Police rule out foul play; cause of death under investigation
Pratik Pandey, a 35-year-old Indian-origin software engineer at Microsoft, was found dead at the company’s Silicon Valley campus on August 20, according to Bloomberg. Citing a family member, the report noted that Pandey had entered the office on the evening of August 19 and was known to work late into the night, reported timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
The Santa Clara County medical examiner has yet to determine the official cause of death. Meanwhile, family members and the local Indian community are making arrangements to return Pandey’s body to India, where his parents reside.
A memorial note described him as “a joyful soul with a radiant smile, Pratik loved playing soccer, great son & friend.”
Authorities confirmed there were no signs of suspicious activity, and the case is not being treated as a crime.
Who was Pratik Pandey
Pandey graduated with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from Rajiv Gandhi Prodyogiki Vishwavidyalaya in 2013 before moving to the US. He earned a Master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach, and another from San José State University in 2017.
Since July 2020, he had worked at Microsoft’s Mountain View campus, specialising in Big Data analytics within Microsoft Fabric and Synapse. His expertise included Micro Frontend architecture, TypeScript, Angular, React, NGRX, and RXJS.
Before joining Microsoft, he was a Software Development Engineer at Walmart Labs (2018–2020), contributing to cloud-based services and automated deployments. He also had brief stints at Illumina and Apple in 2018, working on microservices, payment application architecture, and cloud deployments. His early career included roles at John Deere, Newgen Software, and internships with Cinequest and Hoverboard Technologies.
