Muhammad Talha Maqsood

Staff Engineer · Team Lead · AI Enthusiast

I build full-stack systems, lead engineering teams, and ship products that scale.

About

I'm a Staff Engineer and Team Lead with 9+ years building production-grade web platforms across the US, UK, and the MENA region. I specialize in full-stack development - from React and TypeScript frontends to Ruby on Rails, Node.js, and Python backends - with deep experience in system design, microservices, and AI-powered features.

I've led engineering teams at 4 companies, driven architectural decisions, mentored developers, and owned delivery end-to-end. Whether it's cutting API latency by 60%, scaling platforms to serve 400+ campuses, or building ML recommendation engines - I focus on shipping software that works at scale.

Beyond engineering, I've spent over a decade organizing corporate events and large-scale gatherings. I bring the same energy to building teams as I do to building systems.

Experience

  1. Jul 2025 - Present

    Staff Software Engineer · Coursedog · USA

    • Leading architecture and delivery for academic planning SaaS serving 400+ university campuses across the US
    • Architecting RESTful APIs with PostgreSQL, achieving 25% query performance improvement through advanced indexing
    • Championing CI/CD best practices with Docker and AWS, implementing feature flags and phased rollouts
    • Mentoring engineers on system design, DDD patterns, and operational excellence
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Node.js
    • PostgreSQL
    • AWS
  2. Apr 2025 - Jan 2026

    Team Lead / Full-stack Developer · WorkNomads · UK

    • Led a cross-functional team building AI-powered features for UK-based platform
    • Built recommendation engine integrating Python ML models with Node.js/Express APIs on Azure
    • Achieved sub-200ms API response times through Redis caching and async processing pipelines
    • Delivered 60% PostgreSQL latency reduction through query optimization and schema tuning
    • Node.js
    • Vue
    • Next.js
    • Python
    • Azure
  3. May 2023 - Apr 2025

    Team Lead / Sr Full Stack Engineer · BARQ · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    • Led backend team for Riyadh-based commerce and logistics SaaS platform
    • Designed domain-driven microservices for order management and logistics workflows using Ruby on Rails and NestJS
    • Built Shopify integrations (product sync, orders, webhooks) with event-driven architecture
    • Delivered 30% response time improvement through PostgreSQL optimization and Redis caching
    • Collaborated cross-functionally with frontend, QA, and platform teams ensuring SLA compliance
    • Ruby on Rails
    • NestJS
    • React
    • PostgreSQL
    • Redis
  4. May 2022 - Jul 2024

    Senior Software Engineer · HackerRank · USA

    • Optimized Ruby on Rails and Node.js backend services for coding assessment platform serving millions of developers globally
    • Achieved 40% API latency reduction through query optimization, indexing, and Redis caching with P95/P99 profiling
    • Improved release velocity with feature flags and canary deployments for safe phased rollouts
    • Strengthened observability and monitoring, reducing MTTR and improving incident response
    • Ruby on Rails
    • Node.js
    • Redis
    • PostgreSQL
  5. Feb 2017 - Apr 2023

    SE → Sr SE → Sr Full Stack Eng (3 promotions) · Kallidus · UK

    • Progressed through 3 promotions over 6+ years in large-scale HRTech SaaS platform serving 56,000+ users
    • Architected Ruby on Rails backend services and RESTful APIs with PostgreSQL and DDD principles
    • Led team of backend engineers - code reviews, design reviews, and knowledge-sharing sessions
    • Spearheaded React/TypeScript frontend migration, achieving 40% developer velocity improvement
    • Built comprehensive testing strategy (Jest, Cypress, RSpec), reducing post-release defects by 25%
    • Optimized Web Vitals and Lighthouse performance, delivering 35% page load reduction
    • React
    • Ruby on Rails
    • Node.js
    • PostgreSQL
    • Storybook

What I Do Best

Frontend Engineering

React, Next.js, Vue, TypeScript, Storybook, Web Vitals

Backend Architecture

Rails, Node.js, Python, DDD, microservices, event-driven

Team Leadership

4+ years leading teams, mentoring, design reviews, delivery ownership

AI & Modern Tech

ML integration, recommendation engines, data pipelines

Portfolio

  1. AI-Powered Recommendation Engine

    Designed and shipped a real-time recommendation system integrating Python ML models with Node.js/Express APIs. Architected async processing pipeline with Redis caching, achieving sub-200ms response times and 60% search latency reduction.

    • Python
    • Node.js
    • Redis
    • ML
    • Azure
  2. Shopify Commerce Platform

    Built end-to-end e-commerce platform with Shopify integration for product synchronization, order management, and webhook processing. Designed scalable event-driven microservices handling complex commerce workflows across distributed systems.

    • NestJS
    • React
    • PostgreSQL
    • Shopify
    • Redis
  3. Enterprise HRTech Platform

    Led multi-year evolution of a large-scale HR and talent management SaaS serving 56,000+ users. Drove strategic refactoring, Ruby on Rails backend optimization, React/TypeScript migration, and comprehensive performance tuning.

    • React
    • Ruby on Rails
    • PostgreSQL
    • TypeScript
    • Storybook
  4. Academic Planning SaaS

    Building core platform features for curriculum management and academic scheduling serving 400+ college campuses. Architecting RESTful APIs with optimized PostgreSQL performance and robust CI/CD pipelines.

    • React
    • TypeScript
    • Node.js
    • PostgreSQL
    • AWS

Skills

Frontend

TypeScriptJavaScript (ES6+)React.jsNext.jsVue.jsRedux ToolkitStorybookTailwind CSSHTML5CSS3

Backend

Node.jsExpress.jsNestJSRuby on RailsPythonPHPREST APIsGraphQLWebSockets

Databases

PostgreSQLMySQLMongoDBRedisElasticsearchKafkaRabbitMQ

Cloud & DevOps

AWS (Lambda, S3, RDS, ECS)DockerKubernetesAzureCI/CD PipelinesGitHub ActionsTerraform

Testing

JestCypressReact Testing LibraryRSpecMochaStorybook

Practices

Agile/ScrumGitJiraCode ReviewsDDDMicroservicesFeature Flags