Available for new opportunities

Umair Afzal

Full-Stack Engineer

Hands-on engineer and tech lead with 9+ years building scalable, API-driven SaaS platforms — end-to-end, from cloud infrastructure to the front end.

London / Remote, UK</> MERN · PHP/Laravel · AWS & DevOps

View my work

Contact me

umair@portfolio ~ zshinteractive

➜ ~

React◆Next.js◆Node.js◆Express◆TypeScript◆PHP / Laravel◆MongoDB◆MySQL◆PostgreSQL◆AWS◆Docker◆CI/CD◆React Native◆Flutter◆Python◆Angular◆Shopify◆WordPress◆React◆Next.js◆Node.js◆Express◆TypeScript◆PHP / Laravel◆MongoDB◆MySQL◆PostgreSQL◆AWS◆Docker◆CI/CD◆React Native◆Flutter◆Python◆Angular◆Shopify◆WordPress◆

01 / about

Building software, end to end

Years experience

Projects delivered

Restaurant branches served

0–6

Engineers led

I build and lead the delivery of production SaaS across the MERN stack and PHP/Laravel, with solid AWS and DevOps experience — provisioning infrastructure, building CI/CD pipelines, and automating deployments. I lead small engineering teams (4–6), set technical direction, and stay close to the code (60–70% hands-on): modernising systems, tuning performance, mentoring engineers, and raising the bar on code quality, testing, and delivery.

Education

MSc, Big Data & Artificial Intelligence
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge · 2022 – 2024
BS, Information Technology
University of Sargodha · 2012 – 2016

Full Stack (MERN)

ReactNode.js / ExpressNext.jsJavaScript (ES6+)HTML5CSS3MongoDB

Backend & APIs

PHP / LaravelRESTful APIsAPI-first designMicroservicesPython

Cloud & DevOps

AWS (EC2, S3, RDS)DockerCI/CD (GitHub Actions)Automated deployments

Databases & Performance

MongoDBMySQLPostgreSQLQuery optimisationCaching & indexing

Mobile

React NativeFlutterAndroidMobile APIs

Leadership & Practices

Team leadershipMentoringArchitecture ownershipCode reviewsAgile / Scrum

02 / experience

Where I've worked

Software Engineer (PHP / Laravel)

Oct 2025 – Present

Bellmont College · London, UK

Lead development of Laravel-based platforms, driving architecture decisions and system design.
Act as a technical point of contact, supporting the team and resolving complex engineering challenges.
Designed API-driven systems handling authentication, scheduling, and financial workflows.
Improved performance through query optimisation and efficient API design.

Lead Web Developer

Apr 2024 – Sep 2025

DIS Global Services Inc · Remote, UK

Led a distributed team delivering full-stack SaaS on the MERN stack.
Stayed hands-on (~70%) across React front-ends and Node.js/Express APIs while guiding architecture.
Built and managed AWS infrastructure (EC2, S3, RDS) and owned CI/CD, Docker, and automated deployments.
Mentored junior developers and established Git best practices, improving release cycles.

Full Stack Developer (MERN, AWS & DevOps)

Mar 2018 – Mar 2024

DataInvent System · Remote, UK

Built and maintained multi-tenant SaaS applications on the MERN stack across multiple domains.
Delivered scalable React front-ends and Node.js/Express REST APIs backed by MongoDB.
Provisioned AWS infrastructure and implemented CI/CD pipelines and Docker-based deployments.
Optimised performance through caching, indexing, and efficient database queries.

PHP Developer

Jan 2017 – Jun 2017

BizExcel Pvt. Ltd · Pakistan

Developed backend features for internal systems and customer tools using PHP and MySQL.
Built reusable components and REST APIs with third-party integrations.

Junior Web Developer

Feb 2017 – May 2017

ViralWebbs Pvt. Ltd · Pakistan

Assisted in PHP backend development and HTML/CSS/JavaScript frontend updates.

03 / projects

Selected work

A selection of software, SaaS and mobile products I've built or led — from restaurant operations platforms to security, real-estate and sports apps.

CheddrSuite

Case study

Restaurant operations suite — shift scheduling, staff management, inventory, payroll, onboarding, reporting and AI predictions. In use across 300+ restaurant branches.

AngularNode.jsExpressDevOps

Read the case study