Ammar Waqar

A brief overview of my experiences and achievements so far – I started my professional career as a JavaScript and iOS developer in Silicon Valley in California. I worked at tech giants such as Apple and Wells Fargo as well as EdCast, a startup focused on streamlining employee experience. After returning to Pakistan, I joined iENGINEERING, a small-sized tech company serving the US transportation industry. As a Solution Architect, I started an Applied Research group to develop AI-based solutions and drove the development of Transconomy, an AI-based B2B suite of products (two web apps, one cross-platform mobile app, and an AI cloud service) that provides data to ensure road safety. I gradually hired and mentored a team of 45 young resources, continually adjusted the roadmaps and release plans based on customer feedback and alignment with stakeholders, and managed development and releases. I also led the design, branding, and launch of the products in close collaboration with cross-functional teams. I later got promoted to Product Manager responsible for managing the four products that make up the Transconomy ecosystem. I successfully generated $100K in revenue within the first year of launch, played a key role in spinning off Transconomy as a separate company, and got appointed as the CTO. I currently hold both a Product Manager position at iENGINEERING and CTO at Transconomy LLC.

During my career, I have thrived in uncertainty and finding a way through very slim odds by being flexible, adaptable, and highly focused to do whatever it takes to get the job done. This required wearing multiple hats to say the least. Following is a brief overview of the various hats I have worn and can wear simultaneously:

A product leader focused on the bigger picture

One of my main fortes is to always have the bigger picture in mind. This allows me to lead people to build great products that are aligned with company objectives and customer needs. I have led several customer interview sessions to identify pain points, drove product roadmaps of multiple products simultaneously, documented user stories and acceptance criteria, prioritized product backlogs, and rapidly wireframed and prototyped new features. Being responsible for release management, I have overseen 100+ successful rollouts in the past 4 years. I have also deployed features to conduct A/B testing and leveraged usage analytics data to select the best features for final deployment. From technical documentation such as User Requirement Specification, Software Design Specification, and concept papers to marketing collateral such as brochures, product videos storyboarding, and social media blurbs, I have done quite a bit of writing as well.

A technical sales driver with business acumen

In my current role, I successfully converted 7 US-based client organizations to paying customers in under a year with a 100% retention rate. This involved fostering professional relationships with the customers, leading technical demos, and delivering sales presentations to C-level executives and decision-makers. I am naturally curious about business operations and Go-To-Market strategies and this helps me quickly understand high-level business goals and OKRs. I have had experience being the point of contact for all customers and have engaged them through email communication and video- based online meetings. Aiming to acquire funding for Transconomy, I have had the privilege of giving a startup pitch at an international conference and also spoke at several local conferences representing the company.

An overarching technical liaison and scrum master

Having a technical background, I have a lot of experience acting as a technical liaison between customers, product, engineering, design, sales, marketing, business development, and senior leadership. To make the most of company OPEX, I have devised systems to streamline resource allocation. To inculcate a culture of scrum and agile principles in the organization, I have led sprint planning meetings, daily standups, backlog grooming sessions, and retrospective meetings.

I am comfortable in getting relevant folks from engineering, design, and infrastructure teams in the same room, picking up a whiteboard marker to think through architecture, database design, API schema, cloud deployment, and complex logic building. I have had engineering teams consisting of web, mobile, and machine learning developers directly report to me.

A design enthusiast with attention to detail

Not only did I lead the user experience and user interface (UX/UI) design of all Transconomy products, I was also selected by the senior management to lead the UX and UI design of a multi-site network website having 65 websites (containing around 380 pages) while directly managing a team of three UI/UX designers and influencing three WordPress developers without authority. This was a $1.5M project that I successfully drove to completion in only 6 months. I conducted user research, designed information architecture, thought through and developed a scalable design system, and delivered a fully responsive experience to over 250K users. I have a lot of experience in using Figma, Adobe XD, Miro, and Sketch.

The purpose of highlighting my previous roles is to provide you with a more thorough understanding of the areas where I can add value. I would be happy to get on a call to discuss specific challenges you are facing and how my skills and experiences may help in overcoming some of them.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

iENGINEERING

Product Manager (Full-time)

Built and launched a new AI startup from 0 to 1 (AI Product Experience)

Led UI/UX and Engineering scrum teams of 7 employees using Agile to develop Transconomy’s AI cloud

data service, two web apps, and a mobile app; created 35 new jobs, now managing 45 employees in total.

Researched market opportunity and led customer interviews, wrote requirements and drove iterative product delivery through rapid prototyping; delivered production-ready products within 70% of the budget.

Prioritized four product roadmaps with developers and designers, aligning product vision with the customer needs and business strategy, owned P&L and achieved OKRs 2 months ahead of plan.

Fostered professional relationships with European and American B2B customers and partners, led technical demos; converted 8 B2B organizations to paying customers and signed partnership deals with 3 major technology firms in under a year with 92% retention rate.

Represented the product in a startup label competition and trade shows, closed a multi-year partnership deal with a major European technology firm with a potential of adding $1M to annual revenue.

Coordinated with leadership to spin off Transconomy as a separate company; also functioning as the CTO of this new startup leading technical sales and aligning customer needs to further product enhancements.

Re-envisioned a legacy DRM solution into a SaaS product (SaaS Product Experience)

Conducted market research and customer interviews to identify gaps in iWrapper; conceptualized a SaaS

portal that automated the onboarding, account management, and invoicing process for customers.

Led a scrum team of 3 employees to develop the SaaS platform in Agile; developed and prioritized product roadmap; resulting in a successful launch that acquired 6 new B2B customers and added $50K to revenue.

Digitally transformed a large multi-site network website (UI/UX, Web, and Mobile Project Experience)

Took leadership in bringing the voice of the customer into strategic planning of the design and development

of a multi-site network website of American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

Led UI/UX and Engineering scrum teams of 3 employees in Agile to develop 65 subsites (380 pages) and a mobile app; architected a modularized process that supercharged developer productivity and saved 460 development hours; delivered 3 months before planned Go-Live date and added $1.5M in revenue.

WELLS FARGO

Research & Development iOS Engineer (Contract)

• Acted as key point of contact with 2 partner organizations and led multiple technology integrations for next generation banking apps; reducing in-house development effort by 35%.

Islamabad, Pakistan Nov 2018 – Present

San Francisco, CA Oct 2016 – Apr 2018

Conceptualized and delivered technical presentations and demos to showcase integration capabilities to prospective partners; discovered and converted a new technology firm.

Oversaw and managed an offshore development team of 3 engineers to ensure timely and efficient delivery of projects, while maintaining quality and adhering to budget constraints.

Led the development of 4 proof-of-concept banking iOS applications in Swift based on machine learning, augmented reality, and natural language processing.

Got recognition from senior management early on; appointed as the lead engineer on R&D projects within the first 4 months.

EDCAST

iOS Engineer (Contract)

Conducted customer interviews to identify user needs, translated them into software requirements, and

facilitated customer feedback sessions, resulting in a 30% decrease in customer complaints.

Implemented user-centric design principles and redesigned the UI of the iOS app with a modular design system; increased app downloads by 20%.

Rebuilt the frontend UI singlehandedly using reusable components in Objective C in 120 hours in an Agile environment using Jira; reduced code lines by 35%.

APPLE

Testing Engineer (Contract)

Conducted technical interviews of internal stakeholders within distributed teams to identify pain points and

devised solution strategy; achieved 91% satisfaction rate among 46 stakeholders.

Streamlined the overall QA process for watchOS 2.0 release; architected and developed testing pipeline for iOS developers while managing detailed documentation on Confluence.

Developed an automation testing program in JavaScript; reduced manual bug reporting by 40%. VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

HITEC UNIVERSITY

Member of the Board of Advisors

Acted as a member of the Advisory board to update the curriculum for computer science and computer engineering degrees to keep up with current trends in the industry.

HAMARA GHAR ORPHANAGE

Volunteer Teacher

Taught high-school math, physics, and chemistry at an orphanage that shelters 90+ girls who lost their parents in conflict zones.

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

4.0 GPA. Graduate Research Assistant. CRLA Level 1 Certified Tutor for Mechanical Engineering.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCES & TECHNOLOGY

Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronics Engineering