# Zakaria Agha

> Principal Architect & Ex-Founder | Driving Enterprise Cloud Strategy & ROI | Techstars Alumni

Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/zakaria

Senior Software Engineer & Ex-Founder bridging Enterprise Scale and Startup Velocity.

Capital One: Architecting serverless payment infrastructure (Go, AWS Step Functions) for the Secured Card ecosystem.

Ex-CTO (ezWiFi): Techstars '23 Alum. Scaled global network infrastructure to 1,400+ nodes.

Ex-Founder (Tikito): Built and scaled a ticketing platform to 10,000+ concurrent users.

Tech Stack: Distributed Systems, Event-Driven Architecture, Node.js, TypeScript, Flutter, Python.

Bio: 10 Years Experience | US Citizen | Bilingual (English/Urdu).

## Work Experience
### Senior Software Engineer @ Capital One
Jan 2024 – Present | Chicago, Illinois, United States

### Chief Technology Officer @ ezWiFi (Techstars '23)
Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 | Miami, Florida, United States
​Strategic Leadership: Secured placement in Techstars Boston (Top 1% Global Accelerator), leading technical due diligence and product strategy for a Web3 infrastructure platform.

​Team Scaling: Recruited and managed a distributed engineering team (Devs + Designers), establishing CI/CD workflows and agile processes to accelerate feature velocity by 40%.

​Product Growth: Orchestrated the launch of B2B/B2C analytics products across 1,400+ global hotspots, scaling infrastructure to handle 10,000+ daily sessions with 99.99% uptime.

​Legacy Modernization: Led a high-risk migration of legacy systems to modern microservices architecture, reducing technical debt and enabling rapid market expansion into Portugal.

### Software Engineer @ Pastel
Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area
Leveraged expertise in Typescript, Remix, Nest.js, and Next.js to design and deploy comprehensive features for thousands of users, including:
o Most ordered
o Top Rated
o Home Delivery

### Founder, CEO @ Tikito
Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | Pakistan
​Business Operations: Founded and operated a digital ticketing platform in Pakistan, managing the full P&L and sales strategy. Successfully processed 10,000+ tickets across major events in 4 cities, ensuring zero downtime during high-traffic sales windows.

​Large-Scale Team Management: Recruited, trained, and deployed a workforce of 40+ on-ground staff (ushers/operations) to execute logistics for large-scale live events, bridging the gap between digital sales and physical entry.

​B2B Account Management: Owned direct relationships with 100+ enterprise clients (Event Organizers), translating their complex requirements into technical features—a direct parallel to Solutions Engineering.

​Product & Market Fit: Launched iOS/Android apps that captured 3,000+ active users with zero marketing budget, driving adoption through strategic B2B partnerships.

### Software Engineer - Full Stack @ Discover Financial Services
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Chicago, Illinois, United States
Introduced a "Card on File" system utilizing Java Spring Boot and JWT tokens to support secure user payment information storage.

Demonstrated expertise in Kafka, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and Java to build a tokenization service for Asia, ensuring robust and efficient data processing.

Piloted the creation of internal dashboards utilizing Java and React.js to enhance data accessibility and support informed decision-making processes.

### Senior Analyst Programmer @ Engineering USA
Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Chicago, Illinois

### Analyst Programmer @ Engineering USA
Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Chicago, Illinois
Engineered a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for Monsanto utilizing C# and Angular.js technologies that was implemented across global factories and plants.
o The system allows Mosanto to track products from the point the are produced till when they reach stores 
o Tailored and then implemented the system across several monsanto factories

### Applications Developer @ Wolters Kluwer
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018 | Riverwoods, IL
Designed and developed comprehensive applications utilizing SQL, .NET, and legacy technologies, such as ASP .Net Web Forms

Served as the Lead Developer for Chargemaster applications, showcasing leadership and expertise in driving the development process.

### Mobile Applications Intern @ Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Northbrook, Illinois
Developer for the Plannotate 2 app on IOS
•	Architected SQL database
•	Wrote Unit Test cases using Nose Unit testing in Python

### Engineering Intern @ UL
Jan 2014 – Jan 2014
Manage execution and timely completion of	engineering projects by	analyzing project scope and determining project specifications
Establish test programs for product investigations and analyzing and	sequence	results for adequacy and compliance with UL requirements,	and preparing reports	for clients.	
Exercise Project Handler Signature Authority as Project Handler of	record responsible for opening, maintenance, completion, and	closing of assigned new work engineering projects.	
Exercise Review Signature	Authority as assigned	as Reviewer of record responsible for	initial	review, status review,	and final technical	review of all new work	engineering projects

### Student Research Assistant @ University of Illinois at Chicago
Jan 2012 – Jan 2012


## Education
### Bachelor of Science (BS) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
University of Illinois Chicago
Jan 2011 – Jan 2016


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/zakariaagha

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Source: https://flows.cv/zakaria
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/zakaria/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-22