After 10 years in the US, Adobe executive moves back to Bengaluru for family: ‘We miss the Bay area’

The list of Indian-origin tech executives trading their Silicon Valley addresses for Indian pin codes continues to grow. The latest name to join this list is Gowri Shankar Ravindran, Director of Engineering at Adobe, who has announced that he and his family have relocated to Bengaluru after spending ten years in California's Bay Area — a move he says was driven primarily by the desire to be closer to family.

"This Is A Big One," Says Adobe Executive

Ravindran shared the news in a LinkedIn post that he admitted was out of character for him. "I don't post on LinkedIn very often, but this is a big one," he wrote, before detailing the significance of the decision.

Describing his time in the US as fulfilling both professionally and personally, he wrote, "After a wonderful decade in the Bay Area - working alongside, learning from, and building lifelong friendships with some of the sharpest minds in tech-our family has made the move to Bangalore, India to be closer to family."

Settling Into A New Chapter

Two weeks into the transition, Ravindran said the family is experiencing a mix of emotions as they adjust to their new life in India, while also missing the community they've left behind in California. "Two weeks into this new chapter, we are filled with excitement for what's ahead, even as we miss the Bay Area and the incredible community we left behind," he shared.

He also credited his employer for easing what could otherwise have been a complicated international move, writing, "A huge thank you to Adobe for making this cross-continental transition so seamless."

Continuing Global Work From India

Despite relocating halfway across the world, Ravindran clarified that his professional responsibilities remain unchanged. He will continue to handle high-level engineering work for Adobe's leadership from his new base in Bengaluru. "I'm excited to continue working on hard, complex problems for Adobe CXO from right here in India," he noted, underlining how remote-friendly global roles are increasingly allowing senior executives to work from India without stepping back in their careers.

Part Of A Larger Reverse-Migration Trend

Ravindran's decision is far from an isolated case. It reflects a broader pattern emerging among Indian-origin professionals in the US, many of whom initially moved abroad chasing career growth but are now returning home as family priorities take precedence — particularly the responsibility of caring for ageing parents.

A similar story recently made headlines when Balaji Gururajan, a senior engineering leader at Meta, moved back to Bengaluru after spending 18 years in the United States. In his own LinkedIn post, Gururajan explained that the primary motivation behind his move was the same as Ravindran's — wanting to be closer to family.

Gururajan wrote about how relocating back to Bengaluru would let him and his family spend more meaningful time with his ageing parents, all while continuing his career at Meta without interruption. He also opened up about the more practical and emotional sides of resettling in India, from enrolling his children in school to rebuilding a home and daily routine from scratch.

Interestingly, Bengaluru isn't new territory for Gururajan — he had lived in the city before moving to the US nearly two decades ago. Returning now as an adult with a spouse and children of his own, he described the experience as almost like rediscovering the city through a completely different lens.

A Shifting Definition Of Career Success

Together, the stories of Ravindran and Gururajan point to a shift in how senior tech professionals are weighing career opportunities against personal and family commitments. As remote work and global roles become more normalised, more Indian-origin executives appear willing to relocate back home without sacrificing the scale or ambition of the work they do — signalling that "coming back" no longer has to mean stepping down.