About
Hi, I'm Bilal Ahmad.
Software Engineer focused on building modern, reliable and scalable web applications.
I studied Computer Science at COMSATS University and started shipping client work before I graduated: crypto exchange, e-commerce, SPA and CMS projects on the MERN stack, delivered remotely through Cache First.
Since September 2023 I have been a Software Engineer at Simplex Technology Solutions, where I lead backend development across two active projects and work closely with the mobile and marketing teams. The products are ordering and loyalty platforms for brands like KFC and Domino's, plus appointment and EMR work for Hospinizer.
My handle comes from an early focus on security and penetration testing. I still carry that mindset into product work: validate every input, keep auth boring and correct, and treat API hardening as part of the feature rather than an afterthought.
Journey
How I got here
2017 — 2019
Intermediate in Computer Science
Punjab Group of Colleges, Lahore. First programming courses.
2019 — 2023
BSc Computer Science, COMSATS University
Served as Google Developer Student Clubs Cloud Lead and wrote about security, machine learning and Web3.
2022 — 2023
Client work at Cache First
Shipped 10+ MERN web apps for remote clients while finishing my degree.
2023 — Now
Software Engineer at Simplex
Backend lead on production ordering and loyalty platforms for KFC and Domino's, plus Hospinizer.
What I enjoy
The problems I like most
- Rule engines that let the business change behaviour without a deploy, like loyalty points or free-delivery rules.
- Checkout and ordering flows where correctness matters: wallets, discounts, taxation and scheduled orders.
- Integrations between systems that were never designed to talk to each other, such as EMR aggregation across clinics.
- Refactors that leave a module faster, safer and easier for the next engineer to read.
Approach
How I approach engineering
- Start from the business rule
- Features like free delivery or loyalty points are rules first and code second. Getting the rule right on paper avoids most rewrites.
- Make it configurable, not hard-coded
- When the business will keep changing a behaviour, give them the controls instead of a ticket queue.
- Security is part of the feature
- Authentication, validation and payload hygiene ship with the feature, not in a later hardening sprint.
- Design for the unhappy path
- A feature is done when it behaves sensibly outside the demo: a third party that times out, an order outside store hours, a rule that matches nothing.
- Leave the module better than you found it
- Refactor legacy code while you are in it, and keep documentation and tests current so the next change is cheaper.
- Only as complex as the problem
- Reach for a queue, a cache or a new service when a real constraint asks for it, not because the architecture diagram looks thin.
Tools
Technologies I work with
- Languages
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- SQL
- Python
- Backend
- Node.js
- NestJS
- Express
- GraphQL
- RabbitMQ
- Kafka
- Socket.IO
- Frontend
- React
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
- Vue
- Redux
- Zustand
- Sass
- Databases
- MySQL
- Redis
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Infrastructure
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- AWS
- Google Cloud
- Nginx
- Tools
- Jenkins
- Jest
- Vite
- GTM
Learning
What I am learning now
- Agentic AI Application Development: Exploring agent architectures, tool use, multi-step workflows, and building practical AI applications.
Outside work
Beyond the code
- Languages
- English, Urdu, Punjabi
- Interests
- Reading, Photography, Movies
Contact
Have a project, role or engineering problem in mind?
Tell me about the product, the problem or the role, and how I can help.
- [email protected]
- Based in
- Lahore, Pakistan · UTC+5
- Elsewhere