Tested before trusted
I coach test-driven development and keep PHPUnit, PHPStan and linters in every pipeline.
07log · about
Fifteen years of making systems behave.
I'm Faran. I started as a WordPress developer in 2013, led the platform behind 35 Alibaba Group marketing sites, and now spend most of my time on automation and AI inside products that already have users. I like work that is still running years later.
I started in 2013 building Magento extensions at Technology-Architects in Islamabad, then spent five years at NextBridge leading a team that built Laravel back ends for mobile apps, WooCommerce add-ons and Magento 2 stores for clients in the US and Scandinavia.
From 2019 to 2025, through Ciklum, I was lead engineer and then technical product owner for WorldFirst’s marketing technology team: 35 multi-language WordPress and Laravel sites supporting Ant Group’s global marketing. In 2024 I also built Just Eat’s rider-recruitment chatbot in n8n.
Since January 2025 I have worked through Adeva IT inside client engineering teams, adding OpenAI and Claude features to Laravel and WordPress products. I also freelance on Upwork, where I hold Top Rated Plus and a 100% Job Success score.
I work in English and Urdu, speak Punjabi, and get by in Arabic: I went to school in Riyadh. I hold an MSc in Project Management from Bahria University and a BS (CS) Honours in Software Engineering from Federal Urdu University, both in Islamabad.
- based
- Birmingham, UK
- working with
- US, UK and EU teams
- since
- 2013
- on Upwork
- Top Rated Plus · 100% JSS
how I work
Four things I won't trade.
01 02 A tidy history
Clean branches, pre-commit checks and a review on every change.
03 Write it down
Teams across time zones run on good written documentation.
04 Fans, not just satisfied clients
“I don’t want satisfied clients, I want them to be my fans!”
work history
The long way round.
- 2025–nowcontractAdeva IT / Toptal (remote contract)
Senior software engineer on contract: OpenAI and Claude features inside SaaS products, Node and Laravel back ends.
- 2024–2025AI workflow specialistJust Eat, UK (via Ciklum)
Designed the recruitment chatbot conversation, built the n8n workflow and wrote the APIs that connect it to Just Eat's CMS.
- 2019–2025lead → TPOWorldFirst, Ant Group (via Ciklum)
Lead engineer, then technical product owner, for the WordPress and Laravel platform behind 35 multilingual marketing sites.
- 2018–nowFreelance engineerUpwork (Top Rated Plus)
76 completed jobs, 8,500+ hours and a 100% Job Success score. · WordPress builds, n8n automation, AI integrations and CRM and texting-platform integrations.
- 2014–2019team leadNextBridge
Senior engineer and team lead on Laravel, Magento 2 and WordPress projects for US and EU clients, including an SAP-integrated store.
- 2013–2014software engineerTechnology-Architects, Islamabad
First job. WordPress themes and plugins, and the habit of reading the whole stack trace.
collections
Talks, tools and shelves.
Talks
places I've spoken
- WordCamp Europe, Athens2023
- Career talks, SZABISTyearly
- Internal: n8n for product teams2025
Tools I trust
what I reach for first
- n8n, self-hostedautomation
- Laravel + Horizonback ends
- Bedrock + ACF ProWordPress
- Claude and OpenAI APIsAI features
- PHPStan, Locust, GitHub Actionstrust
On the shelf
books I keep recommending
- Designing Data-Intensive ApplicationsKleppmann
- Release It!Nygard
- The Mom TestFitzpatrick
off the clock
Bikes, stages and three languages.
Speaking at and organising WordPress meetups, career counselling for young engineers, and cycling. I once took first place in a Riyadh cycling competition.
Faran
09trigger · your_project
Working on something? Let's talk.
Thirty minutes, no slides. Tell me what's slowing your team down and I'll tell you honestly if I'm the right fit.