GIS, Solution Architect, Data Analysis, Software Development, IT

Muhammad Faisal Zia

United Kingdom *****@*******.*** +44-777******* /mfz15

Experienced professional with a strong background in data management, solution architecture, GIS and digital systems development across government, international organizations, and the private sector. Skilled in data governance, project management, and team leadership, I leverage technology and innovation to drive successful outcomes. Deliver high-quality results and mentor teams in high-pressure environments, excel in implementing effective solutions & enhancing systems efficiency. CORE COMPETENCIES

Technical Skills

Software Development: Enterprise Solution Design & Architecture, Enterprise Information Systems Development, Web GIS Development [JS / Mapping APIs / Geoserver].

Data Analysis: Data Wrangling & ETL [Python / MS-SSIS / FME], Data Analysis

[Mathematica / Python / Excel], Data Visualization [Mathematica / Tableau / Looker], Spatial Data Analysis [ArcGIS-Pro / QGIS / PostGIS], Remote Sensing Analysis [ArcGISPro / Google Earth Engine / SAGA], Geological Data Management & Analysis [Petrel].

Data Management: Database Design [MS SQL server / PostgreSQL / MySQL], Data Governance [Endpoint Security / BitLocker / MS-Security Compliance Toolkit], Geo-Databases [PostGIS], Data Collection [ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS FieldMaps, Google / Azure Forms], Data Quality Management. GIS/Remote Sensing: GIS Solutions Architect (ArcGIS Enterprise / Geoserver], Data Acquisition & Processing [ArcGIS Pro / GDAL], Field Surveying [ArcGIS (Survey123 / Field Maps) / Differential GPS], Map Tilling Services [MapTiler Server, Geoserver, MapLibre Martin, ArcGIS Image Server], Mapping APIs [Leaflet / Google API / Maplibre], Cartography [ArcGIS Pro], Geospatial Content Management [Geonode], ArcGIS (Experience Builder, Dashboards, Workflow Manager, Utilities Network, ArcGIS Online). Cloud Services: Cloud Solutions Design [Azure], Cloud Computing [Azure / AWS

/ GCP], Cloud GIS [Google Earth Engine].

Infrastructure Development: Operational Hardware Planning, Evaluation & Procurement / Systems Security & Hardening Measures / Backups and DR Policies Commercial Skills

Business Analysis: Business Process Analysis, Requirement Engineering, Data Analysis and Interpretation, Process Improvement.

Project Management: Agile Project Delivery, Scrum Framework Implementation, Sprint Planning & Retrospectives, User Story Lifecycle Management, Azure DevOps, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Project Monitoring & Risk Mitigation. Procurement and Vendor Management: RFQ Preparation, Vendor Selection and Evaluation, Contract Management.

Stakeholder Management: Complex Stakeholder Engagement, Senior Stakeholder Communication, Strategic Goal Alignment, Stakeholder Alignment & Escalation Management.

Regulatory Compliance Management: DPA 2018/GDPR, OGA Regulation, Energy Act 2006, EIR 2004, FOIA 2000, HSWA, OPAR, IA 2015 Others: Recruitment, Training.

Organizational Skills: Problem Solving, Resource Allocation, Decision Making, Learning & Adaptability, Innovation, Strategic Planning. Interpersonal Skills: Communication, Leadership, Conflict Management, Teamwork, Collaboration, Negotiations, Public & Corporate Liaison. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Senior Consultant – Professional Services, ESRI UK Ltd. Oct 2024 - Present

• Providing advanced GIS consultancy, technical expertise, and solution architecture to enterprise clients across various industries.

• Leading the implementation of ArcGIS Enterprise solutions, including desktop, web, and mobile GIS applications.

• Acting as a trusted advisor to customers, aligning business needs with geospatial technologies to optimize workflows and decision-making.

• Delivering technical leadership in Esri-based solutions, including data integration, spatial analytics, and cloud-based deployments.

• Supporting business development through pre-sales technical expertise and proposal development in adoption of Esri’s latest platform capabilities.

• Collaborating with stakeholders, project managers, and solution architects to meet quality & performance objectives and successful project execution. Generalist AI Training Specialist – Outlier AI USA(Self Employed (Remote), Part-time) Aug 2024 - Present

• Conduct AI model training and evaluation across projects including voice-to-text, image-to-text, and audio-to-text, keeping up to date with rubrics.

• Apply rubric-based evaluation and provide corrective feedback to improve model performance while ensuring alignment with project goals. Manager Data Management Section – Army Land Management Cell Jun 2022 - Aug 2023

• Led land data governance project, achieving a 90% data accuracy rate in GIS cadastral mapping, improved data quality and regulatory compliance.

• Optimized data accessibility by 50% by implementing a phased web GIS-based Management Information System (MIS), reducing reporting cycles by 30% and significantly cutting down paper usage by 70%.

• Designed and implemented a reliable IT and data infrastructure, achieved 35% cost reduction while ensuring secure data access, compliance with data governance standards, and delivered five nines availability.

• Successfully managed migration and integration of spatial and enterprise data, ensuring a seamless, lossless transition and maintained data integrity. Independent Consultancies Mar 2020 – Mar 2022

National Consultant - United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

• Spearheaded spatial data development and integration, identifying 5 critical protected areas. Developed innovative data solutions by integrating data from diverse sources, significantly enhancing project efficiency and effectiveness.

• Designed intuitive data visualization and reporting, presenting complex spatial data in a clear, actionable format for stakeholders. Improved project insights and decision-making through effective data communication and visualization. Chief Technology Officer (CTO)- Security Organizing Systems Private Ltd. (SOS)

• Directed enterprise IT and data governance strategy, driving digital transformation initiatives and implementing cloud-based (Azure) IT infrastructure. Optimized operations, resulting in a 60% improvement in resource utilization.

• Led data governance and risk assessments for the migration of financial data from Odoo to a custom ERP system, ensuring lossless data migration and safeguarding data integrity. Provided data-driven recommendations to the board based on comprehensive analysis. Consultant - Asian Development Bank (ADB)

• Strengthened data-driven decision-making for water resource management by conducting GIS and remote sensing analysis for site selection.

• Managed complex spatial data workflows, including DEM data integration and the development of 3D visualizations to support project mandates. Improved cartographic accuracy and data representations, enhancing stakeholder communication and project outcomes. Geo Information Systems Team Lead - United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Project July 2016 - Dec 2019

• Managed spatial data information systems, developed GIS products & conducted advance spatial analysis for impactful project decisions.

• Spearheaded development of data dashboards, reducing manual data extraction efforts by 60% improving data accessibility and workflow efficiency.

• Optimized data pipelines for seamless data migration and enhanced data collection processes, ensuring high data quality. Performed data mining of social media data for sentiment analysis within geographic scopes, providing valuable insights to stakeholders.

• Developed a centralized spatial data repository, improving data management infrastructure, and data accessibility across teams. Implemented data governance framework for secure access and efficient management of geospatial data ensuring regulatory compliance.

• Excelled in spatial data modelling & data visualization, conducted trainings, supported monitoring and evaluation data needs within the organization. Product Development Manager - Government of Pakistan Dec 2009 - Sep 2016

• Led project management and governance initiatives for enterprise digital products, overseeing teams of over 80 cross-functional members.

• Specialized in business analysis, solution architecture, and development, with a strong focus on data integrity and compliance with internal and external standards. Managed multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring accurate and secure data handling across various systems.

• Implemented data quality standards and performed regular data audits to identify and correct discrepancies. Coordinated with IT and business stakeholders to enhance data management practices. Provided training and guidance to teams, fostering a culture of data accuracy and governance.

• Achieved a 90% on-time delivery rate for projects, ensuring data management best practices were followed throughout the project lifecycle RECENT PROJECTS

Enterprise GIS System Health Check for a Leading UK Utility Company. Conducted a comprehensive health check of a mission-critical ArcGIS Enterprise deployment on Azure Cloud, configured for high availability across two zones and distributed across two regions for disaster recovery. The environment included multiple VMs with active replication. Leveraged ArcGIS Monitor, Azure Monitor and command-line utilities to capture performance data across applications and infrastructure, then analyzed metrics to identify performance bottlenecks, risks, and deviations from solution architecture for high availability best practices. Delivered actionable recommendations to improve system reliability, scalability, and governance, ensuring alignment with enterprise HA/DR objectives and industry standards. Intelligent Risk & Insight System for Utility Assets Monitoring. Designed and implemented a real-time operational dashboard system for a national water utility provider, enabling dynamic visualization and risk analysis of utility assets (e.g. CSO, SPS, pumps). Leveraged ArcGIS Enterprise infrastructure alongside COTS products to build an intelligent insights platform that receives data through a robust data pipeline and presents just-in- time situational awareness across operational zones. The solution included automated ingestion of live telemetry and processed data streams, enabling severity-based alerting, spatial filtering, and real-time risk interpretation. Configured spatial dashboards to support multi-level filtering based on geographic boundaries, asset types, and operational statuses. Enabled proactive decision-making by surfacing critical alerts, trend insights, and localized performance indicators through web-based and mobile-accessible views. This system will serve as a strategic tool for incident response, maintenance prioritization, and regulatory compliance, dramatically improving visibility and control across distributed infrastructure networks. Land Management Information System (LMIS). Designed and implemented LMIS, an advanced intranet-based web platform that revolutionized land governance. Developed a micro-service-based solution within LMIS, featuring modular updates for real-time spatial data, satellite imagery tiling, and dynamic land parcel information display using GeoServer, JavaScript, PostGIS, and Metro UI. This architecture significantly improved system reliability, scalability, and user experience. The LMIS integrates cutting-edge technology to overlay real-time data with 1 Terabyte of satellite imagery, enhancing data transparency, efficiency, and data accessibility. The implementation led to a remarkable 60% reduction in printing materials and a 40% decrease in appraisal meetings. Additionally, ensured seamless and lossless data migration and integration with enterprise systems, optimizing data management practices and system interoperability Cadastral Mapping and Digital Transformation for Land Records Enhancement. This project marked a transformative shift beyond traditional land record management, focusing on detailed cadastral mapping of over 70 major urban areas using cutting-edge survey technologies. Crafted an expansive geo-database, capturing over 30,000 parcels with meticulous attribute recording and refined spatial relationships, fortified by stringent data quality checks. It replaced obsolete paper records with precise digitization, bolstering transparency, accountability, and centralized oversight in land data governance, paving the way for spatial data-driven services. The project also included seamless data migration and integration with enterprise systems, employing best practices with PostGIS DB and intra systems migrations for optimal performance and security. Advanced Fin-tech Solutions: Business Operations Enhancement. This initiative introduced bespoke financial technology solutions for Cash in Transit, Cash Processing Systems, and ATM Replenishment to simplify and automate intricate financial operations. Launched with an ambition to optimize cash vehicle usage by approximately 80% within regulatory confines, a pivotal component was the establishment of a robust cloud-based

(Azure) IT infrastructure using Azure services, guaranteeing uninterrupted availability and leveraging optimized Google Maps APIs for business continuity.

Customized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solution Development. Led a dynamic project focused on outsourced custom ERP development, strategically aligned with organizational goals for operational efficiency. Conducted meticulous risk analysis, proactively identifying, and mitigating potential challenges. Executed comprehensive evaluations through end-to-end process testing, with a specific focus on uncovering data integrity vulnerabilities that could disrupt business operations or compromise critical data during migrations. Provided data-driven recommendations to the company's board of directors, guiding effective courses of action for the project's success. Empowering Decision-Making with Web-Based GIS Solutions. The project centered on creating web-based GIS dashboards functioned as an integrated MIS for a development agency. Key features included a Third-Party Monitoring Dashboard for streamlined monitoring and a Donors Development Collaboration Information System that offered a consolidated view of donor activities for USAID Pakistan, complemented by the introduction of the Pakistan Energy Data Hub for energy resource insights. Collectively, bolstered data management, promoted informed decision- making, and facilitated cross-sector collaboration, resulting in an estimated 60% work hour reduction due to streamlined M&E data access. Spatial Data & Remote Sensing Analysis for USAID Projects Monitoring and Evaluation. The project leveraged Google Earth Engine for decade long temporal crop yield analysis around a water dam, slashing field visits by 40% and shedding light on agricultural productivity. Also carried out analysis spanned over three decades, revealing barren land degradation shifts, hydrological insights like watershed delineation, and visualizing soil erosion risks. Additionally, it incorporated sentiment analysis from Twitter, spatial techniques in monitoring & evaluation, and established a GeoNode repository consolidating over 80GB of GIS data, enhancing data accessibility, governance, and business continuity on the intranet.

Continued Professional Development

Graduate Certificate Petroleum Data Management

University of Aberdeen • United Kingdom • 2023

Core Curriculum: Data Science - From Data to Insight using Mathematica, Mathematical Modelling, Database Systems for Big Data, High Volume Big Data Handling (Petroleum Geological, Seismic & Geographical upstream / downstream data), Data Governance, Data Quality Management. EDUCATION

MS Remote Sensing & GIS National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) • Pakistan • 2016 MS Computer Software Engineering National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) • Pakistan • 2014 Bachelor of Computer Software Engineering National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) • Pakistan • 2007 MISC

UK Full Driving Licence, SIA DBS Checked, Qualified Emergency First Aid at Work (RQF)

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