Syed Faheel Ahmad profile photo 2 on Tal
Syed Faheel Ahmad profile photo 1 on Tal
Syed Faheel Ahmad profile photo 2 on Tal
Syed Faheel Ahmad profile photo 1 on Tal

Syed Faheel Ahmad

Lead Software Engineer | Backend & Cloud | AWS | Scalable Architectures | DevOps & Automation

Bengaluru South

8+ years of work experience

RiskProfiler
Apr 20251 yr 5 mosPresent

Gurugram, Haryana, India

Leading the backend team at RiskProfiler, a cybersecurity startup that helps organizations assess and manage their attack surface and security risk. • Building scalable APIs and serverless data pipelines using Python, JavaScript, and Go, handling 5M+ API requests and 10M+ cloud asset scans monthly with high availability and low error rates. • Architecting systems across AWS, GCP, and Cloudflare while optimizing cloud spend, saving over $4K/month in recent months without sacrificing performance or scale. • Integrating AI agents into key workflows, including Google Gemini LLM and RAG to auto-fill security questionnaires and reduce manual effort by 80%. • Improving the developer experience by setting up CI/CD pipelines, centralized logging and tracing, and better monitoring and alerting systems. • Scaling and mentoring the backend team from 5 to 10 engineers through hiring, code and design reviews, and stronger engineering practices across development, deployment, and monitoring.
Animall
Jun 20213 yrs 11 mosApr 2025

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Product Development & Business Impact • Built APIs using TypeScript (NestJS), JavaScript (Express.js) and Python (FastAPI), handling about 1B requests a month. • Worked extensively with MongoDB collections and aggregation pipelines, e.g. building a feed service that aggregates millions of documents in a few milliseconds. • Designed MySQL and PostgreSQL database schemas and optimized query performance, e.g. creating a composite B-tree index to find the best potential buyers from over 10M users within a second. • Automated vehicle allotment for the e-commerce business using VROOM and GraphHopper, saving 60 hours of manual effort daily. • Developed a system using Airflow and Kubernetes (EKS) to serve ML models, handling 3000+ model runs daily in production. • Implemented dynamic WhatsApp messaging and campaign tracking using Gupshup. • Built reusable wallet and referral systems, reducing development effort across multiple business verticals. • Built a no-code notification campaign system using Strapi, saving 40+ hours of engineering effort every month. • Self-hosted Sentry for monitoring client-side errors, helping resolve recurring bugs. Scalability, Optimization & Cost Efficiency • Saved ~1 billion seconds of compute time per year by implementing JWT authentication for APIs. • Optimised AWS and GCP cloud resources, saving over $2000/month. • Tuned Nginx and Linux server configurations, allowing a single EC2 instance to handle 3x more connections. • Refactored and modularized legacy codebases, reducing tech debt and improving maintainability. Automation & DevOps Enhancements • Set up GitHub Actions for automated deployments, eliminating manual effort and release conflicts. • Created deployment scripts for dynamic dev environments, replacing manual Slack-based coordination. • Containerized main apps and enabled quick local setup using Docker Compose. • Replaced OpenVPN with Tailscale VPN, improving scalability, lowering costs, and simplifying cloud integrations.
EthicalHat Cyber Security
Jul 20183 yrsJun 2021

Gurgaon, India

Built online platforms that help security professionals assess their attack surface and improve their cyber security. Key projects that I worked on: 1. Serverless platform for discovering security issues • Used AWS and the Serverless framework to build and deploy Lambda functions and Fargate tasks written in Python, Go, and JavaScript. • Designed an event-driven architecture using SNS for notifications and implemented a rate-limiting setup using SQS FIFO queues for calling third-party APIs. • Optimized DynamoDB schemas and indices based on query patterns and used DynamoDB streams to aggregate item counts across multiple categories. • Created a user management module using Cognito user pools, clients, and authorizers, along with building REST APIs using API Gateway and Lambda. • Accelerated front-end deployment by 15x using S3 and CloudFront via the Serverless framework, replacing AWS Amplify. • Automated microservices deployment with a dependency resolution script, that made deployments up to 4x faster. 2. Full-stack application to run security scans • Designed and implemented the UI using Semantic UI and developed the back-end with Django. • Built core features, including the integration of multiple security scanners and vulnerability feeds. • Managed background and periodic tasks using Celery with RabbitMQ. • Developed a large-scale domain search feature using Elasticsearch to scan 250M+ domains. • Worked with both relational (PostgreSQL) and non-relational (MongoDB) databases. 3. Controls Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) - Developed for the Center for Internet Security (CIS), USA • Developed the full-stack application, implementing the UI with Semantic UI and the back-end with Django. • Independently built core features and integrated third-party services like Slack. • Containerized the web app using Docker and automated service deployment with Docker Compose.
GitHub
@faheel
Personal portfoliofaheel.in

Syed’s AI Stack

codex
codex
cursor
cursor
gemini
gemini
github copilot
github copilot
mcp
mcp

Education

Jamia Millia Islamia

Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Computer Engineering

Jamia Millia Islamia

20144 yrs2018
International Indian School Al-Jubail

High School (Class 7-12)

International Indian School Al-Jubail

20086 yrs2014

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Headline

Lead Software Engineer | Backend & Cloud | AWS | Scalable Architectures | DevOps & Automation

About

Lead backend engineer with 8 years building scalable APIs, cloud infrastructure (AWS/GCP/Azure/Cloudflare), developer tooling and automation for high-throughput systems. Proven track record in performance tuning, cost optimisation, internal platforms, and shipping infra that supports millions of users - e.g. architected services handling 1B+ monthly requests and reduced monthly cloud spend by $4K+. Interested in backend/platform roles focused on reliability and efficiency.

Location

Bengaluru South

AI stack

codex

cursor

gemini

github copilot

mcp

Work experience

Lead Software Engineer at RiskProfiler, Apr 2025 - Present · 1 yr 5 mos, Gurugram, Haryana, India, Leading the backend team at RiskProfiler, a cybersecurity startup that helps organizations assess and manage their attack surface and security risk. • Building scalable APIs and serverless data pipelines using Python, JavaScript, and Go, handling 5M+ API requests and 10M+ cloud asset scans monthly with high availability and low error rates. • Architecting systems across AWS, GCP, and Cloudflare while optimizing cloud spend, saving over $4K/month in recent months without sacrificing performance or scale. • Integrating AI agents into key workflows, including Google Gemini LLM and RAG to auto-fill security questionnaires and reduce manual effort by 80%. • Improving the developer experience by setting up CI/CD pipelines, centralized logging and tracing, and better monitoring and alerting systems. • Scaling and mentoring the backend team from 5 to 10 engineers through hiring, code and design reviews, and stronger engineering practices across development, deployment, and monitoring.

Senior Software Engineer at Animall, Jun 2021 - Apr 2025 · 3 yrs 11 mos, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Product Development & Business Impact • Built APIs using TypeScript (NestJS), JavaScript (Express.js) and Python (FastAPI), handling about 1B requests a month. • Worked extensively with MongoDB collections and aggregation pipelines, e.g. building a feed service that aggregates millions of documents in a few milliseconds. • Designed MySQL and PostgreSQL database schemas and optimized query performance, e.g. creating a composite B-tree index to find the best potential buyers from over 10M users within a second. • Automated vehicle allotment for the e-commerce business using VROOM and GraphHopper, saving 60 hours of manual effort daily. • Developed a system using Airflow and Kubernetes (EKS) to serve ML models, handling 3000+ model runs daily in production. • Implemented dynamic WhatsApp messaging and campaign tracking using Gupshup. • Built reusable wallet and referral systems, reducing development effort across multiple business verticals. • Built a no-code notification campaign system using Strapi, saving 40+ hours of engineering effort every month. • Self-hosted Sentry for monitoring client-side errors, helping resolve recurring bugs. Scalability, Optimization & Cost Efficiency • Saved ~1 billion seconds of compute time per year by implementing JWT authentication for APIs. • Optimised AWS and GCP cloud resources, saving over $2000/month. • Tuned Nginx and Linux server configurations, allowing a single EC2 instance to handle 3x more connections. • Refactored and modularized legacy codebases, reducing tech debt and improving maintainability. Automation & DevOps Enhancements • Set up GitHub Actions for automated deployments, eliminating manual effort and release conflicts. • Created deployment scripts for dynamic dev environments, replacing manual Slack-based coordination. • Containerized main apps and enabled quick local setup using Docker Compose. • Replaced OpenVPN with Tailscale VPN, improving scalability, lowering costs, and simplifying cloud integrations.

Software Developer at EthicalHat Cyber Security, Jul 2018 - Jun 2021 · 3 yrs, Gurgaon, India, Built online platforms that help security professionals assess their attack surface and improve their cyber security. Key projects that I worked on: 1. Serverless platform for discovering security issues • Used AWS and the Serverless framework to build and deploy Lambda functions and Fargate tasks written in Python, Go, and JavaScript. • Designed an event-driven architecture using SNS for notifications and implemented a rate-limiting setup using SQS FIFO queues for calling third-party APIs. • Optimized DynamoDB schemas and indices based on query patterns and used DynamoDB streams to aggregate item counts across multiple categories. • Created a user management module using Cognito user pools, clients, and authorizers, along with building REST APIs using API Gateway and Lambda. • Accelerated front-end deployment by 15x using S3 and CloudFront via the Serverless framework, replacing AWS Amplify. • Automated microservices deployment with a dependency resolution script, that made deployments up to 4x faster. 2. Full-stack application to run security scans • Designed and implemented the UI using Semantic UI and developed the back-end with Django. • Built core features, including the integration of multiple security scanners and vulnerability feeds. • Managed background and periodic tasks using Celery with RabbitMQ. • Developed a large-scale domain search feature using Elasticsearch to scan 250M+ domains. • Worked with both relational (PostgreSQL) and non-relational (MongoDB) databases. 3. Controls Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) - Developed for the Center for Internet Security (CIS), USA • Developed the full-stack application, implementing the UI with Semantic UI and the back-end with Django. • Independently built core features and integrated third-party services like Slack. • Containerized the web app using Docker and automated service deployment with Docker Compose.

Education

Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Computer Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia

High School (Class 7-12), International Indian School Al-Jubail

Public links

github: https://github.com/faheel

faheel.in: https://faheel.in/