Based in Portland, OR

Hi, I'm Anurag. Building the future of work in shared, immersive environments.

Head of Cloud and AI Engineering for Autodesk's Extended Reality division. 17 years building cloud products, data platforms, and AI/XR systems at Autodesk and AWS — directing launches that have generated over $1.8B in revenue. Work has been covered by Time, Fast Company, AEC Magazine, and the LA28 Olympics. Industry mentor at Cornell University and member of the NSF-funded Computational Sustainability research team.

Years leading
17
Revenue impact
$1.8B+
Users served
4.6M
Teams led
8

Work

4 roles

Autodesk

Extended Reality (XR)

Head of Cloud and AI Engineering

Jan 2024 — Present

Lead 4 global teams — Cloud Engineering, Web Technology, Infrastructure, and Data Engineering — building Autodesk Workshop XR, a collaborative VR platform for architecture, engineering, and construction. Set XR strategy and roadmap inside Autodesk Incubation; present quarterly to Autodesk's CEO and C-Suite.

  • Workshop XR launched at Autodesk University 2024; grew monthly active users 10× in under 6 months
  • Workshop XR featured in Time, Fast Company, AEC Magazine, and named part of Autodesk's LA28 Olympics partnership
  • Direct GenAI agentic workflows using proprietary LLMs for real-time XR design automation across AWS and Azure
  • Own a $10M+ operational budget across 5 regions

Amazon Web Services

Foundational Data Services

Team Lead — Amazon Managed Grafana

Sept 2021 — Jan 2024

One of the founding engineers on AWS Foundational Data Services. Took Amazon Managed Grafana from ideation to a Tier-1 AWS product — a leading tool in cloud observability that has generated over $141M in revenue and was included in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms.

  • Re-architected the AMG data platform, boosting YoY growth by 250% in 2023
  • Led compliance work that unlocked $4M in revenue and $100M in opportunity cost
  • Re-architected data platform now used across other AWS data services and by AWS partner Grafana Labs

Autodesk

Fusion Cloud Products

Founding Senior Engineer — Fusion Data

Nov 2013 — Aug 2021

Founding senior engineer on Autodesk Fusion 360 — architecting the data systems that drove Autodesk's transition from desktop CAD to a cloud-native platform. Fusion 360 grew under my tenure from a few hundred MAUs to a market leader with 4.6M+ users worldwide.

  • Estimated to have generated $1.7B in revenue over product lifetime; led CAD market with 31.4% share (2022)
  • Designed High-Frequency Data Management (HFDM) protocol now powering Autodesk Generative Design
  • Adopted by NASA, SpaceX, Toyota, Ford, Lockheed Martin, Yamaha, and Logitech for design and manufacturing
  • Headless Fusion APIs I built now power Autodesk's Generative AI offerings

CSDC Systems Inc.

Technical Consultant

Feb 2008 — Oct 2013

Led a team deploying information systems across 10+ city and state governments in the US and Canada.

Recognition

Awards · judging · grants
  • External Reviewer · SIGGRAPH 2026

    Invitation-only review panel selected by the International Program Committee — the most prestigious venue in computer graphics.

    2025
  • Hackathon Judge · DeepLearning.AI

    Invite-only judging panel of ~80 AI experts, founded by Andrew Ng's DeepLearning.AI.

    2025
  • Included in 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms · Amazon Managed Grafana

    AWS product I led from ideation to production was recognized in Gartner's authoritative annual evaluation of the observability market.

    2024
  • Research Team Member, $10M NSF Grant · Cornell University

    Selected through a competitive interview process for the National Science Foundation's Computational Sustainability research program.

    2011

Speaking & Mentorship

Talks, panels, and mentorship across academia and industry.

Universities

  • Industry Mentor · Cornell University

    Engineering Leadership Program — Spring semester each year

    2021 — Present
  • Guest Speaker · University of Washington

    Foster School of Business — Executive MBA Q&A panel

    Apr 2025
  • Guest Speaker · Georgia Tech

    GTXR Club — Student networking panel on the XR industry

    Feb 2025
  • Guest Speaker · Cornell University

    WE LEAD (Women in Leadership) Engineering panel, alongside Col. Matthew P. Flahive (US Space Force)

    Apr 2024
  • Guest Speaker · Cornell University

    COMPASS Engineering Leadership Program — alumni industry panel

    Nov 2023

Conferences

  • AWE (Augmented World Expo)

    Presentation — Transforming AEC: Autodesk Workshop XR and Beyond

    2024
  • Autodesk University

    Workshop XR launch at Autodesk's annual conference (12,000+ attendees)

    2024
  • BIM World Paris

    Workshop XR showcase

    2024
  • BIM World Munich

    Workshop XR showcase

    2024
  • AWS re:Invent

    Amazon Managed Grafana showcased by customer FINRA

    2022

Products I've led are trusted by

  • NASA
  • SpaceX
  • European Space Agency
  • MIT
  • LA28 Olympics
  • Toyota
  • Ford
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Yamaha
  • Logitech
  • NASCAR (Stewart-Haas Racing)

Background

Education and areas of expertise built up across 17 years in industry and research.

Education

  • Cornell University

    2011

    Master of Engineering, Computer Science

    Ithaca, NY

  • Manipal Institute of Technology

    2008

    Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communication

    Manipal, India

Core expertise

  • Leadership & Communication
  • AI & Machine Learning
  • Extended Reality (XR)
  • Distributed Systems
  • Data Platforms
  • AWS / Azure / GCP
  • Startup / Incubation
  • Research

Let's talk.

Always interested in good conversations about product, AI, or building. The fastest way to reach me is email or LinkedIn.

© 2026 Anurag Patnaik anuragpatnaik.com