AI Strategy & Transformation
Helping organisations identify where AI can create real business value and move from experimentation to production.
Sydney, Australia
Kanishka
Mohaia
VP of AI & Engineering · Acting CTO, Sonder
I build production-grade AI systems, scale engineering organisations, and help companies turn AI strategy into real-world products.
An AI executive based in Sydney, Australia, I work across AI-first healthcare platforms, real-time machine learning systems, responsible AI, and engineering leadership — with a passion for sharing knowledge and lifting the collective bar across the Australian technology sector.
About
AI executive. Engineering leader.
Kanishka Mohaia is an AI and engineering executive based in Sydney, Australia. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, engineering leadership, and high-growth technology companies. His experience spans machine learning, data platforms, distributed systems, product engineering, AI transformation, and executive technology leadership.
Today, Kanishka is Acting CTO and VP of AI & Engineering at Sonder, where he leads engineering, platform, data, and AI. He is responsible for technology strategy, technical vision, architecture, engineering culture, AI governance, and the delivery of technology initiatives that support Sonder's growth and long-term objectives. He is helping Sonder transition into an AI-first healthcare platform, with a focus on safe, scalable, and human-centred AI.
Previously at Rokt, Kanishka helped scale AI and machine learning systems across global digital marketplaces, including real-time recommendation, decisioning, and machine learning infrastructure processing billions of transactions annually.
Beyond his executive roles, Kanishka is passionate about sharing knowledge, mentoring emerging technology leaders, and contributing to the growth of Australia's technology sector. He is particularly interested in the future of AI in health technology, responsible AI, agentic systems, and how technology leaders can build systems that create meaningful real-world impact.
Areas of Focus
Where I create the most value.
Four areas where technology strategy meets real-world delivery.
Engineering Leadership
Scaling high-performing engineering teams, modernising technology platforms, and creating the operating rhythms needed to execute.
Production AI Systems
Designing and leading machine learning, recommender, LLM, RAG, and agentic AI systems that operate reliably in real-world environments.
Responsible AI
Applying AI safely in high-trust domains using evaluation, governance, human-in-the-loop workflows, and operational guardrails.
What Drives Me
Beyond the day-to-day.
I care about building technology that works in the real world, sharing what I learn, and helping raise the standard of AI and engineering practice in Australia.
AI for Health and Wellbeing
I am passionate about the role AI can play in improving access, quality, safety, efficiency, and personalisation across healthcare and wellbeing.
Lifting the Collective Bar
I believe Australia's technology sector becomes stronger when leaders share knowledge, mentor others, and help create higher standards across engineering, product, data, and AI.
Responsible Real-World AI
I care about building AI systems that work in production, earn trust, and create measurable value while maintaining safety, governance, and human oversight.
Selected Experience
Fifteen years of focused craft.
From early-stage engineering to running technology at an AI-first healthcare platform.
Sonder
Acting CTO · VP of AI & Engineering
Leading Sonder's engineering organisation across product engineering, platform, data, and AI. Responsible for technology strategy, architecture, engineering culture, AI governance, and delivery of systems that create meaningful impact at scale.
Leading Sonder's transition into an AI-first healthcare platform · Launched Sonder's first production AI Copilot for care specialists
Building proprietary AI capabilities, AI platforms, evaluation frameworks, and responsible AI governance · Rebuilt customer reporting and insights platforms
Rokt
Former VP of Engineering, AI/ML
Led machine learning and real-time systems across AI strategy, platform architecture, data science, MLOps, backend systems, and global team execution.
Built and scaled real-time machine learning and decisioning systems · Led AI innovation across recommendation systems, identity, and ad-selection platforms
Helped scale engineering teams across Sydney, New York, and Seattle · Built platforms for experimentation, feature stores, ML deployment, and monitoring
Datalicious
Head of Engineering
Led engineering teams across data engineering, full-stack product development, DevOps, web analytics, attribution products, and cloud data platforms.
Appen
Software Developer / Senior Engineer
Worked on NLP, automated translation, transcription, voice recognition, data collection, and data processing platforms for major global technology clients.
- 15+ yearsin AI, data, and engineering leadership
- Acting CTOand VP of AI & Engineering
- Global scaleproduction AI systems built at global scale
- Multi-sectorhealthcare, ecommerce, digital marketplaces, NLP, and data platforms
- Speakeron AI, data engineering, natural language interfaces, and technology leadership
- Australiapassionate about strengthening the technology ecosystem
Speaking & Thought Leadership
Sharing lessons from production AI.
I regularly share practical lessons from building AI systems, scaling engineering teams, and leading technology transformation in real-world organisations — with a focus on responsible AI, health technology, data platforms, and engineering leadership.
Guest Speaker
UNSW Engineering Graduation Ceremony
Guest speaker at a University of New South Wales engineering graduation ceremony, sharing career lessons and encouragement with graduating engineering students.
AWS Summit Sydney
Building Scalable AI Systems
Panel discussion on building scalable AI infrastructure, high-performance computing environments, model development pipelines, and production AI systems.
DataEngBytes
RAG or Fine-Tune? Customizing LLMs with LoRA
A technical session exploring when to use retrieval-augmented generation, when to fine-tune, and how LoRA can be used to customise large language models efficiently.
DataEngBytes 2023
Unleashing the Power of Real-Time Machine Learning
A talk on Rokt’s journey building web-scale real-time machine learning systems, and how machine learning helped drive business outcomes.
AWS for Software Companies Podcast
Accelerate Machine Learning
Podcast conversation sharing lessons from developing AI and machine learning teams, platforms, and production systems.
Listen →Industry & Ecosystem Events
Responsible AI & Health Technology
Sessions on responsible AI, governance, and building AI capabilities in healthcare and wellbeing — with a focus on real-world delivery.
Open to selected conversations.
I am open to selected conversations around AI strategy, CTO leadership, responsible AI, production machine learning, health technology, digital platforms, startup scaling, and strengthening Australia's technology ecosystem.
Contact
Let's start a conversation.
For speaking, advisory, media, board, CTO, or AI transformation conversations: