Zaheer Uddin
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10+ years building backend systems. Now shipping LLM features in production.
Open to Lead / Senior Backend roles - UK remote or West Midlands. Laravel, AWS and applied AI.
<About Me/>
Lead Backend Developer with 10+ years of professional experience in backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and scalable web applications.
Currently Lead Backend Developer at Sociuu ApS (Denmark), leading a team of six and owning backend architecture alongside the CTO on a SaaS employee advocacy platform used by enterprise clients.
I design and ship the platform's LLM features - OpenAI-powered content generation built into the Laravel codebase, along with the prompt engineering, variant flows and token accounting behind them. Day to day I build with agentic tooling (Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor) and review its output as closely as any other code.
MSc Data Science & Analytics (Distinction) from the University of Hertfordshire, where my dissertation put a machine-learning prediction API into that same live platform. Four of my pull requests are merged into GitHub's Spec Kit.
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Professional Experience
Lead Backend Developer
Sociuu ApS
Denmark (Remote) ·Dec 2020 - Present
Lead Backend Developer
Sociuu ApS
Denmark (Remote) ·Dec 2020 - Present
Leading backend development for a SaaS Employee Advocacy & Brand Engagement platform
- ▹Lead a team of six - three backend, two frontend and a QA engineer
- ▹Own backend architecture with the CTO, from data model to deployment
- ▹Design and ship the platform’s LLM features (OpenAI) alongside the team
- ▹Run AWS infrastructure and DevOps (EC2, RDS, S3, SQS, CloudFront, CodePipeline)
- ▹Build the CI/CD pipelines that ship to production around 240 times a year, roughly 4.6 releases a week
- ▹Maintain a backend of 451 REST endpoints covered by 865 automated test suites
- ▹3,198 commits to the platform since 2021, across a codebase of nine domain modules
- ▹Upgraded the backend from Lumen 5.5 through to Laravel 12 on PHP 8.4
- ▹Run technical sessions with enterprise customers on SSO, identity and user sync
- ▹Set coding standards, run code reviews and mentor the team
Senior Software Engineer
Ciklum Pakistan
Pakistan ·Feb 2017 - Dec 2020
Senior Software Engineer
Ciklum Pakistan
Pakistan ·Feb 2017 - Dec 2020
Developed enterprise e-commerce solutions and custom web applications
- ▹Started building the Sociuu employee-advocacy platform in 2017 as the client-side engineer, joining Sociuu directly in 2020
- ▹Built custom Magento 1.9 solution with SAP API integration for Swedish client
- ▹Implemented advanced features: multi-lingual support, bulk ordering, order templates
- ▹Optimized performance achieving 2-second load times
- ▹Managed DevOps, SSL configuration, and email server setup
- ▹Led technical discussions with international clients
Technical Consultant (Freelance)
Lucky Line Motors
USA (Remote) ·Jun 2018 - Aug 2019
Technical Consultant (Freelance)
Lucky Line Motors
USA (Remote) ·Jun 2018 - Aug 2019
Built complete e-commerce platform for automotive parts retailer
- ▹Developed Magento 2.2 online shop from scratch
- ▹Implemented ODBC-based product import from legacy system
- ▹Created advanced search with interchangeable parts lookup
- ▹Built custom expense management system in Magento admin
- ▹Integrated PayPal and custom discount features
Magento Developer
Shopistan.pk Pvt LTD
Pakistan ·Nov 2015 - Feb 2017
Magento Developer
Shopistan.pk Pvt LTD
Pakistan ·Nov 2015 - Feb 2017
Developed and maintained multiple e-commerce platforms
- ▹Built insurance/takaful platforms (getinsurance.pk, gettakaful.pk)
- ▹Integrated FBR API for tax calculations
- ▹Implemented advanced search and store locator features
- ▹Developed loyalty reward programs and custom modules
Web Developer
Code for Pakistan Fellowship
KP IT Board / World Bank ·Jul 2015 - Nov 2015
Web Developer
Code for Pakistan Fellowship
KP IT Board / World Bank ·Jul 2015 - Nov 2015
Civic technology fellowship funded by the World Bank
- ▹Automated a traffic department licence-renewal process
- ▹Modernised a legacy government system
AI & LLM Engineering
Shipping LLM-powered features into a live SaaS product, not experimenting on the side.
LLM Features in Production
Design and direct the OpenAI-powered features inside the Sociuu platform, working hands-on in the Laravel codebase alongside the backend team.
- ▹AI content generation for email subject lines, preview and preheader text, suggested share messages, titles and descriptions
- ▹Content classification, plus token and cost accounting per request
- ▹Generate, preview, accept or regenerate variant flow so editors stay in control of what ships
- ▹Authored the AI action classes behind subject and preview generation, accept-variant and regenerate
Applied Prompt Engineering
Wrote and tuned the prompts behind those features - the part that decides whether generated copy is usable or noise.
- ▹System prompts and persona/role instructions written against real product copy
- ▹Temperature and max-token tuning per action, balancing output quality against cost
- ▹Prompt changes reviewed like code, since a prompt edit is a behaviour change
AI-Assisted Development
Agentic coding tools daily, with the senior half of the job being review - catching hallucinations and holding output to Laravel and SOLID conventions.
- ▹Claude Code as the primary driver, with GitHub Copilot and Cursor alongside
- ▹Built custom Claude Code skills for the team’s recurring workflows
- ▹Uses MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and orchestrates background agents
- ▹Reviews and audits AI output before it reaches a merge request
Spec-Driven Development
Specs before code, so AI-assisted work stays anchored to intent rather than drifting.
- ▹GitHub Spec Kit, OpenSpec and Intent by Augment Code used on real feature work
- ▹Plans written and reviewed up front, then implemented against the spec
Technical Skills
Backend & Core
Cloud & DevOps
Development Tools
Frontend & Other
Also Works With
Used across projects alongside the core stack
Languages & Data
Platform & Infrastructure
Testing & Quality
Machine Learning (MSc)
Core Expertise
Education & Recognition
MSc Data Science & Analytics
University of Hertfordshire
United Kingdom
Dissertation applied machine learning to email open-rate prediction on an employee-advocacy platform, comparing seven algorithms and deploying a real-time prediction API into the live PHP platform.
BSc Computer Science
University of Engineering & Technology, Peshawar
Pakistan
Final-year project: Quick Disease Early Warning System (QDEWS).
Awards & Recognition
- ▹Top 25 of 2,000+ worldwide - Microsoft Imagine Cup "Code Hunt" 2014
- ▹Top 10 - DICE Health Innovation Exhibition 2015
- ▹Winner, Best Solution Using Civic Data - Islamabad Civic Hackathon (Code for Pakistan / World Bank)
- ▹1st place - UET Peshawar Entrepreneurial Spirit Program
- ▹Semi-finalist - Pakathon Global (MIT)
Featured Projects
Sociuu - Employee Advocacy Platform
Nov 2017 - Present
Sociuu - Employee Advocacy Platform
Nov 2017 - Present
Enterprise SaaS platform for employee advocacy and brand engagement, serving corporate clients across Europe. I have worked on this one product since 2017 - first through Ciklum, then directly at Sociuu from 2020, and as Lead Backend Developer since.
- ▹Architected and maintained the backend: 451 REST endpoints, 114 schema migrations, nine domain modules
- ▹Built the CI/CD pipeline behind roughly 240 production releases a year, with 865 automated test suites
- ▹Managed AWS infrastructure with auto-scaling and high availability
- ▹Built RESTful APIs consumed by Angular frontend
8+ years on one product, 3,198 commits, ~4.6 production releases a week
Lucky Line Motors - Automotive E-commerce
Jun 2018 - Aug 2019
Lucky Line Motors - Automotive E-commerce
Jun 2018 - Aug 2019
Complete e-commerce solution for US-based automotive parts retailer with advanced search and inventory management.
- ▹Built Magento 2.2 platform from scratch with custom modules
- ▹Implemented ODBC integration for real-time inventory sync
- ▹Developed advanced search with interchangeable parts database
- ▹Created custom expense management system
- ▹Integrated payment gateway and discount system
Enabled online sales channel for 10,000+ SKUs
Arvid Nilsson Shop - B2B E-commerce
Feb 2017 - Nov 2017
Arvid Nilsson Shop - B2B E-commerce
Feb 2017 - Nov 2017
B2B e-commerce platform for Swedish client with SAP ERP integration for seamless order processing.
- ▹Integrated Magento 1.9 with SAP using SOAP APIs
- ▹Built custom admin translation management system
- ▹Implemented bulk ordering and order templates
- ▹Created super-user/sub-user hierarchy for organizations
- ▹Optimized performance to 2-second load time
Streamlined B2B ordering for enterprise clients
Insurance & Takaful Platforms
2015 - 2017
Insurance & Takaful Platforms
2015 - 2017
Digital insurance platforms for Jubilee General Insurance, enabling online policy purchase and management.
- ▹Customized Magento for insurance product catalog
- ▹Integrated FBR API for tax calculations
- ▹Built policy verification and renewal system
- ▹Implemented advanced search across CMS pages
- ▹Created motor policy quotation module
Digitized insurance sales for major Pakistani insurer
Fashion & Retail E-commerce
2015 - 2017
Fashion & Retail E-commerce
2015 - 2017
Multiple e-commerce platforms for fashion and textile retailers in Pakistan.
- ▹Implemented loyalty reward programs
- ▹Built advanced color swatches and product comparison
- ▹Created store locator with Google Maps integration
- ▹Developed intelligent search with suggestions
Enhanced online presence for major retail brands