Milind Patel in

Milind Patel

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Director Central Engineering at Nexthop AI
📍 Fremont, California, United States

Milind Patel is the Director of Central Engineering at Nexthop AI, with extensive experience leading hardware validation and verification teams at companies like Cruise, Arista, and Cisco. A holder of an MSEE and an MBA, colleagues describe him as a respected, cheerful, and excellent leader focused on execution.

Beyond his core technical roles, Milind is passionate about fostering innovation within the engineering community. He was a key organizer for the Cisco Innovating Test Conference for five years, helping it grow into a global event for professionals to exchange new ideas and technologies.

Unique fact: During his graduate studies, he published a paper on Indium Phosphide (InP) based device characterization.

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Experience
29 Years
Current Role
Director Central Engineering
Job Level
Mid-senior
Location
Fremont, California, United States
Personality Overview

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Communication Style
Decision Approach
Work Preference

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Priorities

Topics Milind cares about

Hardware Validation
His entire career, from Cisco to Nexthop AI, has been focused on leading hardware validation, verification, and test engineering teams at high-profile tech companies.
Building Engineering Teams
Recommendations repeatedly praise his ability to build and shape highly capable engineering teams, with one former colleague calling him their "first choice" to lead a validation team.
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Career

Work history

12-2024
Director Central Engineering
Nexthop AI
7-2023 - 8-2024
Sr. Hardware Verification Manager
Cruise
1-2022 - 1-2023
Senior Manager, Hardware Validation Engineering
Cerebras Systems
10-2014 - 12-2021
Sr Manager, Design Validation
Arista Networks
2-1996 - 10-2014
Sr. Engineering Manager
Cisco
In the press

Media appearances

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Education
1999 - 2000
MBA
University of Phoenix
1990 - 1991
MSEE
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

DISC behavioral profile

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