Kumar Dronamraju
Based in United States · 20+ years experience
Summary
I am a business executive with deep technology expertise who can run mission-critical operations, transform enterprise economics, develop leadership talent, and make technology a measurable driver
About
I run enterprise technology for complex manufacturing businesses: keeping mission-critical operations running while transforming the platforms, operating models and teams the business depends on.
At Toyota North America, as Divisional CIO & CTO, I owned a $250M annual technology operating budget and a 160-person operations team, with 24×7 accountability for platforms serving 19 plants (~2.1M vehicles a year) and a ~$40B North American supply chain. In parallel, I led a $1B transformation with 500+ people, partnering with the COO and CFO on funding and chairing quarterly governance. The transformation contributed ~1 point of EBITDA margin after its first year.
SELECTED OPERATING IMPACT
• Took $200M a year (25%) out of the technology cost base, rationalizing ~200 vendors to 50.
• Cut unplanned downtime 30% across 14 vehicle plants, protecting $100M+ in annual revenue.
• Added capacity for 46,000 vehicles a year through AI-driven production planning.
• Replaced business-unit IT with a digital-product operating model, built a 500+ engineer in-house organization, and promoted five leaders to GM/VP.
• At IBM, ran infrastructure and managed services for 10,000+ applications and 40,000 servers while leading a $1B+ modernization that consolidated 127 data centers to six.
• As fractional CTO at Berry Global, turned around a troubled S/4HANA upgrade and validated $35M in savings from a 22-plant predictive-maintenance pilot.
I also founded and ran Optilyze, a cloud-automation software company, to $15M in peak annual revenue with full P&L accountability. And years leading services businesses at AWS, Wipro, Cognizant and Sun taught me how systems integrators and hyperscalers price, staff and deliver, which makes me a sharper buyer and a tougher partner.
My view of the role is simple: co-own the outcomes (with the business). Reliable operations, a modern platform, a strong team, and technology and AI investments that show up in the P&L.
Skills
Cloud & Infrastructure, M&A / Due Diligence, Platform Modernisation, Cybersecurity, Engineering Leadership, Vendor Management, DevOps, Governance & Risk, Data & AI
Regions covered
Industry experience
Professional Services, Manufacturing
At a glance
Kumar brings hands-on experience across Cloud & Infrastructure, M&A / Due Diligence, Platform Modernisation, Cybersecurity, Engineering Leadership, Vendor Management and 3 other areas. Available for engagements across Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, Africa, South America. Industry experience includes Professional Services, Manufacturing.
How fractional CTO engagements with Kumar work
Kumar works on a fractional basis — typically one to three days a week for an agreed engagement length — so you get senior technical leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Engagements commonly include technical due diligence, board reporting, engineering team leadership, technology strategy, architecture reviews, hiring support, and stepping in as interim CTO during a transition.