A leader in streaming

By Elizabeth Egan 

For over a decade, he has worked for Netflix and Disney, helping develop platforms that deliver countless hours of entertainment. A career that he prepared for as a student at the University at Buffalo, where he gained the education, experiences and values that continue to guide him to this day. 

Parulekar set out from India to find a graduate program in the United States after completing his bachelor’s degree in computer science. UB’s strong computer science program and affordable tuition made it a perfect fit. 

Coming to UB without financial aid, Parulekar held several part-time jobs until securing a research assistantship at UB’s Center of Excellence for Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR). There he worked under CEDAR’s late founder, Sargur Srihari, a renowned researcher, and SUNY Distinguished Professor Venu Govindaraju, now UB’s vice president for research and economic development.

"My time at UB gave me a good taste of real-world experience and taught me the value of hard work,” said Parulekar. “The lessons I learned in those two years have remained with me through my career, reminding me that whatever you are doing, you have to put in the hard work and that is what gets you to the next level.”

Parulekar recalled an algorithms class that was particularly valuable, noting that algorithms play a key role in his work in streaming.

“We use algorithms in code implementations to figure out the most performant approach for the features we build into applications,” said Parulekar. “This helps with scalability because when a platform has millions of users, performance of the applications matters quite a bit."

While at UB, Parulekar also met his wife, Swapna Kulkarni, who was a student in the School of Architecture and Planning.

After graduation, Parulekar worked in multiple software development roles and cofounded a startup called Socially Referred with two friends. 

"The vision was to move away from faceless reviews of service providers on sites like Yelp, leveraging the power of your social network to get trusted referrals and reviews,” said Parulekar. 

While his visa restricted his ability to work at a startup full time, he said that he is proud to have realized his vision and create something from scratch. 

In 2013, Parulekar joined Netflix, working to help transition the billing and payment engineering systems from the data center to the cloud. Later during his tenure at Netflix, Parulekar became the engineering manager in charge of promotional videos and trailers and adtech engineering. In 2020, he moved to Disney, just two months after the launch of Disney+.

While Disney+ and Hulu are some of the biggest streaming services in the U.S., Parulekar said that the streaming side of Disney still moves at the speed of a startup.

Parulekar’s team powers the signup experience for Disney’s four streaming services. He also supports the Disney+ tiers that launched internationally last year, currently reaching over 150 countries.

When Parulekar started at Netflix, people were still learning what a streaming platform was supposed to have, he says. Today, one of his jobs is meeting the expectations that customers have developed over the past decade of what a streaming service should include.

“Streaming services are supposed to have a lot of features and we are fairly new,” said Parulekar. “In my position, the biggest challenge is how we migrate to newer technologies while working on various business initiatives. It is almost like changing the engine of a plane while it is flying and making sure you land without delays in the most cost-effective way possible.”

On top of the challenge of keeping up with existing streaming standards, such as letting users continue watching from any device and live streaming, they also must be forward-thinking to create new features and ensure their technology does not become limiting as the service expands.

After a long career in industry, Parulekar said he is thinking about ways that he can help share his experiences with UB students and alumni. He hopes to return to UB to visit his former teachers and speak with computer science students. 

For students aspiring to grow into leadership positions, Parulekar shared three quick lessons that he has learned during his career.

1. Learn to motivate people and lead by example. You need an army of people to achieve your goal.
   
2. If you take something on, solve it to completion. This helps you build trust and respect.
   
3. Never stick to one thing. Gain diverse experiences and broaden your perspective.