Available for new engagements - remote worldwide, or on-site
About Adnan Umar
Solutions Architect - Islamabad, Pakistan
I've been building production software since 2009, and designing the architecture behind it for the last eight years.
I started as a web developer in Islamabad and led my first team by 2011. Three years consulting directly with client companies in the US and Canada followed, with no account manager in between, which taught me more about requirements than any process ever did. I then set technical direction as Head of Engineering at Smart Minds, and since 2018 I have been Solutions Architect and Lead Engineer at BIZSOL Technologies, designing cloud and integration systems for enterprise and SaaS clients across the Middle East, the United States and Europe.
The constant is that I work inside delivery teams, not beside them: requirements with the client's stakeholders, architecture and design documentation, security review, then hands-on through to production handover.
The work
What I actually do
Most of my work sits at the seams between systems. A procurement platform that has to agree with an ERP. A payment provider whose webhook arrives twice. A nightly file that turns up malformed at 2am and mustn't corrupt anything downstream.
Which platform a system runs on matters less than people expect. Managed services are interchangeable and learnable; the parts that take experience are reading the requirement properly, sizing for the load the system will actually see, and knowing which failure modes you are choosing to accept. I have designed on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, and the thinking has been much the same on each.
The design work that matters isn't the happy path - it's deciding what the system does when something upstream misbehaves, and making that decision visible to the people who have to run it. Idempotency, retries, replay, reconciliation. Not glamorous, but it's the difference between an integration that survives its third year and one that quietly rots.
Approach
I design and I build
That combination is less common than it should be at this level, and I've deliberately kept it. Architects who stop building lose touch with what their designs cost to implement; engineers who never design keep solving the same problem in slightly different ways.
Staying hands-on is also why my designs survive contact with delivery teams - if something in a document is impractical, I find out because I've had to build it, not because someone escalates six weeks later.
Working together
How I work with people
Sixteen years of client work, most of it remote and across time zones, has made me direct. I'll tell you when the thing you've asked for isn't worth building, and I'd rather have that conversation in week one than month four. Clients have stayed with me for up to seven years, which I take as evidence that it works.
I write things down - design documents, decision records, interface specs - because the person who inherits a system deserves to know why it looks the way it does.
Career
Experience at a glance
| Period | Role | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 - present | Solutions Architect & Lead Engineer | BIZSOL Technologies |
| 2014 - 2018 | Head of Engineering | Smart Minds |
| 2011 - 2014 | Software Consultant, international clients | US & Canada |
| 2011 | Software Team Lead | Unicres (Pvt) Limited |
| 2009 - 2010 | Software Engineer, web applications | KAPTEC |
MCS Computer Science, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad. BSc Mathematics, University of the Punjab, Lahore. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate; Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Associate; TOGAF 10 in progress.
Beyond the job
Outside the work
For four and a half years I volunteered in a government school computer lab, teaching students the basics of hardware, operating systems and everyday software. Most of them had never had a computer at home. It's some of the most useful teaching I've done, and it's where I learned to explain technical things without jargon - which turns out to be most of the job when you're presenting a design to people who'll fund it.
Availability
Where I am now
Based in Islamabad, and open to Solutions Architect and Enterprise Architect work wherever it makes sense - remote with US, European or Middle Eastern teams, or on-site with relocation on 30 days' notice at my own cost.
If you're hiring, or you'd just like to talk through an architecture problem, email me or find me on LinkedIn.
Building a product from scratch? I still take a small number of 30-day MVP builds each year.
FAQ
Common questions
How many years of experience do you have?
Sixteen years building production software, starting in 2009, and eight of those in dedicated Solutions Architect roles since 2018.
What does a Solutions Architect do on a project?
I own the technical solution end to end: requirements, architecture and design documentation, breaking it into user stories for the delivery team, taking the design through security review, and supporting it into production. On most engagements I also build a meaningful part of it myself.
Where can you work - remote, on-site, or relocation?
All three. I work remotely with teams in the US, Europe and the Middle East today, with full overlap with European business hours and four to five hours daily with US Eastern. Remote engagements can start immediately; for client-site work across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain I deploy on 30 days' notice and fund my own relocation, with employment visa sponsorship required. I join as a permanent hire or on a consulting engagement; for remote hires where a local entity is needed I can also work through an employer of record such as Deel or Remote.com.
Which cloud platforms do you work with?
AWS and Microsoft Azure primarily, plus Google Cloud, and I am an AWS Certified Solutions Architect. In practice the platform matters less than the shape of the design. Managed services are interchangeable and learnable; what takes experience is choosing serverless against containers, sizing for the load the system will actually see, and knowing which failure modes you are accepting.
Do you still write code, or only design?
Both, deliberately. Architects who stop building lose touch with what their designs cost to implement. Staying hands-on is why my designs survive contact with delivery teams.
What certifications do you hold?
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (Amazon Web Services, 2020) and Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Associate (Oracle, 2017). TOGAF 10 is in progress.
What industries have you worked in?
Travel and immigration technology, sales and marketing technology, ERP and business systems, media technology, and general SaaS. Most of my work is integration and platform architecture, which transfers cleanly across sectors.
Where are you based, and what hours do you work?
Islamabad, Pakistan - UTC+5. I work client hours: full overlap with European business hours, and four to five hours daily with US Eastern.
Can you provide references?
Yes. Twenty-four-plus client engagements at a 5.0 / 5.0 average client rating, and written references covering engagements of up to seven years, available on request.