Milind Malthankar does a lot more than just build systems. He builds momentum.
For over twenty years, he’s worked in fields like animal healthcare, banking, agriculture, and human capital management. And his reputation precedes him. He’s known for his blend of technical mastery and visionary leadership. He guides digital transformations, he mentors teams, and he has made a huge impact in creating resilient systems and empowered engineers.
“I believe in delivering solutions that surpass expectations while being simple and cost-effective,” he shared in a recent article.
“True success lies in creating long-term, sustainable value for businesses and their customers.”
The Making of a Strategic Technologist
Milind’s career began at the height of a technological boom. He earned a master’s in computer science, driven by his fascination with system design. And he entered the field when on-premise monoliths ruled the enterprise world. He began to transition into leadership roles, and soon became a guide for teams that were struggling to navigate the seismic shift to microservices.
Tara Figg: Did the shift from monolithic architecture to microservices change how you lead?
Milind Malthankar: Absolutely. Early on, architecture was more centralized and it was focused on controlling complexity. Microservices changed that. Leadership was forced to evolve from top-down orchestration to empowering decentralized decision-making. This taught me how to lead with clarity and trust.
TF: What principles have stayed constant throughout your career?
MM: Keep it simple. Design for resilience. Never lose sight of how your system serves the people who depend on it.
A New Kind of Leader
Milind knows that modern leadership requires both strategic foresight and hands-on execution. He tackles huge projects — migrating critical legacy systems to the cloud, integrating microservices across hybrid infrastructures — and to translate these technical concepts, he strives to connect them to business impact.
TF: How do you translate complex architectural concepts into actionable team strategy?
MM: Every developer wants clarity. I start by mapping business goals to system behavior. For example, showing how a design choice supports scalability or improves fault tolerance. From there, it becomes a shared narrative the team can rally around.
TF: What’s your approach to cultivating innovation within engineering teams?
MM: Give people autonomy, but pair it with purpose. I mentor through questions: Why this design? What’s the edge case? I want them to think like architects first, coders second.
TF: How has your leadership style adapted through different eras of software development?
MM: It has evolved alongside the technology. In the Waterfall days, leadership involved heavy documentation and gatekeeping process checkpoints. But now we focus on agility and giving teams room to innovate while still maintaining architectural guardrails. I prefer to lead more through mentoring instead of just giving orders.
TF: You have guided teams through both Agile transitions and modernization efforts. What’s the secret to building buy-in for change?
MM: When we moved to Scrum at John Deer, yes, productivity was a big issue; but it was also personal to the team. I showed them how faster iterations meant fewer late nights, better feedback, and better overall job satisfaction. I want my teams to see changes that benefit them as well as the system. That’s when they lean in.
Industry Impact and Recognition
Milind also knows that true leadership goes far beyond just day-to-day roles. He’s passionate about actively contributing to the broader tech ecosystem, and he has served as an Industry Expert and Judge for the 2023 Globee® Cybersecurity Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, and Disruptor Awards. In this way, he evaluates some of the most promising technologies in the world.
TF: Has judging innovation changed how you approach your own work?
MM: Of course. It gives me a preview of where the industry’s heading – which, right now, means AI-driven security, edge resilience, open standard movements, etc. I like to observe the bold thinking behind the code, and this has inspired me to push further in my own projects.
TF: What ideas from the tech community excite you most?
MM: I am very fascinated by the rise of interoperability in multi-cloud environments. We’re finally moving from isolated solutions to holistic ecosystems. It’s going to change so many things.
A Future of People-Centered Architecture
So, according to the expert, what’s next? Milind says that the future of tech will be more human. He believes that sustainable architecture begins with empathy: designing systems that scale gracefully, adapt intuitively, and serve with integrity.
TF: What qualities make a technologist truly impactful?
MM: Curiosity. Clarity. Compassion. You can master the tools, but if you don’t understand the people using them, you’ve missed the point. Impact happens when tech meets empathy.
