2012
2012 – 2014
Where it all started
Teaching & Customer Support
Learned the human skills I still lead with: empathy, patience and making complex things simple.
TeachingCommunicationCustomer Service
Available for full/part-time roles
Arif Khan
Software Quality Architect & Senior Project/Program Manager
I help teams build quality culture reliable products high-trust squads delivery at scale
Top 3% Toptal talent
100M+ audience
11+ years
$ npx test arif-khan
✓ ships reliable software for 11+ years
✓ joined Toptal Core Team · top 3%
✓ leads multiple squads @ Al Jazeera
✓ taught SQE at FAST-NUCES
✓ built PakhtoEd & AKRetro
PASS 5 passed, 0 failed · 11y
Al Jazeera Media Network✦
Toptal Core Team✦
FAST-NUCES✦
PakhtoEd✦
AKRetro✦
GCU Lahore✦
Abacus Consulting✦
Inov8✦
Audience reached
0M+
Tools and products I've helped ship serve a 24/7 global newsroom.
Top 0%
Toptal global talent
PakhtoEd views
0K+
Free tech education in Pashto, 10+ countries.
Years in tech
0+
Teams led & supported
0+
01 — Journey
11 years of building at scale
From teaching, to testing, to leading squads at one of the world's most-watched newsrooms.
2014
2014 – 2017
QA Engineer — entering tech
Abacus Consulting · Inov8 & others
Built my foundation in test strategy and exploratory testing, and learned that quality is a culture, not a department.
Manual TestingExploratoryTest Strategy
2018
2018 – 2021
Software Quality Engineer — Test Automation
Al Jazeera Media Network
Built automation culture
across multiple squads
Scaled automation frameworks for tools serving 100M+ people, and earned an MS in Project Management along the way.
Test AutomationCI/CDRemote-First
2021
2021 – 2024
Senior QA Automation Engineer
Toptal — Core Engineering Team
3rd Pakistani ever in
Toptal's Core Team
Shaped platform quality for 10,000+ clients: E2E, API and contract testing (Pact) across microservices, fully async.
PactAPI TestingAsync Remote
Now
2024 – Present
Product & Engineering Program Manager
Al Jazeera Media Network · Toptal Freelancer
Leading multiple
cross-functional squads
Own roadmap, vendor governance and editorial tooling with stakeholders across 5+ countries.
Program MgmtVendor GovernanceAgile
02 — Expertise
Problems I love solving
For scale-ups & enterprises
ProblemBurnout and turnover from treating
teams like feature factories.
My fixPsychologically safe teams where engineers
feel heard, trusted and motivated.
LeadershipTeam HealthEQMentorshipStakeholders
For startups & scale-ups
ProblemTech debt and disconnected workflows
burn runway without shipping value.
My fixStreamlined workflows, data-driven
bottleneck analysis and CI/CD that restores flow and cuts cycle time.
WorkflowsCI/CDClaude CodeAgile · ScrumJIRA
For enterprises
ProblemQA is an afterthought, escaped defects
erode trust, systems break at scale.
My fixQuality built into engineering DNA, from
exploratory testing to automation on every layer.
Quality StrategyPactCypress · SeleniumAPI & Unit
For founders & CEOs
ProblemA gap between leadership vision and
execution wastes assets and misses KPIs.
My fixI'm the translation layer: every sprint and
asset tied to business ROI.
Program MgmtVendor GovernanceTransformationAI & LLMs
03 — Initiatives
Things I've built & led
AKRetro
Real-time sprint retrospectives that turn discussion into follow-through.
Real-time SaaSNext.js · Supabase
How it works
Built with Next.js, React, TypeScript and Tailwind. Supabase handles auth, Postgres, row-level security and realtime. Anonymous feedback, hide-until-reveal voting, templates, timers and CSV export.
AI Technology Collaboration
A strategic partnership bringing AI capabilities into Al Jazeera's digital stack.
100M+ audienceMulti-country
My role
End-to-end program ownership: stakeholder alignment, legal coordination, technical discovery and cross-team integration, balancing editorial independence with engineering pragmatism.
Media Platform Migration
Multi-milestone migration for a 24/7 newsroom with zero downtime.
3 milestones0 downtime
The challenge
Complex vendor relationships, technical constraints and a newsroom that can't go dark. Every milestone delivered on schedule with zero disruption to live broadcasts.
PakhtoEd
Free Pashto-language tech education for Pashtun communities worldwide.
100K+ views500+ students10+ countries
Reach
100+ bilingual lessons across YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, 5K+ followers, zero paid marketing.
04 — Giving back
Teaching & mentorship
University Lecturer
Taught a full-semester Software Quality Engineering course to 5th-semester CS students.
Volunteer Mentor
Helping teens and college students break into tech: roadmaps, interviews, mindset.
AI Literacy Training
Hands-on session for educators on using AI well in the classroom.
LinkedIn post ↗Remote Work & SQE Talks
Free webinars on thriving in async, distributed teams and quality careers.
Watch on YouTube ↗05 — Track record
Trusted by teams at global scale
Top 0%
of global tech talent — Toptal's acceptance rate
Core Team Alumni · Active Expert Freelancer
0rdPakistani in Core Team
0K+Global team members
0yrCore team tenure
What colleagues say
"Arif is an outstanding QA engineer that any organization would be lucky to have. I worked with him on a complex, large-scale program involving 25+ teams. He helped synchronize testing across other domains and was considered a leader in refining the final test plans and approach."
"He's been key in building a strong testing culture in our team. Arif is a natural problem-solver, always eager to learn and collaborate. Any company would be lucky to have him on board."
"An excellent Quality Engineer and a great person all-around. Extremely focused and detail oriented, he truly understood the products we worked on and advocated for the best user experience."
"Nearly three years on big, complex, often stressful projects. Thoughtful, patient, communicative and cheerful. I would jump at the chance to work with Arif again."
"An exceptional engineer and colleague. He has attention to detail, sees the high-level picture and thinks out of the box. Arif would be a great addition to any team."
Education & credentials
Software Project ManagementFAST-NUCES
Computer ScienceGCU Lahore
- Generative AI for Project Managers PMI
- Scrum Fundamentals Certified SCRUMstudy
- Claude 101 Anthropic
- Leadership Skills for the Future LinkedIn Learning
- Leading and Working in Teams LinkedIn
- Ruby Programming For Everyone Udemy
How I think
Anyone can do mediocre work. Take ownership, exceed expectations, and leave a legacy.
AI is not replacing human curiosity. The creative human finds what pattern-based systems miss.
The more you teach and mentor, the more compounds back. Knowledge given freely is the highest-return investment.
06 — Writing
Ideas & reflections
Quality Is Not a Department — It's a Culture
Why testing mindset matters more than tooling, and how to build it into a team's DNA.
ReadFrom QA Engineer to Engineering Program Manager
The skills I carried, the ones I unlearned, and the advice I wish I'd had.
ReadAI and the Human in the Newsroom
Leading AI initiatives at a media organisation reaching 100M+ people, where the stakes are real.
Read
New guide · Wellbeing
Be Kind to Yourself at Work
Simple habits for your back, neck, wrists and eyes, for everyone who sits 7+ hours a day.
View guide07 — Contact
Let's build something extraordinary.
Founder, hiring leader or team looking for someone who owns outcomes across product, engineering and people? Let's talk.
Message received!
I'll be in touch soon.