Murali Makkena
Hands-on engineering and data leader with 20+ years of experience building platforms, AI systems, and high-performing global teams. My career spans healthcare, SaaS, and government health agencies — most recently as VP / Head of Data & Engineering.
I believe in building systems that actually work in the real world: systems that clinicians trust, leadership can govern, and engineering teams can scale.
I founded Nuvii Partners as an independent practice to help healthcare organizations ship faster, make better technology decisions, and adopt AI responsibly — without the overhead of a full consulting firm.
Career Journey
Oracle
Architect → Director of Engineering
- Led global team of 50+ engineers and senior managers across US and India
- Owned four enterprise SaaS products used by thousands of enterprise customers: Customer 360, Contact, Asset, and Sales Predictor
- Led modernization of Oracle legacy CRM into cloud-based Oracle Sales Cloud and CX Cloud
- Delivered first ML-powered capabilities inside Oracle's enterprise suite
- Built Sales Predictor from prototype to fully commercialized offering using machine learning for whitespace analysis and lead scoring (Patented)
GRAX
VP of Engineering
- Built B2B Data Value Platform enabling enterprises to extract Salesforce data to their own AWS/GCP/Azure environments for analytics and AI/ML workflows
- Scaled platform from 2 → 60+ enterprise customers including Dell, Novartis, and Pepsi
- Recruited and scaled high-performing distributed engineering team across US, Ukraine, and Latin America
- Led GRAX through SOC 2 compliance
- Brought engineering rigor and operational discipline while balancing startup speed with enterprise reliability
- Learned to think like an entrepreneur - driving impact through early wins and translating technical goals into business outcomes
Amwell
VP / Head of Data & Engineering
- Reported to CTO/CIO to transform Amwell into a data-driven organization after joining with fragmented legacy infrastructure
- Built modern, scalable data platform with unified governance, quality controls, and AI/ML enablement
- Scaled engineering teams across Eastern Europe (2 teams), Colombia (1 team), and US - including full-stack, data engineers, DevOps, platform engineering, and QA
- Built HIPAA- and FedRAMP-compliant data platform for Defense Health Agency telehealth supporting U.S. service members and their families
- Designed custom replacements for unsupported AWS GovCloud services with zero-trust architecture and cleared engineering team
- Established CI/CD pipelines, observability, reliability standards, and quality ownership culture
- Created cross-functional data steering group for stakeholder alignment and shared priorities
Areas of Expertise
Fractional CTO & Technology Advisory
Strategic leadership for data and AI initiatives, architecture modernization, and executive decision-making
Data & AI Strategy
Design of enterprise data strategies, AI roadmaps, LLM-based solutions, and outcome-driven roadmaps that drive measurable business and clinical impact
Healthcare Data Modernization
Deep specialization in interoperability, FHIR, HEDIS/quality measures, population health, and clinical analytics
Cloud Architecture & Compliance
Experience building cloud-native platforms aligned with HIPAA, SOC2, NCQA, HITRUST, and FedRAMP requirements
Team & Platform Scale-Up
Scaled engineering teams and products from early-stage to enterprise adoption, balancing innovation with reliability
My Approach
Understand Your Mission
Deep alignment on goals, constraints, and current state before making any recommendations
Build a Clear, Pragmatic Plan
Architectures and roadmaps that match your stage — not a theoretical future state
Ship in Small, Valuable Increments
4–6 week cycles that deliver outcomes quickly and visibly
Leave You Stronger Than Before
Your team should operate confidently without me — with the right architecture, documentation, practices, and hires in place
How I Work
You work directly with me. I lead architecture, strategy, and execution personally.
When needed, I bring in senior ML engineers, experienced data engineers, full-stack engineers, DevOps/SRE, and UI/UX designers from my trusted network.
Only when required — no junior layers, no unnecessary overhead.
Personal Note
I believe deeply that good architecture and good data can improve patient outcomes and change lives. My work is driven by a simple principle: Make healthcare technology faster, safer, and more impactful — for clinicians, patients, and the teams building the future of care.