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Ali Raza

Lead Software Engineer • Backend & DevOps • 10+ Years

Backend engineer with 10+ years building scalable systems. Expert in Go, PHP, event-driven architectures, and cloud infrastructure. I ship production code that performs at scale and generates measurable business value.

10+ Years

Building scalable backend systems and cloud infrastructure

Go & PHP Expert

Deep expertise in backend languages and frameworks

Cloud Native

AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform specialist

Event-Driven

Kafka, Redis Streams, SQS/SNS architectures

Featured Project

Projects

Open Source

Laravel Locksmith

Secrets rotation orchestration with zero downtime

Tech: PHP, Laravel, AES-256, AWS IAM

  • Zero-downtime rotation with dual-key grace periods
  • Orchestrated workflow: generate → validate → swap → cleanup
  • Built-in AWS IAM key rotation recipe
  • Audit trails with correlation IDs
→ View Project
Open Source

Laravel Convert Timezone

Automatic timezone conversion for Eloquent models

Tech: PHP, Laravel, Eloquent

  • Store in UTC, display in user's timezone
  • Zero database changes required
  • Simple trait-based integration
→ View Project

QS Feedback Platform

Full-Stack B2B SaaS Platform

Tech: PHP, PostgreSQL, Redis, Pusher

  • Built production-grade feedback system with real-time updates
  • Multi-tenant architecture with QR-based collection
  • Advanced fraud prevention and analytics

Monitor.temp.cam

Contactless COVID-19 temperature monitoring

Tech: Real-time processing, 1M+ readings/month

Experience

Digital Ocean, USLead Software EngineerSep 2022 – Present
  • Modernized legacy server provisioning system — 175+ files migrated, refactored architecture end-to-end
  • Led team of 6 on platform migration: 130+ endpoints total, 50+ migrated personally
  • Resolved 250+ tickets in Q4 2024 while managing tech debt and migration workload
  • Integrated Taxamo into billing system resulting in $5M+ yearly net profit
  • Automated Adyen refund system enabling customer success to schedule full/partial refunds
  • Drove DDD adoption, championed TDD culture, onboarded 6+ engineers, established team documentation standards
Cloudways, PAKSenior Software EngineerMar 2022 – Aug 2022
  • Led POC for PHP framework 5.5 to 10.x upgrade using TDD methodology
  • Increased code coverage from 0% to 30%+ in two quarters while delivering operational tasks
Qu Technologies, UKDevelopment Specialist & Product LeadJun 2018 – Feb 2022
  • Monitor.temp.cam: Real-time contactless temperature monitoring for COVID-19, processing 1M+ readings/month for Chelsea FC, NHS UK, Metroline UK
  • WavePRO: Property CRM managing contacts, projects, units, offers, sales, and staff
  • QuScan (quscan.com): Mobile/web platform for customer-business communication with real-time sentiment analysis
Arête ApplicationsSenior Software EngineerApr 2014 – May 2018
  • SAMENA Council (samenacouncil.org): Full website and backend services architecture
  • Khilari PK (khilari.com.pk): Sports platform featuring news, venues, events, and coach directory

Technical Skills

Backend & Languages

GoPHP (Expert)TypeScript/Node.jsPython

Infrastructure & Cloud

AWS (EKS, RDS, S3, Lambda)KubernetesDockerTerraform

Event Streaming

Apache KafkaRedis StreamsRabbitMQSQS/SNS

Databases

PostgreSQLMySQLRedisDynamoDB

Frontend

React.jsNext.jsVue.jsTailwind CSS

Real-time & APIs

gRPCWebSocketsSSERESTGraphQL

Testing

TDDPHPUnitGo testingJestk6 (load testing)

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science
Virtual University of Pakistan • 2014
Android Nanodegree
Udacity, USA • 2018