Tech Lead

Tech Lead

Zia & Rabia Bhatti Foundation (ZRBF) — Islamabad, Pakistan

Full-Time | On-Site

About ZRBF

The Zia & Rabia Bhatti Foundation is a non-profit public limited company established under the Companies Act 2017. ZRBF is establishing Barkat International College (BIC) in Islamabad, and building Maktab: one unified platform for a college’s student records, ERP, classroom and AI tutor. BIC is our first customer. Our ambition is a platform serving 100,000 students across Pakistan and beyond. Our mission is to transform higher education through evidence-based, experiential learning, moving institutions beyond lecture-based models into immersive, technology-enhanced environments.

The Opportunity

Maktab is at the beginning. We have a working demonstration and are preparing BIC’s first launch; almost everything else is still to be built. A system for 100,000 students will look very different from what runs today, in scale, in architecture and in cost. We are looking for the Tech Lead who will take it there: someone who has seen systems grow, knows the choices that come with growth, and has the judgement to make them.

We build with AI coding agents as our main way of working. Specifications and decisions live in the repository; agents such as Claude Code write much of the code; engineers own the architecture, the review, the tests and what reaches production. You will decide how this works at ZRBF: what an agent is trusted with, how its work is checked, and how the team grows around it. Few engineering teams work this way yet. You would lead one that does.

We are building a high-calibre team of exceptional engineers, and the Tech Lead sets its standard. You have worked alongside engineers you would hire again without a second thought, and they would follow you here. Building that team, and with it a platform for 100,000 students, is the work.

Why this role

• Build a platform from its first college to 100,000 students. The early decisions are yours, and so are the ones that come with scale.
• Lead engineering where AI is the method. We build with frontier AI models, and students will learn with them.
• See a whole college from the inside. Admissions, records, timetables, marks, classrooms and tutoring, in one system, for a college that is opening now.
• Work directly with ZRBF’s leadership. Decisions are made in the room you are in, and the reasons are written down.

The work is demanding, the standard is high, and we hold to it. If that is what you have been looking for, we would like to hear from you.

What we run today, and what is open

Today: ERPNext with its Education app, Moodle, Keycloak for sign-in, and an AI tutor we built in Go on Claude, all running in containers on AWS and managed with Terraform.

Open: how this becomes a system for 100,000 students — service boundaries, container orchestration, serving many colleges from one platform, data at scale, the cost of AI per student, and what we build versus adopt. You will make these choices.

Key Responsibilities

• Own Maktab’s architecture from its first launch towards 100,000 students, and make and record the decisions that get it there
• Set how we build with AI agents: what they are trusted with, how their work is reviewed and tested, and how the specifications stay the source of truth
• Lead and mentor the engineering team, and review architecture and code to the standard you set, whether a person or an agent wrote it
• Integrate and extend ERPNext, Moodle and Keycloak, and own the build-versus-adopt decisions as needs grow
• Govern the platform’s evolution: containers and orchestration, services, tenancy, data and cost
• Work with academic and operational colleagues to turn what the college needs into software
• Recruit exceptional engineers and build the team as Maktab grows

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional software development, with at least 3 years leading engineers or owning architecture
• Mastery of at least one of Python, Java, TypeScript or Go, and working fluency in another. Be prepared to walk us through code you have written, in depth.
• Has taken a system through significant growth in users, data or team, and can explain the choices made and what they would change
• Production experience with containers, and a considered view of when orchestration (Kubernetes or otherwise) and microservices earn their cost, and when they do not
• Production experience on a major cloud platform, preferably AWS
• Depth in relational databases and API design
• Substantial hands-on use of AI coding tools on production code, and clear judgement about where they fail
• Explains technical choices plainly to non-technical colleagues; strong written English

Preferred Qualifications

• Products built on large language models (Claude, OpenAI): evaluation, cost and safety
• ERPNext/Frappe, Moodle or Keycloak, or the EdTech and higher education sector more broadly
• Multi-tenant, cloud-native SaaS platforms
• Infrastructure as code (Terraform), GitOps or DevSecOps
• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related field

What We Offer

• Compensation at the top of the market for an exceptional candidate, and we will not lose the right person over salary
• Performance bonus tied to platform milestones and team delivery
• Top-of-the-line equipment and AI development tools
• Professional development support: conferences, certifications and learning resources

Location

Islamabad, Pakistan (On-site)

How to Apply

Send your CV with a short note on something you built and are proud of: what it was, the decision that mattered most, and what you would do differently. Links to code or public work are welcome. We read every application closely, interview few, and take our time with each. Send it to [email protected]

Note:- ZRBF is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive team.

Work Location: In person