Vartika Kaushik

About Me

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Professional Journey

Graduate Software Engineer at NatWest Group with a passion for building scalable solutions. Experienced in security automation, CI/CD pipelines, and full-stack development. Quick learner who thrives on tackling complex technical challenges. Google is my best friend and curiosity is my superpower!

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Creative Soul

Trained in Kathak, an Indian classical dance form that teaches discipline, rhythm, and storytelling through movement. Creativity isn't just a hobby-it's how I approach problem-solving in code!

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Forever Learning

Fitness enthusiast who believes in pushing limits both in the gym and in code. Always exploring new technologies and frameworks because learning never stops. Curiosity drives innovation, and that fuels my journey as an engineer and tech geek.

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Caffeine & Code

Big fan of coffee and long debugging sessions. It’s my fuel for building scalable, secure, and elegant software solutions.

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Pet Enthusiast

I find inspiration from simple joys - my cat reminds me to approach challenges with curiosity and playfulness.

Experience

Graduate Software Engineer

NatWest Group

Sep 2025 — Present

Implemented DAST and ZAP security scans in GitLab CI/CD pipelines and conducted end-to-end vulnerability assessment and remediation on a Spring Boot authentication service, fixing 12 critical security issues using industry-standard practices (JWT, BCrypt, CSP, HSTS).
Designed and developed backend RESTful APIs for full-stack web applications with secure user authentication, account and transaction management, content moderation, and robust validation, leveraging Spring Boot, Spring Security, Spring Data JPA, and H2 database.
Built a Python-based mortgage data analytics pipeline to process, validate, and visualize large financial datasets, generating insights on customer transactions, property types, and credit scores using Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, and geospatial calculations.
Collaborated on team projects to develop front-end prototypes of banking platforms, emphasizing accessibility, inclusivity, and clean, professional UI/UX aligned with NatWest branding guidelines.

Teaching Associate

University of Birmingham - School of Computer Science

Oct 2023 — Jun 2024

Conducted weekly review sessions for 50+ students in Algorithms and Data Structures
Improved student exam scores and academic performance through targeted teaching
Received positive feedback from students and faculty for clear explanations

Subject Matter Expert (Computer Science)

Chegg

Apr 2023 — Jan 2024

Tutored students in Data Structures, Algorithms, OOP, and Web Development
Maintained 4.8/5 student satisfaction rating through effective teaching
Simplified complex concepts using step-by-step problem-solving techniques

Managed Services Consultant Intern

Sprinklr

Apr 2023 — Aug 2023

Contributed to 15% increase in project efficiency for Samsung account
Supported Managed Services team with client management and service delivery
Produced high-quality documentation for internal and client-facing needs

Technical Skills

Programming Languages

Java C++ C Python JavaScript SQL Shell Scripting

Web Technologies

Spring Boot Spring Security React Node.js Express Django REST API WebRTC HTML CSS

Cloud & DevOps

AWS Azure Docker Kubernetes CI/CD GitLab DevSecOps

Security & Testing

OWASP ZAP GitLab DAST Cyber Security Vulnerability Assessment

Tools & Platforms

Git Jira Confluence Graphviz Tableau

Databases

MySQL H2 Database JPA/Hibernate SQL

Development Practices

OOP Agile Scrum SDLC TDD JWT API Documentation

Operating Systems

Linux Unix Windows

Featured Projects

Customer Feedback Platform

December 2025

Built a full-stack web application backend using Spring Boot and Java. Implemented RESTful APIs with JWT authentication, BCrypt password hashing, and comprehensive security controls. Features include user authentication, live feed, voting system, pagination, sorting, filtering, and content moderation with regex-based text filtering.

Spring Boot Java REST API JWT Spring Security JPA/Hibernate H2 Database Swagger

Security Automation in CI/CD

2025 — NatWest Group

Integrated OWASP ZAP scanning into CI/CD pipeline to automatically detect vulnerabilities and generate comprehensive security reports. Also implemented GitLab DAST for dynamic application security testing, enhancing the security posture of deployed applications.

OWASP ZAP GitLab DAST CI/CD DevSecOps

File Compression Tool

Jan 2025

Developed a C++ Huffman Coding tool for text file compression and decompression, optimizing storage through efficient binary codes and advanced data structures.

C++ Data Structures Algorithms

Graph Code Mapper

Aug 2024

Interactive code analysis tool utilizing Python and Graphviz to analyze source code structures, calculate metrics, and visualize dependencies with D3.js and Louvain clustering.

Python Graphviz D3.js JavaScript

Microsoft Teams Clone

Jun 2021 — Jul 2021

Real-time communication platform with video conferencing, chat, and screen sharing features built during Microsoft Engage'21 using modern web technologies.

React Node.js WebRTC Socket.io

Healing Equilibrium

Apr 2021

Healthcare application designed for secure video conferencing and messaging between doctors and patients, featuring an integrated chatbot for real-time communication.

HTML CSS JavaScript Dialogflow

Education

MSc, Advanced Computer Science

University of Birmingham

Sep 2023 — Sep 2024

🏆 Global Masters Student Scholarship — Awarded £2000

B.Tech, Industrial (Major), IT Cyber Security (Minor)

Delhi Technological University (DCE)

Aug 2019 — May 2023

GPA: 9.12/10 | Grace Hopper Celebration 2021 Scholar