Open to new engagements

Principal .NET Architect
& Cloud Technologist

I've been writing production software since 2000 and designing enterprise architectures since 2007. Over 25 years, I've helped businesses across the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, and beyond build systems that scale, endure, and actually make sense to maintain. I work at the intersection of backend engineering, cloud infrastructure, and technical leadership — bringing both the strategic thinking of an architect and the hands-on discipline of a senior engineer.

View My Work Let's Talk
25+Years Building
13+Projects Listed
4Countries
200+Agencies Served
My story

From Arthritis to Architecture

I wrote my first line of professional code in 2003 and haven't stopped since. Over more than two decades I've built everything from enterprise ERP systems and travel booking platforms to real-time communication tools and AI-powered chatbots — working with clients in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, and beyond.

The journey wasn't smooth. Within a year of my first development role, I was diagnosed with severe arthritis and spent four years unable to walk. During that time, I leaned on the same problem-solving mindset that makes me a good engineer: break the problem down, find the path forward, and keep moving. After surgery, I came back stronger — and more driven than ever.

Today I work at the intersection of backend architecture, cloud infrastructure, and technical leadership. I care deeply about building systems that are genuinely maintainable, not just impressive in a demo. And beyond engineering, I'm committed to opening doors for more women in tech — because talent is everywhere, and opportunity shouldn't be.

🏗️
Architecture First

Scalability, security, and maintainability are requirements from day one — never bolt-ons.

📦
Delivery Discipline

I own the full software delivery lifecycle — from design to production to on-call reliability.

💡
Business Mindset

25 years of B2B consulting instilled a sharp focus on value, cost, and long-term maintainability.

🌍
Global Perspective

Having worked across four countries, I bring cross-cultural engineering depth to every engagement.

Career Timeline
Dec 2021 – Dec 2025
Principal Engineer
GET Consulting · Iceland (Synia Platform)
Jan 2019 – Dec 2021
Senior Backend Engineer
CreditChex · Elasticsearch NLP Platform
2019 – 2020
Software Team Lead
W.Site Technology · Netherlands
2017 – 2018
Software Developer
SoCom Infor. GmbH · Germany
Jan 2014 – Oct 2017
Senior Software Engineer
HolidayGenie · Language People · WEBeDoctor
Jan 2016 – Dec 2017
Senior Developer
Abacusoft · FPM Platform
Jul 2003 – Jul 2004
First Professional Role
Synergy Advertising Agency · AAMS
Expertise

Skills & Technologies

25 years of deep specialisation across the full backend, cloud, DevOps, and AI-augmented engineering stack.

C# / .NET 8 / ASP.NET Core 97%
Microsoft Azure Architecture 95%
Microservices / DDD / CQRS 93%
CI/CD Pipeline Design 90%
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) 88%
Elasticsearch / Search Engineering 85%
Docker / Kubernetes 87%
Grafana / OpenTelemetry 82%
Python / AI Integration 78%
SQL Server / PostgreSQL / Cosmos DB 90%
Full Technology Stack
Azure Functions
Azure Service Bus
Cosmos DB
Azure DevOps
Bicep / ARM
Terraform
Docker
Kubernetes
RabbitMQ
Redis
Elasticsearch
Kibana
Grafana
OpenTelemetry
Prometheus
IdentityServer4
OAuth2 / OIDC
SSIS
Stripe
Gemini AI
GitHub Actions
GitLab CI
SignalR
SQL Server
Technology Solutions

Things I've Built & Architected

From serverless cloud pipelines and observability platforms to AI chatbots and enterprise ERP systems — a full career's worth of production software.

☁️
Azure Serverless Cloud Native

Synia Integration Management Platform

As Principal Engineer, I spearheaded the architecture of the Synia Integration Management Platform — an Icelandic cloud solution that streamlines complex ERP data integrations with end-to-end visibility and granular traceability. Built on a serverless, event-driven Azure stack: Azure Functions for scalable orchestration, Azure Service Bus for guaranteed message delivery between systems, Cosmos DB for high-performance NoSQL persistence, and Azure Bicep/ARM for fully automated, version-controlled infrastructure across all environments. The result treats data as a central, reusable asset for analytics and operational actions.

Azure Functions Azure Service Bus Cosmos DB Azure Storage Bicep/ARM Azure DevOps Serverless
Role Principal Engineer
Period Dec 2021 – Dec 2025
URL synia.is
📊
Observability DevOps Monitoring

Application Observability Platform — Grafana & OpenTelemetry

Implemented a comprehensive observability platform by integrating Grafana and OpenTelemetry across distributed microservices. Deployed OpenTelemetry collectors to standardize ingestion of metrics, logs, and distributed traces, eliminating visibility silos. Architected Grafana dashboards correlating traces with logs for rapid root-cause analysis, and implemented proactive alerting on Golden Signals — latency, traffic, errors, and saturation. The result: a 40% reduction in Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), enabling developers to pinpoint failures within seconds and empowering data-driven capacity planning.

Grafana OpenTelemetry Prometheus Distributed Tracing CI/CD Application Monitoring DevOps
Impact 40% MTTR reduction
Stack Grafana + OpenTelemetry
Focus Golden Signals
🔄
CI/CD DevOps IaC

Multi-Cloud & Polyglot CI/CD Pipeline Architecture

Designed and implemented end-to-end CI/CD pipelines across Azure DevOps (multi-stage YAML with Key Vault secrets), GitLab CI (cloud-native pipeline-as-code), GitHub Actions (event-driven automation), and DigitalOcean. Established full deployment automation for .NET, Python, PHP, and Node.js applications using Blue/Green, Canary, and Rolling deployment strategies. By standardising delivery pipelines and embedding DevSecOps practices throughout, deployment frequency increased significantly while change failure rates and manual errors dropped dramatically.

Azure DevOps GitLab CI GitHub Actions DigitalOcean YAML Blue/Green Deployments DevSecOps .NET Python PHP Node.js
Platforms Azure · GitLab · GitHub · DO
Stacks .NET, Python, PHP, Node.js
Strategy Blue/Green, Canary, Rolling
🏗️
IaC Azure GitOps

Infrastructure as Code — Terraform, Bicep & ARM Templates

As a seasoned IaC specialist, I leverage Terraform, Azure Bicep, and ARM Templates to provision and manage cloud infrastructure reliably at scale. Using Terraform I define complex multi-component stacks with reusable modules, secure remote state, and GitOps-aligned CI/CD integration. With Bicep and ARM I provision complete Azure environments — Functions, Service Bus, Storage, Cosmos DB — with reduced complexity and improved readability vs. raw JSON. Centralized, version-controlled environment definitions deliver self-service provisioning, eliminate configuration drift, and enforce consistent access controls from day one.

Terraform Azure Bicep ARM Templates Azure DevOps GitLab CI GitHub Actions GitOps Cloud Provisioning
Tools Terraform · Bicep · ARM
Principle GitOps / Immutable Infra
Scope Multi-cloud, multi-env
🔍
NLP Microservices Search

Elasticsearch NLP Services — Multitenant Talent Platform

Designed and built a bespoke multitenant recruitment platform where each business process — vacancy management, candidate matching, interview workflows — is encapsulated as an independently deployable microservice. The key innovation: Elasticsearch powered by NLP capabilities for semantic candidate-to-vacancy matching (relevance over keywords), full-text indexing, faceted filtering, and aggregations. All services are secured with IdentityServer4 JWE tokens, built in C#/ASP.NET, and monitored via Kibana dashboards. The platform serves 200+ recruitment agencies across the Netherlands.

Elasticsearch NLP ASP.NET Core C# Kibana Microservices IdentityServer4 Distributed Infrastructure
Client CreditChex
Period Jan 2019 – Dec 2021
Scale 200+ agencies
🔁
Data Sync Azure SQL ETL

Synia Data Replication App — Real-Time Hybrid Sync

Led development of a robust data management solution providing near real-time synchronisation between on-premises SQL databases and Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Built on high-performance ETL principles using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for complex transformation pipelines with intricate schema matching and data quality checks, combined with Azure Functions for elastic serverless scaling of intermittent high-volume loads. Core synchronisation logic, error handling, and transfer mechanisms implemented in C# for secure, performant, and maintainable code.

SSIS Azure SQL Database Azure Functions C# ETL Serverless Hybrid Cloud
URL synia.is
Type Hybrid Cloud / ETL
Period Dec 2021 – ongoing
💳
FinTech Payments SaaS

Remoterise — Stripe Payment Service & Dispute Management

Developed and maintained the core .NET payment service for the RemoteRise freelance platform, handling all financial transactions with Stripe. Built comprehensive pre- and post-payment estimation logic accounting for conversion rates and variable gateway fees. Developed robust dispute and chargeback management systems including Stripe API integration for evidence submission, automated alerts, and audit logging — significantly reducing financial loss and operational overhead from payment conflicts.

.NET C# Stripe Webhooks Dispute Management Financial Systems FinTech
Platform RemoteRise
Gateway Stripe
Focus Payments & Disputes
🤖
Python AI Chatbots

Python Chatbot — Conversational Workflow Automation (RemoteRise)

Designed and implemented a suite of AI-powered workflow chatbots for RemoteRise using Python and Gemini. Client bots guide users through job posting creation, category selection, and technology recommendations. Candidate bots interactively collect and categorise skills for improved profile quality and search relevance. Leveraging conversational UI, the chatbots eliminate friction in complex multi-step platform tasks, providing guided recommendations and best-practice suggestions directly within the user workflow.

Python Gemini AI Chatbot Development Conversational UI Workflow Automation NLP
Platform RemoteRise
AI Model Gemini
Language Python
✈️
Travel Tech High Performance GDS

High-Performance Multi-Provider Booking Platform — HolidayGenie

Led development of the core flight and hotel reservation system for HolidayGenie. Re-architected the booking and rendering code base for a 35% improvement in search/booking response time. Built a unified aggregation engine pulling best-price offers from Triton, TravelPort, HotelBeds, GTA, and Tourico. Architected the company's first database fail-safe system. Designed a vendor management system that slashed the vendor onboarding timeline from 24 hours to 2 minutes.

C# ASP.NET MVC Redis SQL Server Triton GDS TravelPort HotelBeds Performance Optimisation
Client HolidayGenie
Improvement 35% faster response
Scope Flights + Hotels
💊
Healthcare SaaS EMR

WEBeDoctor — Cloud Healthcare Practice Management

Contributed to a cloud-based medical practice management system covering appointment scheduling, Electronic Medical Records (EMR), insurance verification, electronic billing, lab reporting, e-prescriptions, and revenue cycle management. The system helped medical practices optimize patient care operations while improving billing accuracy and cash flow management.

ASP.NET Classic ASP SQL Server EMR Healthcare IT Cloud SaaS
URL new.webedoctor.com
Period Jan 2014 – Oct 2017
Domain Healthcare
🎙️
RTC Video Conferencing Multilingual

LP OpenTok — Real-Time Multilingual Communication Platform

Developed a real-time communication and video conferencing platform for Language People supporting multilingual interpretation and translation. Implemented high-quality A/V conferencing using OpenTok SDK, Vidyo, and Twilio Video/Audio APIs. Built scalable RTC infrastructure for live interpreters, real-time messaging via Microsoft SignalR, and IVRS automation components for improved call routing.

OpenTok SDK Vidyo SignalR Twilio ASP.NET RTC
URL languagepeople.com
Period Jan 2014 – Oct 2017
Domain Communications
📋
Enterprise Fundraising Cloud Storage

FPM — Fundraising & Membership Management Platform

Designed and developed a comprehensive fundraising management platform with three integrated portals: Back-office, Sponsor, and Member. Implemented real-time database synchronisation using Microsoft SQL Server Replication, architected interconnected portal infrastructure with high data integrity and secure access controls, and integrated AWS S3 and IAM for cloud storage and permission management.

ASP.NET SQL Server Replication AWS S3 AWS IAM Enterprise
URL fpm.org
Period Jan 2016 – Dec 2017
Portals Back-office · Sponsor · Member
📢
Enterprise Legacy Ad Tech

Advertisement Agency Management System (AAMS)

One of my earliest enterprise projects — an integrated AAMS for Synergy Advertising Agency streamlining campaign workflows, client servicing, creative management, media planning, and financial coordination across departments. Modules covered: Client Service, Contact Notes, Work Orders, Job Orders, Media Orders, Creative & Media Management, Media Planner, and Release Orders.

Enterprise Application Database Management Campaign Management
Client Synergy Advertising
Period Jul 2003 – Jul 2004
Type Enterprise ERP
What I offer

Services & Capabilities

Comprehensive engineering services from architecture design and cloud infrastructure to AI integration and technical leadership.

⚙️
Principal .NET Architecture

End-to-end .NET 8/ASP.NET Core system design. CQRS, DDD, microservices, high-concurrency API design, and clean architecture from day one.

☁️
Azure & Cloud Architecture

Full Azure Architect proficiency — Functions, Service Bus, Cosmos DB, Storage, Bicep/ARM IaC, Azure DevOps, and cloud-native infrastructure design.

🔄
CI/CD Pipeline Design

End-to-end pipeline architecture on Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions. Blue/Green, Canary, Rolling deployments. DevSecOps embedded throughout.

🏗️
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Terraform, Azure Bicep, and ARM Templates to provision immutable, version-controlled, repeatable environments with zero configuration drift.

📊
Observability & Monitoring

Grafana + OpenTelemetry platforms, Golden Signal alerting, distributed tracing, log correlation, and MTTR reduction for production-grade reliability.

🔍
Search & Data Engineering

Elasticsearch cluster design, NLP-powered matching, index tuning, Kibana dashboards, SSIS ETL pipelines, and hybrid cloud data synchronisation.

💳
FinTech & Payment Systems

Stripe integration, payment lifecycle management, dispute & chargeback handling, fee calculation engines, and financial audit trails.

🤖
AI-Augmented Engineering

Python chatbots with Gemini AI, conversational workflow automation, OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Cursor IDE, and AI-assisted refactoring for engineering velocity.

👩‍💼
Technical Leadership & Mentorship

Engineering team recruitment, agile sprint management, code reviews, legacy modernisation, cloud migration, and fractional CTO engagements.

Client Feedback

What People Say

★★★★★

"Sameen has a very flexible and professional way of working. She always tries to support us with new ideas and recommendations — not only from a technical aspect but also from the marketing and sales point of view. I recommend Sameen to anyone who wants to develop cool applications."

AB
Aamir B.
CTO · Perfect Holidays
★★★★★

"Her architectural and design knowledge helped us meet our clients' goals which were not only cost-effective but scalable. She demonstrated how to apply personalised search, event sourcing, and domain-driven architecture using .NET. Highly recommended."

IR
Iqbal R.
CTO · SaaS Software Company
★★★★★

"Her technical prowess and work ethic will exceed your expectations. She is an exceptionally reliable and consistent resource who cares about projects personally. I recommend Dure to any organisation looking for a professional, dedicated software developer."

NS
Naureen S.
Senior UX Designer
Latest Writing

From the Blog

All posts
☁️
Azure May 2026

Synia Architecture Deep Dive: Serverless ERP Integration on Azure

How we designed a type-less, event-driven Azure pipeline to connect Commerce Tools, AX Dynamics, and CRM in real time — with zero data loss.

14 min read Read more
📊
Observability Apr 2026

40% MTTR Reduction: Building an OpenTelemetry + Grafana Observability Stack

A detailed walkthrough of implementing Golden Signal alerting, distributed trace correlation, and Grafana dashboards that actually get used.

11 min read Read more
🔄
CI/CD Mar 2026

Multi-Cloud CI/CD at Scale: Lessons from Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, and GitHub Actions

Comparing pipeline architectures across three major CI/CD platforms — and the real trade-offs of Blue/Green vs Canary vs Rolling deployments.

10 min read Read more
🏗️
IaC Mar 2026

Terraform vs Bicep: Choosing Your Azure IaC Tool (With Real Examples)

An honest, production-informed comparison of Terraform and Bicep for Azure IaC — including where each one quietly lets you down.

9 min read Read more
🔍
Search Feb 2026

Elasticsearch NLP for Talent Matching: Beyond Keyword Search

How we moved a 200+ agency recruitment platform from keyword queries to semantic candidate matching using NLP and Elasticsearch.

12 min read Read more
🤖
AI Jan 2026

AI-Augmented Engineering: How Gemini, Claude Code, and Cursor Changed My Workflow

Practical, honest notes on integrating AI tooling into a senior engineering workflow — what accelerates delivery and what still needs a human.

8 min read Read more

Let's Build Something That Lasts

Whether you need a Principal Architect, a hands-on backend lead, a cloud migration partner, or a Fractional CTO — let's have an honest conversation about what you're building.

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