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Azlan, Engineering Manager

I lead engineering teams that turn technical strategy into predictable delivery.

I build strong teams, guide sound architectural decisions and partner closely with product and business leaders, so engineering effort lands where it matters.

View case studiesDownload CV (PDF)

Built with AI-assisted engineering

This site is a small, real example of how I approach AI adoption: practical, measured and led by people.

I designed and built azlan.engineer with an AI-assisted workflow, applying the same principles I use when introducing AI tools within engineering teams. Define the problem first, keep a person accountable for every decision, review the output against clear standards for quality and accessibility, and judge the result on outcomes rather than novelty.

  • Astro

    Fast, content-focused pages with minimal JavaScript.

  • Tailwind CSS

    Consistent styling driven by shared design tokens.

  • Cloudflare Pages

    Global static hosting and deployment.

  • GitHub

    Version control and a reviewable history of every change.

  • Claude

    An AI collaborator for drafting, refactoring and review.

  • AI-assisted development workflows

    Human-led iteration with checks for quality and accessibility.

Read the case study

About

I’m an engineering manager and technical leader. I focus on the conditions that let teams do excellent work.

That means clear direction, sound architecture, healthy delivery and real room to grow, for the people on the team and for the organisation around them.

Leadership experience
I lead engineering teams and work across product, design and business stakeholders so technical decisions connect to outcomes the organisation cares about. My focus is hiring, developing and retaining strong engineers while keeping delivery predictable.
Technical background
My background is in distributed systems and cloud platforms, with deep experience on AWS. That depth lets me challenge architectural trade-offs, understand operational risk and earn the trust of the engineers I lead.
Management philosophy
Set clear context, then trust teams to find the solution. Give feedback early and kindly, invest in careers deliberately, and treat reliability and wellbeing as part of delivery rather than trade-offs against it.

Selected experience

Where I have done this work: engineering leadership, software delivery and technical decision-making across customer-facing products, internal platforms and distributed systems.

Engineering Manager, JustGiving

Jul 2022 – May 2025

Led a geographically distributed engineering team and was accountable for its people, roadmap and delivery, across customer-facing products, internal platforms and distributed systems.

Team leadership
Grew the team from five to eight permanent and contract engineers, and hired, coached and developed engineers from intern to principal level.
Technical strategy
Stayed close to architecture and technical design, using lightweight decision records to keep trade-offs visible.
Product partnership
Owned the annual engineering roadmap with Product and Design, and led the development and launch of Site Builder.
AI-assisted engineering
Evaluated GitHub Copilot and Cursor on real work, and contributed to adoption guidance and guardrails.

Before moving into management I spent many years as a software engineer and senior engineer, working across product development, architecture, cloud platforms and frontend engineering. I have dealt with the technical side of a problem as well as the organisational one. TheCV has the full history.

Leadership and expertise

The areas where I help engineering organisations most.

  • Engineering leadership

    Setting direction, aligning with product and business stakeholders, and building an operating rhythm that lets teams own their outcomes.

    • People management
    • Stakeholder management
    • Technical strategy

  • Architecture & distributed systems

    Guiding design decisions for services on AWS that stay understandable and resilient as load, teams and requirements grow.

    • AWS
    • Cloud platforms
    • Reliability

  • AI & developer productivity

    Evaluating and introducing AI-assisted engineering with clear success measures, guardrails and review standards.

    • AI-assisted engineering
    • Developer experience

  • Team growth & coaching

    Hiring, coaching and career development that turn strong engineers into confident senior ones.

    • Coaching
    • Career development
    • Hiring

  • Delivery & execution

    Short feedback loops, safe releases and operational discipline, so shipping is routine and predictable.

    • Software delivery
    • Operational excellence

Featured case studies

Topics I’m writing up, each covering the problem, the approach and what changed.

Building azlan.engineer with AI-assisted engineering

Designed and developed a personal website using Astro, Cloudflare Pages and AI-assisted development workflows, applying the same evaluation and adoption principles used when introducing AI tools within engineering teams.

Delivered a modern, accessible and maintainable website while exploring practical approaches to AI-assisted software delivery and developer productivity.

  • AI-assisted engineering
  • Astro
  • Cloudflare
  • Developer productivity

Read the case study: Building azlan.engineer with AI-assisted engineering

Evaluating GitHub Copilot for engineering teams

How GitHub Copilot was evaluated at JustGiving on real work, weighing delivery benefits against code quality, security, review practices and developer experience.

  • AI-assisted engineering
  • Technology evaluation
  • Engineering leadership
  • Developer productivity

Read the case study: Evaluating GitHub Copilot for engineering teams

Building high-performing teams

Creating the goals, working agreements and delivery habits that help teams perform consistently and enjoy working together.

  • Leadership
  • Delivery
  • Team culture

Write-up coming soon

Growing engineers into senior engineers

How clear expectations, stretch work, regular feedback and sponsorship help strong engineers become confident senior ones.

  • Coaching
  • Career development

Write-up coming soon

Leading architecture decisions

Facilitating architecture decisions for distributed systems on AWS, with explicit trade-offs, wide input and a clear record of the outcome.

  • Architecture
  • AWS
  • Technical strategy

Write-up coming soon

Case studies

Let’s talk about engineering leadership.

If you’re a recruiter or technology leader hiring for engineering leadership, or thinking about how to scale teams, architecture and delivery, I’d like to hear from you. Send a short note and I’ll reply promptly.

Email AzlanConnect on LinkedIn

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