automatically reassigns bookings if a vehicle fails on trip day.
Node.jsTypeScriptRedisWebSocketsAWSReact Native
- arrow_forwardArchitecture & Launch: Sole founding engineer who architected and launched the full platform — an event planning marketplace connecting customers with venues, caterers, and 5+ vendor categories, built on Node.js, Express, Redis, MongoDB, and Next.js.
- arrow_forwardAI Recommendation Pipeline: Built end-to-end AI vendor matching using LangGraph, LangChain, and vector embeddings with a React Flow–based visual editor to create and manage AI flows — cutting deployment time significantly.
- arrow_forwardPartner Onboarding: Redesigned the complete partner registration flow, reducing onboarding time from an hour to under 5 minutes.
- arrow_forwardInfrastructure & Performance: Migrated cloud storage to Backblaze achieving 5x cost reduction, optimised media assets cutting load times by 60%, and re-architected frontend with Next.js delivering 50% faster page loads.
- arrow_forwardTeam Leadership: Led a team of 4 engineers across frontend, backend, AI, and deployment workflows.
ReactNode.jsRedisMongoDB
AI Embeddings- arrow_forwardVideo Infrastructure Migration: Migrated video infrastructure from Twilio to LiveKit, cutting costs by $2,000/month (65% reduction) while handling 200+ daily live interviews with lower latency.
- arrow_forwardConversational AI Interviews: Built and optimised AI interview flows using ElevenLabs, Deepgram, and OpenAI — ensuring secure, low-latency audio pipelines across the full assessment workflow.
- arrow_forwardPrompt Flow Graph Editor: Built an interactive drag-and-drop editor to visualise and manipulate AI prompt pipelines — supporting node/edge creation, editing, and real-time cost estimation per node, replacing manual configuration.
- arrow_forwardFull-Stack Feature Development: Contributed across the stack — live coding environments, cheating detection, profile-to-domain mapping, interview cancellation flows, and pricing workflows that improved user engagement and reduced drop-offs.
ReactNode.jsLiveKit WebRTCMongoDBSide Business / Catalyst
Barakah Travels
Co-owner & Operator · Kolkata, India · 2023 – Present
I didn't start with a startup idea — I started with a travel agency. Personally co-owned a 26-seater Force Traveller and ran hundreds of outstation trips across Digha, Mandarmani, and Gangasagar. Every booking was a mess. Customers had no way to compare prices. Operators quoted whatever they felt like. No accountability if a vehicle broke down. Just phone calls and luck.
After 1 year of living inside that chaos — tracking real bookings, real prices, real complaints — I had enough data and enough frustration to know exactly what needed to be built. That became Rahigo.
26-Seater Force Traveller Owner
Personally Operated & Managed Fleet Asset
- chevron_rightFleet & Operations: Personally managed trip logistics, vendor coordination, and customer handling across 100+ outstation bookings.
- chevron_rightSupply Network: Onboarded 40+ fleet operators and mapped 1 year of regional pricing data — now the foundation of Rahigo's dynamic bidding algorithm.
- chevron_rightDemand Validation: Built SEO landing pages for high-intent route searches capturing 2.4k organic visits/month, validating real market demand before writing a single line of product code.
Featured Projects
Reverse-auction group vehicle marketplace — live on Android & web
Headless CMS using Hashnode + Next.js ISR, custom sitemap & SEO meta tags
Production billing and inventory system deployed for a retail client. Handles real-time stock sync across terminals, global barcode scanning, multi-tab billing with 30k+ SKUs in memory, and dynamic wholesale/retail pricing brackets. Built on React 19, Zustand, Socket.io, Node.js.
Get In Touch
Open to remote full-stack roles at product-focused teams.
Reach me at kaifshaikh2013.sk@gmail.com or on LinkedIn.