Ketki Haridas

Ketki Haridas

"Confidence didn't come first. Courage did."

When Ketki Haridas left Mumbai to pursue a master's degree in the United States, she wasn't certain where the journey would lead. What she did know was that she was willing to embrace uncertainty in pursuit of something bigger. Today, that willingness to step into the unknown has helped her become a Senior Platform System Engineer at Microsoft, where she leads performance validation for Azure's Cobalt 200 ARM-based server processors, technology that helps power cloud services used by millions around the world.

With nearly a decade of experience spanning cloud computing, computer architecture, and systems performance engineering, Ketki has built a career at the intersection of hardware and software, solving some of the industry's most complex technical challenges. Her work ensures that cutting-edge silicon delivers the performance, efficiency, and reliability required to support Microsoft's global cloud infrastructure.

Before joining Microsoft, Ketki spent six years at Intel, where she evaluated next-generation CPU architectures, characterized enterprise database workloads, and provided performance insights that influenced future processor innovations. Those years gave her a deep appreciation for the invisible technology that powers everyday experiences and sparked a passion for understanding how software and silicon work together at scale.

At Microsoft, her impact has been both measurable and transformative. She led a cross-functional engineering effort that increased Azure networking throughput by 50%, improving performance from 100 Gbps to 150 Gbps through months of investigation, experimentation, and collaboration across multiple teams. She also designed AI-driven automation frameworks that uncovered more than 100 platform performance issues, accelerating validation processes and helping improve platform quality for Azure deployments worldwide.

Yet Ketki believes her proudest achievement is not a performance metric or technical milestone. It's the resilience she developed along the way. As a woman pursuing a career in hardware and systems engineering, she often found herself in rooms where few people shared her background. Rather than seeing that as a limitation, she learned to view it as a strength. Her curiosity, persistence, and ability to ask questions others might overlook became some of her greatest assets.

Holding a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology from the University of Mumbai, Ketki remains deeply committed to helping others navigate their own journeys. She is passionate about mentoring aspiring engineers and encouraging more women to pursue careers in hardware, cloud infrastructure, and systems engineering.

For Ketki, leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about creating clarity, embracing challenges, and helping others see possibilities in themselves. Her message to the next generation is simple yet powerful:

"Don't wait until you feel ready. The opportunities that change your life often arrive before your confidence does. Take the seat, raise your hand, and trust that you will grow into the challenge."

In an industry defined by innovation, Ketki Haridas is building more than technology. She is helping build a future where more women see themselves as architects of it.