Building the Future

17 years building and leading engineering teams — across startups, global enterprises, and most things in between. Head of Engineering at Openr. Fractional CTO for seed-stage founders. I write Straight Lines, a weekly newsletter on technology and engineering for founders.

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The Mind Behind the Code

With over 17 years in software engineering, I've evolved from writing code to architecting solutions and leading high-performing engineering teams. My journey has been driven by a relentless curiosity and passion for technology.

One of my proudest achievements was transforming a struggling team of 4 into a thriving department of 20+ engineers. We implemented agile methodologies, improved code quality through robust CI/CD practices, and reduced deployment times by 70%.

"Amar's leadership transformed our engineering culture. His focus on mentorship and continuous improvement has been invaluable."
- Former Team Lead

Team Leadership

Building and mentoring high-performing engineering teams that deliver exceptional results.

Technical Excellence

Architecting scalable solutions and establishing best practices for sustainable growth.

Innovation Focus

Driving technological innovation while ensuring practical, business-focused outcomes.

Strategic Vision

Aligning technical strategy with business goals to drive organisational success.

Career Journey

2025

Fractional CTO

Independent

March 2025 - Present

Working with seed-stage B2B SaaS founders as a Fractional CTO — providing senior technical leadership without the full-time overhead.

Key Achievements

• Architecture decisions before they become six-figure rewrites
• First engineering hire — the brief, the process, the offer letter
• AWS infrastructure that scales cleanly and doesn't leak
• Security posture that survives ISO 27001 / SOC 2 due diligence
• A dev culture that ships without burning engineers out

Architecture StrategyEngineering HiringSecurity & ComplianceTechnical Due DiligenceTeam Culture

2024

Head of Engineering

Openr

June 2024 - Present

Openr is a B2B SaaS platform for the hospitality sector — menu management, dynamic pricing, and data curation for restaurant brands, connected to delivery platforms, EPOS systems, and POS providers. CTO-equivalent responsibility across architecture, security, hiring, and product-engineering strategy.

Key Achievements

• Secured £3m seed investment through delivery of the initial product platform and first enterprise client onboarding
• Designed multi-tenant AWS Lambda / EventBridge / PostgreSQL architecture serving 500k+ daily transactions
• Built third-party integration architecture connecting hospitality brands across 10+ delivery, EPOS, and POS platforms
• Led ISO 27001 and SOC 2 accreditation as acting CISO — alongside NIST CSF 2.0, SonarCloud CI, and CloudFront/Terraform CSP headers
• Running engineering hiring pipeline end-to-end — Principal Engineer recruitment, technical interview design, performance frameworks
• Transitioned from consultant-heavy to permanent engineering team — reducing vendor dependency and improving delivery quality

AWSServerlessNode.jsTypeScriptReactPostgreSQLEventBridgeTerraform

2023

Technical Manager

Tripadvisor

September 2023 - May 2024

Established and led a newly formed engineering team within TripAdvisor's global platform engineering organisation. Responsible for delivery governance, transitioning service ownership from distributed international teams, and aligning with global platform architecture.

Key Achievements

• Built a new UK-based engineering team from scratch — processes, sprint governance, and operational ownership
• Led cross-regional service transition from APAC to UK/Portugal with no service disruption
• Defined team roadmap aligned with global platform objectives across distributed engineering organisation

JavaSpring BootReactKubernetesDockerAWS

2020

Senior Engineer → Head of Engineering

AND Digital

July 2020 - September 2023

Three-year consultancy tenure embedded across multiple client engagements, progressing from Senior Software Engineer to Head of Engineering.

Projects

January 2022 - September 2023

Head of Engineering

Openr

Pioneered the development team's efforts to deliver a compelling proof of concept, instrumental in securing Series A funding and propelling the product into full-scale production.

Achievements

• Secured Series A funding through rapid proof of concept delivery
• Established industry-leading data model in collaboration with data experts
• Led cross-functional teams across the full product roadmap
• Championed quality throughout the SDLC
• Provided technical guidance and mentorship to the engineering team

TypeScriptNodeJSLambdaServerless FrameworkPostgreSQLRESTReactAWSAnsibleAWXGitHub

October 2020 - March 2022

Engineering Manager

Robert Walters Group

Led and orchestrated the development and deployment of a transformative global CRM system, positioning it as the cornerstone of business operations.

Achievements

• Spearheaded development and deployment of a custom global CRM system
• Grew technical workforce by 50% through talent acquisition and team development
• Successfully executed roadmap with deployments across multiple global regions
• Aligned project objectives with broader business strategies

TypeScriptNodeJSJavaKafkaGraphQLPostgreSQLCQRSRESTReactAWSGitHub

July 2020 - October 2020

Senior Software Engineer

ASOS.com

Contributed to technical development at ASOS as Senior Software Engineer.

Achievements

• Defined and implemented a new deployment pipeline for backend services

AzureKubernetesDocker.NetC# CoreSQL ServerAzure DevOps

2013

Senior Software Consultant

ASDAC

April 2013 - July 2020

Independent consultancy, delivering senior software engineering across major enterprises in financial services, government, and technology sectors.

Projects

February 2018 - March 2020

Senior Software Consultant

Capita

Designed and implemented a greenfield full stack system, transitioning manual processes to automated solutions.

Achievements

• Led full project lifecycle from high-level documentation through to release
• Designed and implemented new UI and .NET services
• Converted functional requirements into technical requirements
• Managed stakeholder release planning to deliver value early

.NETReactNodeJSTypeScript

February 2016 - March 2020

Senior Software Consultant

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Designed and implemented a bespoke full stack system for utilisation by over 5,000 users, plus a high-throughput SOAP integration adapter.

Achievements

• Built system serving 5,000+ users
• Developed high-throughput SOAP integration adapter enabling new user-facing front end
• Led full project lifecycle from initial requirements through to BAU transition
• Managed increased scope demands from the client

AngularJavaScriptJavaSOAP

October 2015 - February 2016

Senior Software Consultant

Capgemini

Implemented a high-throughput RESTful integration service enabling existing systems to transition to a new document store.

Achievements

• Designed and implemented RESTful Java services
• Responsible for all project test cycles including defect resolution
• Developed and implemented automation testing framework using Selenium

JavaRESTSelenium

April 2013 - October 2015

Senior Software Engineer

Capita

Designed and implemented large-scale system changes using major open source Java technologies to deliver high-performance, low-latency solutions.

Achievements

• Led multiple development teams while driving core architectural designs
• Managed complex operational systems integration across multiple stakeholders
• Produced detailed technical documentation for development, maintenance, and configuration

JavaSpringOracle

2011

Senior Software Engineer

Detica

June 2011 - December 2012

Developed enterprise solutions focusing on high-performance systems.

Key Achievements

• Delivered complex enterprise solutions
• Led technical implementations
• Mentored junior developers

JavaSpringOracleWebLogicMaven

2008

Java Development Consultant

Atos

September 2008 - June 2011

Developed and maintained enterprise Java applications.

Key Achievements

• Built robust enterprise applications
• Implemented best practices
• Collaborated with international teams

JavaJ2EEStrutsHibernateOracle

Skills & Expertise

Engineering Leadership

Building and leading high-performing engineering teams

Team BuildingTechnical StrategyAgile MethodologiesMentorshipHiring & RecruitmentCross-functional Leadership

Frontend Development

Creating responsive and performant user experiences

ReactTypeScriptNext.jsTailwindCSSReduxTesting (Jest, RTL)

Backend Development

Building scalable and reliable server-side solutions

Node.jsGraphQLREST APIsPostgreSQLServerless FrameworkEventBridge

DevOps & Cloud

Implementing robust cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines

AWS LambdaTerraformDockerKubernetesCI/CDISO 27001 / SOC 2

Let's Connect

I'm always open to discussing new opportunities and innovative projects

Contact Details

contact@amarsibia.com

GMT (London) • Response within 24 hours

Preferred Topics

• Engineering Leadership & Team Building
• Technical Architecture & System Design
• Digital Transformation & Innovation
• Career Development & Mentorship