On Upwork
Top Rated Plus
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- $100K+
- earned with clients
- 5,000+
- hours delivered
Hi, I'm ijaz. AI & Engineering Lead · Solutions Architect · PM · 8+ years
systems at scale & ship AI products that deliver.I help founders and product teams go from 0→1 or 1→scale with high-throughput backends, AI agent systems that know when to stop, and architecture that survives real traffic. Commodity trade, FinTech, AI/SaaS, CRM and Healthcare.
# every build starts with a spec
stack: NestJS · Fastify · TypeScript
flows: Temporal · BullMQ · queues
data: PostgreSQL · Redis · graphs
ai: LangGraph · agents · self-hosted
infra: AWS · Kubernetes · Terraform
rule: AI proposes, people decide ✓Trusted by product teams, from early startups to Dubizzle Labs
Peak traffic · Geosocio
98k/s
peak requests handled on the Geosocio platform
Hover the bars · illustrative load curve
01 Selected work
Now · AI & Engineering Lead · in-house PM
A verification and execution platform for physical commodity trade, with an agent layer that proposes and a deterministic core that decides. I lead engineering and AI delivery across seven repositories.
AI / LLM · Automation
An autonomous email system on OpenAI and Claude that reads, understands and replies to inbound email with no human in the loop.
Architecture · With the CTO
Architected and led a 10-service microservices platform from the ground up, defining technical strategy alongside the CTO.
Dubizzle Labs · R&D
Address autocomplete, geocode and reverse-geocode APIs covering 7M+ addresses, POIs, landmarks and areas of Pakistan, used by OLX and Zameen.com.
Smarter Contact · Messaging · Team project
I was part of the team that streamlined a high-volume SMS platform, working on the contact pipeline and how the dashboards fetch data.
Kross Finance · Backend Lead · FinTech
For a Korean lender giving small businesses same-day funding against card-sales receivables, a proxy service that now carries 6%+ of FY23 transaction volume.
02 How I can help
For startups that need a senior technical brain before a full team, and for teams whose architecture needs straightening out.
System design, domain modelling, event-driven and microservice architecture, cloud on AWS and Kubernetes, plus a roadmap your team can actually build.
Agent systems that do real work with a human in the loop where it matters, like MegaBrain and Deal Driver. Designed for cost, reliability and privacy, on hosted or self-hosted models.
Ongoing technical and product leadership: strategy, architecture, hiring, reviews and keeping the build on spec. The role I play today as AI & Engineering Lead and in-house PM.
Latency, memory and throughput problems fixed at the root: queues, streaming, caching, data models. From 1→scale without a rewrite.
Fixed scope
Ends with a written spec, diagrams, stack decision and build plan.
Scoped on a short callMonthly · most chosen
A senior architect in your Slack, standups and investor calls.
Tailored to your stageBuild
I lead the build from spec to production, with weekly demos.
Scoped per project03 How I work
Spec-Driven Development, the method I teach, applied to your product, so people and AI agents build exactly what was agreed.
Goals, users, constraints and what "done" means.
One living spec everyone signs off.
Designed for today's load and the next 10×.
Engineers and AI agents ship to spec, with weekly demos.
Observability, performance and a team that can run it.
Lahore · remote worldwideiʿ·jāz (noun): that which cannot be imitated.
My name means inimitable. I take that as a brief: build systems that don't need to be copied, patched or rebuilt.
04 Experience
AI & Engineering Lead, Solutions Architect & PM
Engineering and AI delivery for several product teams: an AI agent platform for commodity trade, a financial advice platform built from the ground up, and serverless backends on DynamoDB in healthcare.
Senior Software Engineer
Part of the platform team that streamlined a high-volume SMS pipeline handling 150k+ contacts a day.
Backend Lead
Partner gateway on a private network, and roadmaps that lifted service performance 17%.
R&D Software Engineer
Geocoding for 7M+ addresses, and the R&D team’s hiring process.
Tech Lead
83k to 98k requests a second at peak, a 350-component Angular portal and a Lighthouse score of 100.
05 I teach what I build
06 Kind words
On Upwork
Top Rated Plus
Upwork's top tier for freelancers
Ready to build or rethink your system?
ijazSolutions Architect & AI Engineering Lead10+
product teams, from early startups to Dubizzle Labs
Ijaz has consistently delivered high-quality work under tight deadlines while maintaining meticulous attention to detail … capable of independently managing large-scale product features and enterprise-level initiatives.
24h
to a first reply. Async-first from UTC+5, with overlap for your calls.
“I worked with Ijaz at Skimli, where he architected and led our 10-service microservices platform from the ground up … He thinks like an architect and delivers like an engineer. I’d recommend him to any founder who needs a senior technical partner.”
“Convergent thinking, passion, and impact are three very big strengths of Ijaz … exponentially enhancing our tech capabilities.”
“I found Ijaz to be a deep thinker … He analyses every detail before committing something. He is a man of vision.”
07 Before you ask
I'm based in Pakistan (UTC+5) and work async-first, with written updates and recorded demos. I keep a few hours of overlap with your team's working day for calls.
Yes. We start with a short architecture sprint so the scope and stack are clear, then build in weekly increments you can see and test.
Both. Architecture sprints are fixed scope. Ongoing partner and build work runs monthly, so we can adjust as the product changes.
Usually, yes. I often join as the lead or architect alongside your engineers, set up the specs and reviews, and leave the team stronger than I found it.
Not always. I'll tell you honestly where an LLM pays for itself and where plain software is cheaper and more reliable.
A simple agreement, plus an NDA when you need one. Billing is per milestone or monthly, depending on the engagement.
Tell me where the product is today, where it needs to go, and what's in the way.
or send a message, and I'll reply within 24 hours