About
Hamza
Afridi
I'm an engineering leader with experience building and scaling SaaS platforms in regulated and compliance-heavy environments. My background spans startup founding, product engineering, and post-acquisition scale — with a strong focus on building systems and teams that last.
I started my career as a technical founder, working across product, engineering, and operations in early-stage startups in Pakistan. That foundation shaped a practical, ownership-driven approach to leadership, with a strong bias toward execution, system design, and long-term impact.
At VetDrive, I joined as the sole engineer and led the technical build-out of the platform, scaling it into a production-grade B2B SaaS used by 130+ veterinary clinics across Ireland. I owned the core architecture, built a microservices-based platform, grew and mentored a 16-person engineering team, strengthened security and GDPR compliance, and supported the organisation through acquisition readiness.
I currently serve as Head of Engineering at Herdwatch, where I lead a ~20-person engineering organisation. My role focuses on engineering strategy, team scaling, hiring and mentorship, architecture modernisation, and post-acquisition platform integration.
Head of Engineering at Herdwatch
Limerick, Ireland · Since Jan 2026
Working principles
- → Ownership over delegation
- → Long-term over local optimum
- → Build people, people build products
- → Ship, learn, iterate
- → Compliance is a feature, not a tax
Journey
15 years, one direction
From writing GW Basic on a PC in Pakistan to leading engineering organisations in Ireland.
DesignedInSeconds
Co-Founder
2011
Pakistan
- · Co-founded a crowdsource platform for graphic designers
NUST
B.E. Electrical Engineering
2013 – 2018
Islamabad, Pakistan
CYKIQ Technologies
Founder & Technical Lead
2013 – 2019
Islamabad, Pakistan
- · Founded Pakistan's first bike-sharing app — smart mobility for last-mile transport
- · Technical founder responsible for product, platform, and system architecture
- · Worked with national government bodies; integrated fintech for in-app payments
University College Dublin
Master's — Computer Science
2019 – 2021
Dublin, Ireland
Bykea
Growth & Data Engineer
2019
Karachi, Pakistan
- · Built marketing attribution and performance tracking pipelines
- · Helped reduce CAC by ~50% through attribution and spend optimisation
Wia
Backend / IoT Engineer
2019 – 2021
Dublin, Ireland
- · Worked across hardware, firmware, and cloud in an IoT-heavy environment
- · Contributed to large-scale IoT data ingestion and processing systems
VetDrive
Lead Software Engineer (Founding Engineer)
2021 – 2026
Limerick, Ireland · Remote
- · Joined as sole engineer; scaled to 130+ veterinary clinics across Ireland
- · Built and owned core platform architecture — microservices-based SaaS
- · Grew and led 16-person engineering team; led company to acquisition readiness
Herdwatch
Head of Engineering
2026 – Present
Limerick, Ireland
- · Leading ~20-person engineering org following acquisition of VetDrive
- · Driving architecture modernisation for scalability, reliability, and cost efficiency
- · Responsible for hiring, technical direction, and engineering roadmaps
Born 1994, Pakistan
First wrote code at 14 — GW Basic controlling LEDs via Parallel Port. Been building ever since.
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