Kalai Bakthavathsalam

Kalai Bakthavathsalam currently serves as the Director of Test Engineering at Nexthop AI since September 2025. Prior experience includes roles as a Member of Technical Staff at Enfabrica and AMD Pensando, and Chief Technology Officer at a startup in stealth mode. Kalai's extensive background also features significant positions at Cisco, including Director of Engineering, Senior Manager of Engineering, and Technical Lead, as well as engineering roles at Nuova Systems, Lucent Technologies, Riverstone Networks, Pluris Inc, and CyberTech. Kalai holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication from Madurai Kamaraj University, completed between 1990 and 1994.