Waqar
Senior Software Engineer · Lahore, Pakistan

I build backends that catch risk before it costs you.

Hi, I'm Waqar. For 6+ years I've designed APIs and data pipelines for AML screening, KYC/KYB verification and adverse-media monitoring, using PHP/Laravel, Python and MongoDB. Today I lead a backend team across a compliance product suite used by businesses to screen people, companies and transactions.

Portrait of Waqar Khaliq Sial
Laravel
Python · FastAPI
MongoDB
6+ years building production backends
7compliance, identity and SaaS products shipped
3promotions, Associate to Senior
4compliance products under my team today

Products I've built and led.

All at Programmers Force, most of them inside one compliance-data platform where accuracy and speed both matter.

2024 – now

AML Watcher

AML & adverse-media screening · Owned the API module
  • Owned the API module end to end, integrating LLM providers (ChatGPT, Gemini) and the Google Custom Search API to automate entity risk detection.
  • Designed data pipelines that normalise and screen entity data at scale for real-time compliance checks.
  • Now lead the backend team setting architecture and API direction across the suite.
  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Python
  • MongoDB
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
Visit amlwatcher.com
2024 – now

Media Watcher

Adverse-media monitoring

Built backend components that extend the pipeline shared with AML Watcher, surfacing risk-relevant news and media coverage about people and businesses.

  • Laravel
  • Python
  • MongoDB
Visit mediawatcher.ai
2024 – now

Transaction Watcher

Transaction monitoring

Backend services and API endpoints inside the shared compliance-data platform, supporting transaction-level risk screening.

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Python
  • MongoDB
Visit transactionwatcher.com
2022 – 2024

The KYB

Know Your Business verification

Python/Selenium crawlers that extract official business data, plus Laravel APIs that store and serve verified records for KYB decisions.

  • Python
  • Selenium
  • Laravel
  • MongoDB
Visit thekyb.com
2024 – now

Facia

Identity & biometric verification

Backend services within the compliance suite supporting face-based identity verification workflows.

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Python
Visit facia.ai
2020 – 2022

WhistleIt

Real-time chat · Founding engineer

Joined as a founding engineer. Built messaging APIs and Firebase push across web, iOS and Android, with the backend supporting several hundred concurrent users.

  • Laravel
  • Socket.IO
  • Firebase
Visit whistleit.io
2022

FMF

Firewall Management Framework

Server-side firewall rule management and access control, giving operations teams one interface for server configuration.

  • Laravel
  • Node.js

GetMeLeads

B2B lead generation

Backend work on a platform that helps sales teams find and qualify B2B leads from large prospect datasets.

  • Laravel
  • MongoDB
Visit getmeleads.ai

From associate to team lead.

Six years at Programmers Force, growing one level at a time.

Sep 2020 – Dec 2020

Associate Engineer

Founding engineer on WhistleIt. Built and documented core backend features and stabilised early releases.

Jan 2021 – Dec 2021

Junior Engineer

Laravel apps on MongoDB and Redis, REST APIs, Firebase push notifications and Google Authenticator 2FA.

Jan 2022 – Dec 2024

Mid-Level Engineer

Built the KYB crawlers and APIs, and independently engineered AML Watcher's LLM-powered API module.

Jan 2025 – Present

Senior Engineer

Lead and mentor the backend team, set architecture for the compliance suite and own code review and CI/CD standards.

My toolbox.

Highlighted tools are the ones I use daily. The rest I've shipped to production.

Backend & APIs

  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Python
  • FastAPI
  • Flask
  • Node.js
  • NestJS
  • REST APIs
  • Microservices
  • Vue.js

Data & search

  • MongoDB
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • Elasticsearch
  • Vector search
  • Embeddings
  • LLM APIs
  • Web crawling

Cloud & delivery

  • Docker
  • AWS
  • Hetzner
  • Nginx
  • Linux
  • GitLab CI/CD
  • Selenium
  • Postman
  • Jira

BS Computer Science

University of Engineering and Technology (UET), 2016 – 2020

Let's build something reliable.

I'm open to senior backend roles and project work, especially in fintech, compliance, or anything that has to handle a lot of data correctly.