Backend engineer who loves to build

I help build systems that can handle growth, and I manage the teams that build them. Right now I am also playing with Agentic Bots and building software with them.

Jigar Dhulla speaking on stage at Laracon India
15+
Years of experience
2
Active projects
4+
Talks given
2+
Open source projects
01

About me

I was born and raised in Mumbai and now live in Pune.

Most of my work is on the backend: designing applications and APIs, working with MySQL, integrating 3rd party APIs. As a lead I plan the work, run the team’s sprints in JIRA, generate code and review peer’s generated code.

Outside work, I organise and host the Laravel Pune community meets. Currently building carpool bot, YaarPool. Enjoy playing table-tennis.

PHP Laravel MySQL Docker AWS Terraform Python React
02

Experience

Current

Engineering Manager

DENSOU · Pune
May 2026 to now

Responsible for the engineering work on DoLocal.io: the delivery, the design of the system, and the quality of what we release.

  • Plan the work and run the sprints in JIRA.
  • Review code and keep the coding standards the same everywhere.
  • Take the system design and infrastructure decisions for the product.

Senior Software Engineer

DENSOU · Pune
Sep 2023 to Jun 2026

Built and maintained DoLocal.io, DENSOU's core product. Worked across PHP, PhalconPHP, Laravel, Python, MySQL, React, Docker, Terraform, and AWS (ECS, ECR, Lambda, S3, CloudWatch).

Lead Software Engineer

WorldEmp India · Pune
Mar 2022 to Aug 2023

Built a digital advertising platform for a Dutch client using Laravel and Laravel Nova. It helps brands reach local customers for their dealers and stores. I added new features and maintained the existing product.

Senior Team Lead

Newfold Digital · India
Jul 2020 to Feb 2022

Responsible for 30+ projects and for what the team promised to deliver.

  • Talked to clients to understand requirements, then designed the applications.
  • Ran the sprints in JIRA and set up how the team used Git.
  • Reviewed code for my team, and improved a large old codebase.

Senior Software Developer

Newfold Digital · Mumbai
May 2016 to Jun 2020

Worked on projects from design to release using Laravel, core PHP, jQuery, Node.js, and Socket.IO with MySQL and Postgres. Connected other companies’ APIs such as Salesforce, Kayako, and JIRA, and moved applications to Docker.

Earlier

2011 to 2016

Senior Software Engineer, Zelican Technologies (2014 to 2016). Built the main features in PHP, Yii, and MySQL, put the product on AWS, and handled payments with Stripe.

Software Developer, Softaculous (2011 to 2014). Built product features in PHP and MySQL, wrote the PHP SDK so other developers could use our products, and automated the build process.

03

Projects

04

Open source

laravel-http-to-curl

Turns a Laravel HTTP request into a cURL command you can run in the terminal. Useful when you want to check what your app is sending.

PHP Laravel Package

laravel-whatsapp-ai-agent

A starting point for building AI agents that chat with users on WhatsApp from a Laravel app.

PHP Laravel WhatsApp API AI
05

Talks

Laracon India

A talk on Livewire, and how to build pages that update live in Laravel without writing JavaScript. The recording is on YouTube.

Laravel Meetups

Talks at Laravel community meetups in Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai. I also organise the Laravel Pune meetup.

06

Get in touch

Happy to talk about backend work, Laravel, and systems that have grown too big for how they were first built. Send me a message and I will reply.