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Hello There

I am Zeeshan Saeed,
a DevOps Engineer
based in Peshawar, Pakistan.

About

More About Me

Critical thinker with an extensive understanding of high-availability architecture and concepts. Purpose-driven professional with the capacity to be a strong team player and work effectively independently. Currently targeting AWS Certified Sysops Administrator. Having experience working in private environments as well as with Public Cloud providers including heavily AWS, and then GCP, Azure, and Digital Ocean. CKA Certified

The Journey!

My career journey began unexpectedly when the pandemic delayed my graduation, allowing me to start as a System Administrator before completing my degree. After graduating, I worked as a Lab Instructor at my university, where I earned the Google IT Support Certification. This experience gave me a strong foundation in both IT support and teaching.

I later transitioned into a DevOps role, where I focus on CI/CD pipeline configuration with GitLab, task automation using Ansible and shell scripting, and containerizing apps with Docker for Kubernetes deployments. I also worked with a US-based organization to set up their AWS CI/CD pipeline using CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline.

I’m now a Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and preparing for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator certification. Outside of work, I enjoy baking, walking, and exploring nature—activities that help me stay creatively inspired and recharge.

I've Got Some skills.

  • 90%
    Docker and Kubernetes
  • 85%
    Python
  • 70%
    Ansible
  • 95%
    GoLang
  • 75%
    Prometheus and Grafana
  • 90%
    Helm
  • 95%
    VMware ESXi Management
  • 75%
    Bash, Groovy, YAML
  • 75%
    Terraform
  • 90%
    NodeJS (Express)

My Work Experience.

Dec 2022 - Present

Afiniti

Senior DevOps/PLatform Engineer

Developed a GO API for seamless cloud deployment, using Terraform to deploy Kubernetes clusters across providers and Helm for microservices deployment. Enabled single-click deployment with validation, migrations, and user access.
Created a Python-based CLI deployment manager, allowing offline deployment on multiple VM architectures and Linux OSes.
Built Jenkins/Groovy CI/CD pipelines and GitOps-based pipelines for infrastructure deployment on a private cloud.
Led Kubernetes cluster documentation and deployment, enhancing in-house development with Rancher UIs and enabling legacy app migration to Kubernetes, including shared memory support.
Automated daily workloads with scripts, optimizing pipeline build times and integrating SonarQube for code scanning to improve the developer experience.

May 2022 - Nov 2022

xFlow Research Inc.

Senior Engineer

Built scalable REST APIs in Node.js/Express, integrating open-source and third-party tools.
Developed parallel task APIs to optimize multi-core CPU usage, and conducted stress tests with Artillery to eliminate performance bottlenecks.
Implemented JWT authentication for enhanced security.
Exported logs to Prometheus via Promtail and integrated Grafana dashboards for performance monitoring.
Automated monitoring stack configurations with Ansible for consistent setups.

Feb 2021 - Apr 2022

Tungsten Software Services

DevOps Engineer

Managed Rancher-based Kubernetes clusters for development and production, using GitLab CI/CD pipelines for automated builds, tests, and deployments.
Deployed and managed EKS clusters on AWS with ekstcl and GitOps via GitHub for client projects.
Administered infrastructure with VMware ESXi, Ansible, and Terraform, and configured production databases with read replicas and backups.
Migrated company infrastructure from AWS to on-prem servers, minimizing downtime and resolving issues.
Consolidated a client's multi-cloud infrastructure (DigitalOcean, AWS, Azure) into a unified AWS solution.

May 2020 - Sep 2020

zSoft

System Administrator

Set up CentOS-based VMs for deploying PHP applications and hosting MySQL databases, securing servers for PHP and Laravel apps with SSL and hardening measures.
Implemented robust database backup policies using open-source solutions.

Portfolio

See My Freelance Work.

High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Implemented high-availability PostgreSQL clusters with repmgr in a master-slave architecture. Automated backup processes and disaster recovery using AWS Backup services and custom scripts, ensuring robust data protection and rapid recovery across various use cases.

API Development

Developed a Node.js API to manage PostgreSQL database access, providing endpoints for CRUD operations and enabling parallel processing for improved performance.

Infrastructure Migration

Led seamless infrastructure migrations from AWS to GCP, utilizing Terraform and Ansible to automate and streamline the process, ensuring minimal downtime and smooth transitions.

Security and Development

Configured OpenVPN within VPCs to enhance security for in-house development, ensuring secure access to internal resources.

Kubernetes Cluster Repair

Recovered a critical Kubernetes cluster by repairing broken components caused by internal certificate expiry, safeguarding crucial data and ensuring system continuity.

Cloud Platform Utilization

Optimized cloud infrastructure by utilizing DigitalOcean databases with backups, Kubernetes clusters for container orchestration, and application deployment via GitHub CI/CD and the DigitalOcean App Platform for seamless application delivery.

AWS Infrastructure Utilization

Leveraged AWS services including VPCs, CloudFront, Block Storage, and WAF to host a production website, ensuring high availability, scalability, and security with caching for improved performance.

Website Performance Optimization

Reduced frontend load times for a WordPress site from 30 seconds to just 2-3 seconds by configuring AWS CloudFront for faster content delivery and improved user experience.

What People Say About Me.

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Zeeshan is now on his second project/milestone at DropAlley and has positioned himself as a thought leader within the organization. We think of him as any other team member sharing our passions and challenges making them his own. As an early-stage venture with very finite resources, we are forced to be agile, prepare for scale, and anticipate client security needs. Zeeshan has brought this thought leadership, innovation to problem solving, and adaptability to new technologies. As a team of former Big4 (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) consultants in technology, strategy, and risk Zeeshan not only does as well as our colleagues from those previous roles, but in most cases exceeds in his ability to problem solve truly demonstrating his ability to learn quicker than the best of the best. In my experience in the past decade I can count on one hand the number of technical experts I have genuinely enjoyed working with and Zeeshan is certainly on that hand. As our venture grows along with the challenges we look forward to Zeeshan being the Trusted Advisor to our team, customers, and partners.

Steven Valdez Upwork Client
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"Muhammad has been one of the best hires among dozens of Upwork projects. He is everything I would hope for in a tech consultant: Excellent English communication and thoroughly able to express himself, intelligent at analyzing problems and helping formulate a good path forward, and great technical skills in a variety of modern devops environments. I enthusiastically recommend him, and would hire him for any furture devops projects we have without hesitation."

Nick White Upwork Client
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I cannot recommend Muhammad highly enough. He is competent, intelligent, well skilled and (perhaps most importantly) trustworthy. His advice was always rational and well founded, and he proved himself able to deliver on spec and on time. I would not hesitate to use him in the future.

Fergus Partridge Upwork Client
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This guy is extremely knowledgable and creative in finding devop solutions. He saved us hundreds of dollars with Digital Ocean vs our old cloud hosting.

Jonathan Keating Upwork Client
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Zeeshan was exactly the kind of help I was looking for. Right from the start, he was one of the few freelancers that gave me recommendations with explanations of possible improvements to what I needed done. He gave me a good time estimate to get the job done and even completed early. He was an exceptional communicator and was able to setup exactly what I needed. I highly recommend Zeeshan and will certainly be going to him for future projects.

Brian MacPherson Upwork Client
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I wanted to provide this mid-point feedback on behalf of Zeeshan. I have team members at my early stage venture who work at top tech companies and Zeeshan not only keeps up with them, but he is often innovative in his research and application to solve our pressing problems. He is a great team member and is our trusted devops subject matter expert. Thanks Zeeshan!

Steven Valdez Upwork Client
150

Cups of Coffee

19

Projects Completed

19

Happy Clients

Contact

Say Hello.

When I'm not immersed in DevOps and cloud engineering, I love to unwind by baking, taking long walks, and exploring the beauty of nature. These activities help me recharge and keep my creativity flowing. Whether it's trying out new recipes or simply enjoying the peace of a nature trail, I find that a little time away from the screen is just as important as the work itself.
If you're interested in connecting or discussing new opportunities, feel free to reach out. I’m always open to sharing ideas, collaborating, and learning from others in the tech community.

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Phone

Mobile: +92-347-9888024

Email

contact@szeeshan.me
zs.zeeshansaeed22@gmail.com

Address

Peshawar, Pakistan