Muhammad Azam
Technical Lead & AI Engineer
Blending software engineering and AI expertise to build scalable, intelligent systems.
About
Experienced Technical Lead with over 10 years of expertise in backend development, cloud-native architecture, and applied AI/ML systems. I hold a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, with practical experience in machine learning, NLP, data pipelines, and production model deployment.
I have a proven track record of designing and leading scalable microservices using Java, Spring Boot, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms like AWS and Azure. My recent focus is on architecting intelligent systems that integrate large language models (LLMs), event-driven pipelines, and machine learning workflows into real-world enterprise applications.
While I have experience in frontend development (HTML5, jQuery, JS, CSS3), my core expertise lies in backend technologies including Java, Spring, Kafka, Docker, IBM MQ, DB2, Postgres, and CI/CD tooling (Jenkins, Git, Maven, Gradle, SonarQube)
Education
Master in Computational Engineering and Smart Systems
(Machine Learning)
2020University of Pais Vasco (UPV/EHU) — Bilbao, Spain
Master in Software Development and Integration (JEE, Android)
2013University of Deusto — Bilbao, Spain
Software Engineering in Management
2012University of Deusto — Bilbao, Spain
Experience
Technical Lead
Version 1 — Birmingham, UK (Remote)
09/2023 – Present
- Lead the development of a microservices-based application, managing a team of six developers
- Set work priorities in line with delivery goals, tackle complex technical challenges, and handle high-priority tickets
- Work closely with Business Analysts and Product Owners to design and implement new features
- Produce detailed low-level design documents based on impact assessments
- Oversee release cycles, manage CI/CD pipelines and development environments
- Provide hands-on technical guidance to ensure smooth feature delivery
- Take on line-management responsibilities, including screening and interviewing candidates for new roles
Senior Software Engineer
Version 1 — Birmingham, UK (Remote)
05/2022 – 09/2023
- Participated in development of critical features within a microservices architecture for HMCTS leveraging Java 17, Kubernetes, and Azure
- Played an active role in sprint planning, requirements analysis, and creating comprehensive low-level design documents
- Ensured robust and scalable implementations of features
- Involved in code reviews and provided technical mentorship to fellow developers
- Conducted technical demos to enhance team collaboration and drive continuous improvement in feature development
Backend Software Engineer
VE Global — London, UK (Remote)
02/2021 – 05/2022
- Designed and maintained scalable APIs for digital assistant applications, leveraging microservices and event-driven architectures
- Migrated stored procedures to Kafka, transitioned workloads from VMs to Kubernetes, and simplified complex business logic
- Designed and deployed a scalable real-time recommendation system using AWS SageMaker, FastAPI, and TensorFlow
- Integrated with a custom user management system for secure authentication
- Built data pipelines with Kafka, Lambda, and DynamoDB to process and save user behavior
- Developed and automated model training and updating workflows in SageMaker, ensuring continuous improvement of personalized recommendations
- Collaborated with a team to develop a large-scale batch sentiment analysis system using Apache Spark on AWS EMR
- Contributed to building a custom BERT-based deep learning model deployed on SageMaker
- Processed and stored structured sentiment scores in Amazon Redshift, optimizing workflows with AWS Step Functions and EventBridge
Software Engineer - Java
Accenture S.A — Bilbao, Spain
08/2016 – 10/2020
- Maintained and developed new features for a major client in the energy sector
- Responsibilities included requirement analysis, impact analysis, effort estimation, client Q&A, technical documentation, coding, integration, and delivery
- Involved in front-end development, working with technologies such as HTML5, jQuery, CSS3, and JavaScript
- Supervised and mentored a junior team member, providing guidance and support to enhance their skills and contributions
Software Engineer - Full Stack
SMT - Social Media Technologies S.L. — Bilbao, Spain
04/2014 – 06/2015
- Developed a web video editor for social network using technologies like JEE, Spring, Hibernate, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery, JBoss, and MS SQL Server
- Developed a promotional app for Frigo products - an Android application responsible for showing promotions when beacons (IoT) were found nearby
Software Engineer (Java, Android)
Sherpa S.L. — Erandio, Spain
10/2013 – 04/2014
- Developed and maintained the virtual Assistant "Sherpa" for Android
- Migrated backend systems from VB.NET to JEE
Consultant in Management of Virtual Infrastructures
BeClever S.L. — Bilbao, Spain
11/2012 – 10/2013
- Audited software quality for Gnoss (company) monthly, using ChecKing QA (Optimyth)
- Wrote monthly reports on the status and performance of virtual environments (CDPs/private cloud) for various clients, using Foglight (Dell)
- Maintained the CDPs (vCenter) of the University of Deusto and Vinco using VMware technology, vRanger, and NetBackup
- Developed the company website using Java (Hibernate, JSF)
Software Engineer .NET (Backend)
Anboto Europe S.L. — Erandio, Spain
03/2012 – 10/2012
- Fixed bugs and added new features to applications developed for internal use
- Maintained the Virtual Infrastructure (development environment – VMware)
- Installed "Nagios" to monitor the performance and availability of the production environment
Projects
JIRA AI Agent with Spring AI & MCP
Developed an agentic AI system that automates JIRA ticket creation and management using Spring AI and the Model Context Protocol (MCP). The solution demonstrates how augmented LLMs can plan, reason, and interact with external tools (like JIRA) to automate real-world workflows. The project includes both the MCP server (JIRA tool provider) and the BA-Copilot client (AI agent).
Writing
Enhance Your AI Agent's Capabilities Using Functions in Spring AI
Explore how to empower your AI agents with real-time function calling using Spring AI. This article covers integrating external APIs, function schemas, and building a live weather agent with Llama and Spring AI.
Building a JIRA AI Agent Using Spring AI and MCP
In 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟭 of my latest article, I explore what agentic systems are and how to build one using 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗜 and 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗰𝗼𝗹 (𝗠𝗖𝗣).
Skills & Certifications
Technical Skills
Programming Languages
Frameworks & Libraries
Cloud & DevOps
Databases
AI & ML Technologies
Get In Touch
Feel free to reach out for collaborations, opportunities, or just a chat about technology and AI.