Kausar Nizami

About Kausar Nizami

Azure Solution Architect with 18+ years of experience designing scalable cloud architectures, building secure DevOps platforms, modernizing enterprise applications, and delivering DataOps solutions across Azure. Specialized in Azure Landing Zone, AKS, Terraform, CI/CD automation, hybrid connectivity, ADF data pipelines, SQL Server ingestion, and cloud governance aligned with CAF and Zero Trust.Experience in designing secure, scalable data platforms on Azure, I enable AI-driven workforce insights through Medallion architecture, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog governance, and MLflow-powered automation. I work closely with business and leaders to define modernization strategy, build intelligent data pipelines using Auto Loader, DLT, APIs, and integrate Databricks Agent Framework for autonomous data quality, lineage, and monitoring. Passionate about innovation, I focus on transforming raw people data into trusted decision intelligence while ensuring privacy, compliance, performance optimization, and FinOps-aligned cost governance across cloud ecosystems.I’ve led multiple large-scale cloud transformation programs involving modernization of legacy systems, migration of 60+ enterprise applications, cost optimization initiatives delivering 35–45% savings, and implementation of Kubernetes-based microservices platforms enabling high availability and rapid deployments.My hands-on engineering strength in AKS, Terraform, APIM, ADF, Azure SQL, Storage, Virtual Networks, Zero Trust, Private Endpoints, and Monitoring (Prometheus + Grafana + Datadog + Azure Monitor) allows me to design architectures that are secure, resilient, data-driven, and future-ready.Passionate about helping organizations accelerate cloud adoption, reduce cost, improve performance, and build cloud platforms that scale confidently in production.Core Specialties:Azure Architecture • AKS • Terraform • CI/CD • Azure DevOps • DataOps • ADF • SQL Server ETL • APIM • Cloud Governance • Zero Trust • Hybrid Connectivity (ExpressRoute/VPN) • Microservices • Kubernetes • Modernization • Cost Optimization • Azure Landing Zone • CAF • SRE Practices Why Connect?I thrive in dynamic, agile environments, leading teams through architecture design, development, and successful delivery of enterprise projects. My commitment to excellence extends to ensuring compliance with industry standards.Together, we can drive transformative change and push the boundaries of what\'s possible in the digital realm.

Experience

1. Lead Devops Engineer

   thinkbridge

   Oct 2024 — Present · Pune, IN

   Led the design of an enterprise Azure Databricks Lakehouse using Delta Lake and Medallion architecture, improving data processing efficiency by 60%. Implemented Unity Catalog, Purview lineage, and MLflow automation to enable secure, governed, and AI-ready data operations.Improved system performance by architecting an Azure SQL DataMart with ADF pipelines to separate reporting from transactional workloads. Automated daily ETL processes that boosted reporting speed by 60% and lowered production DB queries by 90%. Delivered a high-availability analytics framework that strengthened data accuracy and removed performance bottlenecks from CTC’s core applications.Architecting scalable Azure solutions using Landing Zone, Hub-Spoke, Private Endpoints, Zero Trust, and Policy-as-Code.Building and modernizing microservices platforms on AKS with secure ingress, node pools, autoscaling, and zero-downtime deployments.Designing CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps, enabling fully automated multi-environment deployments and reducing release time from 3 hours to 15 minutes.Implementing Terraform-based provisioning, reusable modules, and GitOps-style workflows to standardize cloud infrastructure.Leading Azure governance, cost optimization (35–45% savings), tagging strategy, Reserved Instances, and storage tiering.Developing ADF pipelines for SQL Server ingestion, analytics offloading, and performance improvements across DataMart workloads.Managing cloud security posture with Defender, Key Vault, RBAC, Identity-based access, audits, and alert governance.

Education

• Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya

  Master of Computer Applications - MCA, Computer Engineering

• Devi Ahiliya Vishwavidyalaya

  Bachelor of Computer Science (Hons.), Computer Science