About Me

RAHUL RAJ

Strategic Leader & Technical Architect

📍 Dubai, UAE

🔗 LinkedIn Profile

Professional Summary

A results-oriented technologist with 13+ years of experience bridging complex technical delivery and business strategy. Co-founded and built a cloud engineering practice from zero, pairing hands-on architecture across Cloud, DevSecOps, Security, Data, and AI with the commercial instinct to turn emerging technology into new service lines and enterprise outcomes across the GCC.

Co-Founded & Grew 5x

Scaled Adfolks' technical practice from AED 4M to 20M revenue, leading to successful acquisition by ZainTech.

Team Built from Zero

Recruited & scaled engineering team from 5 to 50+ specialists across 6 specialized technical practices.

Enterprise Delivery Engine

Architected pre-sales and delivery functions, winning & delivering mandates for 100+ GCC enterprise clients.

Tier-1 Partnerships

Achieved Microsoft Gold Partner (5 Advanced Specializations) & AWS Advanced Partner status.

Core Competencies & Expertise

Executive Leadership	Technical Practice Building, Strategic Pre-Sales & RFP Leadership, Revenue Growth & P&L Management, Vendor Relations (Microsoft/AWS)
Cloud Architecture	Azure & AWS Landing Zone Design, CAF & WAF Frameworks, Multi-Cloud & Hybrid Architectures, Cloud Modernization, FinOps Cost Optimization
DevSecOps & Platform	Kubernetes Orchestration, Platform Engineering, API Ops, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible), Enterprise CI/CD Strategy
Security & Networking	Azure Sentinel, Splunk SIEM, Zero Trust Security (Palo Alto, F5), Network Security Groups, Firewall Modernization
Data & Analytics	Azure Databricks, Synapse Analytics, Data Factory, IoT Hub, Power BI, End-to-End Pipeline Monitoring (Log Analytics, Logstash)
AI & Generative AI	RAG Architectures, LLM Orchestration & Tool Chains, Vector Databases, Conversational Analytics, Azure AI Foundry

Professional Experience

Director, Technology & Innovation | Adfolks Software Trading LLC

Feb 2017 – July 2026 • Dubai, UAE

Azure AWS GCP Kubernetes Terraform Palo Alto Splunk Databricks GenAI

Spearheaded technical vision and practice growth positioning Adfolks as a market leader, driving organizational revenue from 4M to 20M AED and leading to company acquisition by ZainTech.

• Practice Leadership: Created and scaled four high-margin technical practices — Application Modernization, Cloud Native Engineering, DevSecOps, and Managed Services.
• Pre-Sales & RFP Strategy: Led end-to-end RFP lifecycle, translating complex business needs into winning solutions for 100+ GCC enterprise accounts.
• Team Expansion: Recruited and mentored technical staff scaling from 5 to 50+ specialists while maintaining low attrition.
• Strategic Alliances: Secured Microsoft Gold Partner status (5 Advanced Specializations) and Azure Managed Service Partner status at Group level.

Key Delivery Projects & Milestones:

Guinness World Record Event Platform: Architected high-concurrency cloud platform handling 15,000 registrations and 5,000 concurrent users for the world record attempt.

Enterprise Generative AI Analytics Platform: Designed RAG-based conversational AI interface with LLM orchestration, dynamic chart generation, and PDF reporting over enterprise datasets.

Large-Scale Data & Kubernetes Platform: Built massive-scale data platform ingesting 1B rows of Wi-Fi data in 3 months; led Azure Kubernetes deployment audited by Microsoft Ninja team.

Steel & Industrial Enterprise Data Platform: Designed Azure Databricks/Synapse/IoT Hub data platform; engineered monitoring covering SAP ECC6, Oracle, and cloud data pipelines.

Data Center Exit & Secure Landing Zones: Guided data center exit (Azure VMware Service); designed zero-trust Palo Alto/F5 Landing Zones for AWS enterprise environment.

Consultant, Cloud Solutions | AppsIntegra

Apr 2015 – Feb 2017 • Dubai, UAE

AWS Terraform Ansible Elasticsearch Sophos Nutanix SolarWinds

Joined as sole technical consultant during startup phase, establishing cloud capabilities from scratch and scaling the technical team from 1 to 7 members.

• Cloud Architecture & Partnerships: Designed fault-tolerant AWS IaaS/PaaS architecture; achieved AWS Advanced Partner status.
• Client Onboarding: Secured and onboarded 50+ enterprise clients across retail, aviation, and financial services.
• Government & Defense Monitoring: Implemented SolarWinds monitoring solutions for high-security public sector entities.

Associate Engineer — R&D Cloud Integration | Marlabs Software

Mar 2014 – Apr 2015

• Researched hybrid cloud architectures (OpenStack, CloudStack, AWS), Dockerization, VMware-to-AWS migrations, and Ansible automation.
• Recognized with "Best Employee of the Month" (Sept 2014) for technical excellence.

Technical Shift Manager | Hashroot Technologies

Oct 2012 – Feb 2014

• Promoted from intern to Shift Manager in under 1 year; managed technical team overseeing web hosting infrastructure and SLA compliance.
• Executed Linux server hardening, cyber-attack investigations, and incident response for database/server crashes.

Certifications & Credentials

Active Certifications

• TOGAF 10 Enterprise Architect
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate
• Microsoft Certified Professional

Historical & Specialty Credentials

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect / SysOps / Developer
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate
• Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) & RHCSA
• Oracle Cloud Architect | VMware Certified Associate