Zubair MuwwakilBackend / Full-Stack Software Engineer
I build reliable APIs, data pipelines, and production web apps.
Java · Spring Boot · TypeScript · SQL · Docker · Brooklyn, NY · US Citizen
3+ yrs building production automation & apps
4 end-to-end systems (auth, DB, APIs, background jobs)
$25k+/yr impact from automation & data tooling
Featured Projects
Flagship builds with clear decisions, outcomes, and proof.
PickleOps — The Pickleball Social
Shipped, actively maintained iOS product for running club pickleball: sessions, ladders, ratings, and payments in one app.
Problem
Clubs run sessions, ladders, and player ratings on spreadsheets and group chats. Organizers lose evenings to admin, and ratings drift out of date.
Outcomes
- Shipped to the App Store and maintained through 21 releases in five months.
- Sessions, ratings, and payments handled in one place; organizers stopped running the club from spreadsheets.
Technical decisions
- Offline-first sync with version conflict resolution so scoring works on courts with no signal and reconciles cleanly on reconnect.
- DUPR single sign-on via WebView with opt-in match write-back, keeping external ratings in sync without manual entry.
- Bluetooth proximity discovery for inviting nearby players, with explicit consent gates before a player joins a match.
- Competitive rating model that weights wins against stronger opponents, with guardrails for forfeits and an audit-friendly history.
Looply
Personal finance assistant that auto-tracks subscriptions, bills, purchases, and return/refund deadlines from your inbox and receipts so you stop losing money to forgotten renewals and missed returns.
Problem
People miss trial endings, renewals, return windows, and overdue refunds because data is scattered across inboxes and receipts—and manual tracking never sticks.
Outcomes
- Fewer missed deadlines via proactive reminders across email, push, and calendar.
- Clear "money saved / money at risk" visibility that keeps users engaged.
Technical decisions
- Incremental inbox ingestion and receipt parsing that normalizes purchases into a single timeline (proof, order numbers, tracking, deadlines).
- Idempotent upserts with merchant/order/date/amount dedupe keys so retries never double-create purchases, subscriptions, or events.
- Return shipment and refund SLA timelines to bridge the gap between "sent it back" and "money actually returned."
- Multi-channel notifications (digest + instant alerts) with quiet hours, snoozes, and job-run tracking to prevent duplicate emails.
MarketLens
Backend pipeline that ingests price/indicator feeds, normalizes them into Postgres, and serves typed REST endpoints.
Problem
Needed reliable, de-duplicated market indicators for dashboards without hammering upstream APIs.
Outcomes
- Consistent indicator data and faster dashboards under rate limits.
- Predictable costs by reducing upstream API churn.
Technical decisions
- Idempotent ingest jobs with upserts keyed by symbol/date to stop duplicate rows across retries.
- Cached hot indicator queries to cut upstream calls and keep dashboard latency predictable.
- Normalized indicator tables behind typed REST endpoints for fast latest-value and date-range slices.
MindSky
Visual thought-mapping app: an infinite canvas where ideas are nodes and relationships are edges, persisted as a versioned graph.
Problem
Note-taking tools force ideas into linear lists and documents, which breaks down the moment thinking turns exploratory. Ideas are spatial, not sequential — and experimenting is only safe if nothing can be lost.
Outcomes
- Users can reorganize freely without fear of losing work.
- The snapshot model extends cleanly to version history, sharing, and multi-user collaboration.
Technical decisions
- Stored each map as a whole-graph snapshot in Postgres JSONB rather than normalized tables, which makes saves atomic and lets the exact UI state be replayed.
- Built true undo/redo on a history-stack abstraction decoupled from the UI: meaningful actions commit a snapshot, transient ones like dragging and selection do not, so history never fills with noise.
- Debounced autosave that pauses during undo/redo and initial restore, so the backend always reflects the last stable snapshot without hammering the network.
- Kept the canvas as the single owner of state and behaviour, with nodes purely presentational — the separation that makes the graph logic testable.
Experience
Impact snapshots from recent roles.
Software Engineer
ContractDjango · PostgreSQL · SQL Server · Docker · CI/CD
- Build and maintain Django backend services (REST APIs, background jobs, data processing) in a PR-driven code review environment.
- Own PostgreSQL/SQL Server changes — schema updates, indexing and query tuning, integrity checks — and ship them through Dockerized CI gates.
- Deliver releases safely with unit and integration tests plus data integrity validation, preventing regressions and keeping deployments repeatable.
Regional Program Coordinator (Tech & Ops)
Part-timeNext.js · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Glicko-2 ratings · TeamSnap API
- Built and deployed pbsocial.ca, a multi-tenant Next.js/TypeScript/PostgreSQL platform for session scheduling, registrations, attendance, and reporting; scaled from ~50 to 1,000+ participants.
- Engineered the core match systems: automatic group and match generation, atomic match finalization, and Glicko-2 rating with standings history for reliable competitive play.
- Implemented role-based ops workflows and retention analytics — roster/waitlist automation, check-in tooling — contributing to repeat sign-ups rising from ~20% to ~89% in a tracked cohort (16/18).
- Built a participant tracking system on the TeamSnap API, increasing onboarding throughput by ~40% via cleaner workflows and automation.
- Ran a structured support + triage workflow for 1,000+ users across 8 cities, keeping stakeholders unblocked with clear updates.
- Developed Excel automation utilities that reduced game-day data entry/reporting time by ~60%; led tooling/process enablement for staff/coaches.
- Promoted Coach → Lead Coach → District Lead.
Financial Software Analyst — Automation & Analytics
Part-time → Full-timeC# · .NET · SQL Server (T-SQL) · Excel VBA · Reporting pipelines
- Built internal automation and reporting logic in C#/.NET and SQL Server (T-SQL) to improve FP&A data accuracy, repeatability, and close-cycle reliability.
- Automated recurring reporting workflows with SQL and Excel VBA, saving 10+ hours/week across weekly and monthly deliverables.
- Built pipelines to ingest and normalize exports from CRM, ERP, HR, and accounting systems, and shipped validation dashboards that surfaced discrepancies earlier — reducing rework during close.
- Created budgeting/variance dashboards with validation checks and guardrails, cutting formula defects by ~30% and improving forecast reliability.
- Produced scenario + cost/benefit models surfacing $25K+ in annual efficiency gains; owned finance tooling ops and wrote repeatable runbooks.
- Promoted Intern → Assistant Financial Analyst → Software Developer.
Finance Solutions Architect
InternshipRevenue ops · Automation · Dashboards
- Tech: QuickBooks, Humanity, workflow automation, reporting dashboards, implementation playbooks.
- Automated invoicing + pricing workflows across QuickBooks/Humanity, increasing recurring revenue by ~20% while reducing operational errors.
- Streamlined payroll via data cleanup and automated checks, cutting processing time by ~35% and improving correctness.
- Built compliance/performance dashboards so risks surfaced earlier; wrote reusable implementation templates to standardize customer setups.
Education
Ontario Tech University
Master of Computer Science, Computer Science
University of Toronto
BSc, Computer Science & Mathematics, Finance/Economics
Certifications
Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals
Microsoft
Advanced Digital and Professional Training
Ted Rogers School of Management — Toronto Metropolitan University
French Language Studies
York University
Technical Skills
Signals I lean on: foundations, reliability, and systems that hold up.
Core stack
What I build with daily
Also use
Comfortable and shipping in production
Deploy & run
Where my work actually runs
Practices
How I keep systems correct
About
Evidence over hype—what I build and how I approach it.
- Backend-leaning SWE: APIs, data pipelines, internal tools.
- Reliability first: schemas, migrations, idempotency, CI/CD.
- Finance background → correctness and auditability mindset.
- Shipped multiple real systems (not tutorials).
- Targeting backend / full-stack SWE roles (Brooklyn, NY — remote, hybrid, or onsite).
How I Work
Signals that I deliver without slowing teams down.
PR-first workflow with small, reviewable changes.
Tests where they pay off; fast feedback over brittle suites.
Schema migrations over manual DB edits; reversible rollouts.
Idempotent jobs and predictable APIs to avoid surprises.
Typed contracts and clear handoffs to keep teams unblocked.
Let's Work Together
Fastest via email or LinkedIn — quick intros welcome.
Prefer email for detailed notes or links. Quick pings on LinkedIn are welcome.
Zubair Muwwakil on GitHub: github.com/zubairmuwwakil · on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zubairmuwwakil
Availability
Backend / Full-Stack roles · Brooklyn, NY · Open to remote, hybrid, or onsite · Contract or full-time.