Val Akkapeddi

Initiator
DISC Type : Di

Director of Engineering, Harbor Health Insurance Company & Data Engineering at Harbor Health

New York, New York, United States

Overview

Val is a Director of Engineering at Harbor Health with deep expertise in scaling engineering organizations, data engineering, and event-driven architecture. A graduate of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, colleagues describe him as creative, passionate, and detail-oriented. He has a track record of visionary leadership at companies like Collectors, Microsoft, and CLEAR.

Outside of his professional life, Val is a self-described hacker and a Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master. He is passionate about people, enjoys tinkering with new tech gadgets, and exploring his interests at a deep level. He also has an interest in functional programming with the Scala language.

Val is acknowledged in the programming book "Scala with Cats" for his contributions.

Personality Overview

Impact-Oriented

Confident

Friendly Challenger

They measure a product on its merit but can be influenced by strong testimonials.  They don’t mind taking a stand if they believe in something. They usually prefer to drive the conversation.

Topics They Care About

Scaling Engineering Orgs
He scaled his team at Collectors from 2 to 13 engineers and has written about the pitfalls to avoid when adding leadership during growth phases.
Hacker Culture
His professional headline includes "Hacker, " and he posts about getting back to his "hacker roots" by building things and experimenting with new technology.
Dungeons & Dragons
Identifies himself as a "D&D DM" (Dungeon Master) in his public profiles, indicating a passion for collaborative storytelling and strategy games.

Media Appearances

Val has no verified media appearances

Work History

11-2025
Director of Engineering, Harbor Health Insurance Company & Data Engineering at Harbor Health
9-2022 - 11-2025
Director of Engineering at Collectors
11-2021 - 9-2022
Senior Engineering Manager at Microsoft
8-2016 - 10-2021
Software Engineering Manager, Biometrics at CLEAR (clearme.com)
5-2016 - 8-2016
Team Lead - Risk & Compliance at CLS Group.

Education

B.S. from New Jersey Institute of Technology
M.S. from New Jersey Institute of Technology

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 19 Location : New York, New York, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Director of Engineering, Harbor Health Insurance Company & Data Engineering at Harbor Health
URL has been copied!

Insights For Selling To Val

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Clearly address the competitive aspects
  • Keep your pitch focused on the impact but insert some anecdotes into it
  • Get them to a point where they are ready to bat for your product internally

DONT's

  • Don’t be too verbose or overly friendly; a little bit, however, is fine
  • Don’t be very informal even if they are being so themselves
  • Avoid focusing only on the product or its ROI, keep building trust subtly

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Val is

  • Product value plays a big role, followed by relationship and a sense of achievement.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Val

  • If they do not firmly believe in you, they will refuse without hesitation.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Val move?

  • If they develop confidence in your product and you, then they can make fast decisions.
  • Can Val take some risk or not?

  • If necessary, they have the ability to take risky decisions.

You And Val

Personality Compatibility


More Profiles

Discover additional public profiles from our index.

Search more profiles

Looking for someone else? Search here for anyone.

Or visit Humantic AI to know more.