DATA & PERFORMANCE
PostgreSQL Dashboard Optimization: 15s → 2s
Moving repeated reporting work out of the request path with materialized views, pre-aggregation and revised queries.
Node.js · PostgreSQL · PrismaRead case study
ALI ANJUM / ENGINEERING WITH OWNERSHIP
I solve difficult backend problems in production.
Slow databases. Failing payments. Unreliable integrations. AI workflows that need to work beyond the demo.
Senior Backend & Applied AI Engineer · Turin, Italy
Materialized views, pre-aggregation and revised queries for a reporting dashboard.
Explore the case studyAWS LAMBDA TICKET SCRAPER5 min → 15 secConcurrent Axios/Cheerio processing replaced a sequential Puppeteer scraper.
Explore the case studyFULL-TIME TOPTAL CLIENT ENGAGEMENTMore than 3 yearsMay 2023–September 2026. Full-Stack Developer to Technical Team Lead.
Explore the experiencePerformance results apply to their specific projects. Each case study explains the evidence and measurement context.
01 / PROBLEMS I SOLVE
Recognize the problem?
Start with what is getting in the way.
01
Backend is slow
Investigate API, query, concurrency and architecture bottlenecks and implement measurable performance improvements.
See relevant evidence02Data has outgrown the application
PostgreSQL/MongoDB analysis, aggregation, materialized views, reporting architecture and pre-computation.
See relevant evidence03AI prototype needs to become a product
Model integration, backend APIs, validation, fallbacks, observability, data flows and production architecture.
See relevant evidence04Integrations keep breaking
Payments, CRM systems, webhooks, queues and third-party APIs.
See relevant evidence05Difficult production issue has no clear owner
Reproduce → measure → investigate → isolate → implement → verify.
See relevant evidence02 / SELECTED WORK
The reasoning behind the result.
NODE.JS & AWS
AWS Lambda Ticket Scraper: 5 Minutes → 15 Seconds
Removing unnecessary browser overhead and sequential execution from a scheduled ticket scraper.
Node.js · AWS Lambda · AxiosRead case study
PRODUCTION DEBUGGING
When AI Was Confidently Wrong: Debugging an Apple Pay Production Failure
An Apple Pay failure showed why a plausible AI answer must still survive contact with observed browser behavior.
Stripe · Apple Pay · Browser user activationRead case study
APPLIED AI & INTEGRATIONS
AI Lead Qualification and HubSpot Integration
Connecting OpenAI, Grok and LangChain to qualification, HubSpot updates, calendar routing and payment-recovery operations.
Node.js · OpenAI · GrokRead case study
LIVE PERSONAL PRODUCT
Travel Junior
A public itinerary planner connecting Gemini, Google Places and a TypeScript/Fastify backend, with caching, validation, fallbacks and PDF export.
03 / HOW I WORK
Evidence before assumptions.
- 01Understand
- 02Measure
- 03Reproduce
- 04Isolate
- 05Fix
- 06Verify
Understand the business impact, reproduce the issue, identify the real bottleneck, implement the smallest safe change, measure again and monitor the result.
04 / APPLIED AI & EXPERIMENTS
Keep building. Keep learning.
FocusFeed
Personalized discovery
Gemini embeddings, ranking and personalization with PostgreSQL/pgvector and Supabase. No public usage or adoption claim.
View project detailsMetaScope
Defensive metadata extraction
Node.js/Express, Axios and Cheerio. Repository documentation describes bounded HTTP fetching, SSRF defenses and HTTP tests; this is not an independent security audit.
View project details05 / EXPERIENCE & OWNERSHIP
From hands-on developer
to technical team lead.
From May 2023 to September 2026, I worked full-time at a Toptal client, directly with the technical CEO on backend systems, AI lead qualification, payments, HubSpot and difficult production issues.
Software development since 2014, across independent client work and engineering teams—not continuous full-time employment.
CLIENT EVIDENCE
“Muhammad did a great job. He improved on the previous NodeJS code base and made it run nearly 20X faster! He was readily available for any small changes we requested and understood immediately what we're asking for. Would recommend.”
06 / ASK ALI
A shorter route to the right evidence.
Ask my AI assistant about a case study, my experience, or a technical problem. It can point you to relevant work. The opinions—and occasional stubborn debugging sessions—are mine. The assistant is AI.
Ask Ali a question
LET’S SOLVE IT
Have a difficult engineering problem?
If you’re dealing with a backend bottleneck, production issue, unreliable integration or an AI prototype that needs production engineering, let’s discuss it.
Discuss the problemHiring a senior backend, applied AI or forward-deployed engineer?Explore my experienceDownload résumé