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Zaid Qureshi
About
Make voice AI accessible for underserved langauges around the world. Previously, spent 10+ years building large-scale systems, I launched Guardrails for Amazon Bedrock, a pioneering service for safeguarding LLMs. I have created optimization initiatives projected to save $100M+ annually, also led projects that have saved $200M annually. Like solving ambiguous business problems with technology, bridging the gap between technical complexity and business needs, and driving measurable impact.
Professional Experience
Cofounder & CTO
Uplift AI
Sep 2025 to Present
- Focusing on bringing voice AI to underserved languages
- Built the worlds best Sindhi and balochi TTS models
Senior Software Engineer
Amazon, Seattle
Apr 2020 to Aug 2024
AWS Bedrock Guardrails
- Launched Bedrock Guardrails, a pioneering AWS service that helps organizations implement safeguards for generative AI applications. Collaborated with science teams, product management, and leadership to design customer experience, integrate advanced ML models, setting a precedent for LLM safeguards.
- Helped re-architecture of AWS Bedrock for parallel team development, reducing operational load and supporting independent scalability across 5 teams.
Amazon - Optimal Sourcing Systems
- Optimized the Direct Import supply chain by reshaping the import shipment booking process and improving inbound inventory management. Worked with multiple orgs to shape a new product that will provide Amazon vendors the most intuitive booking experience, while increasing the bar for safety and driving costs down for Amazon
- Created multi-year roadmap to increase adoption and launch program world wide.
- Proposed and authored a paper to increase container utilization, projected to save $100M annually, now on the implementation roadmap.
- Led cross-team, multi-year projects involving four teams, defining how Amazon systems handle multiple ocean shipments from single booking requests, dangerous goods inventory, and inventory traceability at the start of supply chain (inbound) and after distribution to customers. Collaborated with SMEs to address operational challenges and translate them into software solutions.
- Directed the re-architecture project to transition monolith route optimization service to microservices, enabling the core allocation and route optimization system to be reused across Amazon's various import programs. This project helped improve a major scalability bottleneck, where the existing solution was sensitive to change in inventory size and required major development efforts to support new programs. This forward looking initiative allowed us to put flexible systems in place such that we could seamlessly achieve the 400% growth expected in the next 4 years.
- Partnered with UX team to build a solution to automatically measure and monitor customer experience in Amazons Vendor Central for each flow while maintaining customer privacy. Initiated and led the development of a robust UI metrics platform, collaborating across teams to streamline metric capture and automate dashboarding processes. Implemented a scalable framework for standardized metric collection and automated aggregation, enabling agile data visualization and actionable insights for operational efficiency and continuous improvement.
- Technologies used: AWS (S3, Dynammodb, SQS, SNS, Event Bridge, ECS, IaaS, Sagemaker, Lambda...), Docker, Spring, Java, Typescript, JavaScript, Python
Built Coding bootcamp
Built Learnly as a side project - my coding bootcamp that focuses on problem-solving over syntax. Free at Learnly.dev
Senior Software Engineer
Paymentus, Toronto
May 2016 to Apr 2020
- Made payment systems and no-code tools that took client onboarding from months to minutes.
- Touched all parts of the stack, IVRs, Agent portals, customer portals, deep DB PLSQL logic, tomcat servers, spring apps, legacy apps, mobile apps, chatbots, logs..
- Really learned how to scale systems processing millions of dollars payments, in startup mode. Team grew from 9 devs to 150, with aquisitions. Saw what scales in software and what doesn't
Cofounder - (Volunteer work)
May 2016 to Present
Co-founded Hoopo (social enterprise) to empower impoverished communities through self-sustainable solutions and job creation. Developed a donation and investment portal generating $200k ARR, furthering Hoopo's mission of breaking the cycle of poverty.
Lead Technical Consultant (Contract)
iQonsulting, Toronto
Sep 2018 to Nov 2018
Process re-engineering initiative for a healthcare marketing organization, delivering a 50% efficiency boost. Collaborated with the team to document current workflows and design a future state utilizing automation and automated data architecture. Weekly presentations ensured alignment with the executive team.
Cloud Developer
Clearwater Clinical, Ottawa
Sep 2015 to May 2016
Built mobile solutions for a unique hearing test app (iPad) designed to replace expensive equipment, improving accessibility for underserved communities.
Android Application Developer
Telepin Software, Ottawa
Jan 2015 to Apr 2015
Education
BASc in Software Engineering with Engineering Management
University of Ottawa
Sep 2012 to Apr 2016
- Academic Director - Software Engineering Student Association
AI Certificate
University of Toronto
Sep 2021 to Apr 2023
- Machine Learning - Sep - Dec 2021
- Reinforcement Learning - Jan - Apr 2022
- Deep Learning - Jan - Apr 2023
Machine Learning
Stanford University - Coursera
Sep 2018 to Dec 2018
Foundations of Enterprise Architecture
University of Toronto
Sep 2018 to Dec 2018