Newcastle upon Tyne, UK · Open to work

Embedded systems engineer,
wired into the cloud.

MSc Embedded Systems & IoT from Newcastle University. I build real-time firmware, IoT pipelines, and AWS-native backends — from PID control loops to serverless infrastructure.

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// 00 — about

I work at the boundary between hardware and cloud — where a sensor's signal becomes a data pipeline, and a control loop becomes an infrastructure decision.

My background spans real-time C/C++ on microcontrollers and FPGAs, through to Python backends, CI/CD pipelines, and AWS cloud infrastructure — built during an MSc in Embedded Systems & IoT and a role as an Information Systems Engineer at Lumen Technologies.

Currently building a portfolio of IoT + AWS projects focused on smart grid and energy-transition applications — combining embedded sensing with serverless, event-driven cloud architecture.

2
DEGREES · EMBEDDED SYSTEMS & ELECTRONICS
3+
YEARS · SOFTWARE, DEVOPS & EMBEDDED ROLES
AWS
CLOUD PRACTITIONER TRACK · IN PROGRESS
// 01 — selected work

Projects

U1

Smart Grid Energy Monitor

IN PROGRESS

Simulated smart-meter fleet streaming to AWS IoT Core → Kinesis → Timestream, visualized in a live dashboard with anomaly alerting via SNS. Deployed with Terraform.

AWS IoT CoreKinesisTimestreamTerraform
→ github.com/arfaali/smart-grid-monitor
U2

Edge AI Anomaly Detection

IN PROGRESS

TinyML vibration/speed anomaly detector for motor control systems, deployed at the edge and synced to AWS SageMaker for retraining.

TensorFlow LiteSageMakerEdge ML
→ github.com/arfaali/edge-anomaly-detection
U3

Closed-Loop Motor Control (M2M + PID)

SHIPPED

Real-time DC motor speed regulation on Raspberry Pi using a PID algorithm with encoder feedback, holding a 2Hz target speed across multihomed LAN routing.

Raspberry PiPID ControlM2M
→ github.com/arfaali/pid-motor-control
U4

RSA-Based Multimedia Encryption

SHIPPED

RSA cryptography engine in MATLAB for secure text, image, audio and video transmission — with modular exponentiation and signal-distortion analysis under noisy channels.

MATLABCryptographySignal Processing
→ github.com/arfaali/rsa-multimedia-encryption
U5

FPGA Audio Signal Processing (FIR Filter)

SHIPPED

Real-time audio processing on a DE1-SoC Cyclone V FPGA — codec init, serial-to-parallel conversion, and FIR filtering in VHDL.

VHDLFPGADSP
→ github.com/arfaali/fpga-fir-audio
// 02 — toolchain

Skills

Embedded & Firmware

  • C/C++
  • UART
  • STM32
  • VHDL
  • Real-Time Systems

Cloud & AWS

  • IoT Core
  • Lambda
  • DynamoDB
  • S3
  • Amplify
  • Terraform

DevOps

  • Docker
  • Jenkins
  • GitHub Actions
  • Kubernetes
  • Grafana

Data & Backend

  • Python
  • Django
  • Flask
  • SQL
  • Power BI
// 03 — experience

Experience

MAR 2025 — PRESENT
Customer Experience Advisor
ROYAL MAIL, DOXFORD

Customer-facing support focused on service quality and operational efficiency in a high-volume environment; strengthened cross-functional problem resolution.

OCT 2022 — SEP 2023
Information Systems Engineer
LUMEN TECHNOLOGIES, BENGALURU

Built backend systems and data pipelines with Python, Django and Flask; implemented CI/CD (Jenkins, Docker) and system automation (BMC Control-M); managed monitoring (Nagios, Grafana) and performed vulnerability/penetration testing.

AUG 2021 — JAN 2022
Student Intern — Embedded Systems & IoT
THINKCIRCUIT TECHNOLOGIES, BENGALURU

Designed and prototyped secure embedded systems for IoT projects, integrating hardware and software components.