Headline

Fractional CTO & Engineering Leader | Helping startups ship faster, hire better & scale engineering teams | @40Bears

About

Principal Engineer and Solution Architect with 12+ years of experience building and scaling enterprise platforms across Japan, the US, and India. Over the past 5+ years in Japan, I’ve worked closely with Japanese enterprises, product teams, and engineering organizations while leading large-scale SaaS, AI, healthcare, eCommerce, and infrastructure platforms. Business-level Japanese proficiency (日本語ビジネスレベル / JLPT N2). My expertise spans AI platform engineering, production RAG systems, distributed cloud architecture, DevOps transformation, and engineering leadership. Highlights: ▸ Built production-grade RAG and LLM systems using LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenAI APIs, vector databases, and enterprise AI workflows ▸ Architected multi-tenant AWS SaaS platforms serving millions of users with 99.9% uptime ▸ Led Kubernetes, Terraform, ArgoCD, and CI/CD modernization initiatives reducing deployment cycles by 60% ▸ Managed and mentored distributed engineering teams of 20+ engineers across Japan, the US, and India ▸ Designed scalable AI voice systems integrating OpenAI, Claude, and Twilio for real-time conversational workflows ▸ Led architecture and infrastructure for platforms handling high-scale traffic, operational reliability, and incident response ▸ Helped startups scale products end-to-end through platform architecture, DevOps automation, and engineering strategy Core Areas: AI/LLM Systems • RAG Pipelines • AWS • Kubernetes • Terraform • Platform Engineering • Distributed Systems • DevOps • Node.js • Python • React • Next.js • System Architecture • Engineering Management I enjoy solving complex engineering problems at scale — combining deep technical ownership with leadership, mentoring, platform reliability, and long-term architectural thinking. Currently based in Pune, India, and actively exploring Principal Engineer, Staff Engineer, Engineering Manager, and AI Platform Engineering opportunities in Tokyo or Chiba. Visa sponsorship required. 📩 umar.bit@gmail.com

Location

Pune District

AI stack

antigravity

claude code

claude

codex

cursor

gemini

openai

Work experience

Director of Engineering at 40Bears, May 2021 - Present · 5 yrs 3 mos, Pune District, Maharashtra, India, Learning with the best ones, everyday

Project Manager and Scrum Master at ITRA, Japan, Nov 2019 - May 2021 · 1 yr 7 mos, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Worked as a System Architect, Scrum master and DevOps head. During this period, I had the opportunity to work with an amazing team of 8 members in total consist of IITians frontend and backend developers, Product manager and Testers. Main responsibilities including planning and executing day to day activities to enable the team to function at the best possible way.

Systems Engineer at QVC, Apr 2017 - Sep 2019 · 2 yrs 6 mos, Chiba, Japan, - AEM integration and development for various modules of the E-Commerce application. - Micro service application development in Java 8 using Spring Framework - Manage micro services deployment in Cloud using Jenkins - Legacy Application Maintenance - Bridging the language gap with overseas team - Developing, planing and implementing state of art information solutions facilitating corporate growth with the cutting edge technology.

System Engineer at Information Technology Research Agency, Dec 2015 - Apr 2017 · 1 yr 5 mos, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, - Developed a CMS application product for the company which is being sold to multiple clients. - Coding business logic at the Backend and Easy to use Interface using various top notch frameworks. - Meeting with Clients while maintaining Japanese business ethics. - Brainstorming and preparing System specification for the new system. - Making Schedule and Milestones for the project. - Managing developers and designers to complete the Project on time. - Supporting developers and designers with Technical dificulties.

Web Developer & Corporate Instructor at Internet Academy, India, Jun 2014 - Dec 2015 · 1 yr 7 mos, - Full Stack Developer - Deep knowledge of AWS services - Corporate trainer - Have trained both On-site / In-house employees and students. - Have experience training 40 - 60 students daily 8 hours for two months. - Taught Amazon Web service, Advanced javascript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. - Made 4 online web projects and deployed in AWS server. - Have experience in setting up SVN server for inhouse and client application codes.

Education

Master of Computer Applications (M.C.A.), Cloud based Application, Image recognition, E.R.P. Development, Bhilai institute of technology

Bachelor of Computer Application, BCA, RIIT

Public links

github: https://github.com/umar-ashrfy