Farid is an Azerbaijani DevOps and infrastructure engineer who’s worked on core banking systems at Kapital Bank and handled projects for big brands in restricted cloud regions. Now he’s co-founded Quberts Technologies in London with other Azerbaijani engineers. Their first product is Safe Circle, a community safety app where London residents can anonymously report incidents, see what’s happening nearby on a live map, and track safety trends in their area.
We talked about how he got here, what CI/CD pipelines and safety apps have in common, and what he thinks his job is actually about.
From curiosity to infrastructure
Farid’s first experiences with computers weren’t exactly enterprise-focused.
“I mean, I grew up like most engineers probably do,” he says. “Just messing around with computers because I was curious. There wasn’t some master plan. At some point you realize, oh wait, this could actually be a job.”
That clicked for him during university, where he studied technical subjects and started doing support and system administration work. From there he moved into Linux engineering, then DevOps and infrastructure.
“At first you’re just fixing one person’s problem, or getting one server back online,” he explains. “Later on you’re responsible for entire platforms. And you start to realize – like, a decision you make on a Tuesday afternoon? That could affect millions of people who’ll never know your name. It’s a strange feeling.”
At Kapital Bank, he worked on modernizing core systems including the CRM platform for the national call centre and public-facing products like the nationwide VAT refund service. He brought in containerization, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and full observability for services handling what he describes as “massive volumes – millions of operations, terabytes of data.”
“It was honestly the best education I could’ve gotten,” he says. “Banks don’t mess around. Regulators don’t mess around. And users? They definitely don’t forgive downtime. You learn to respect risk. You learn to design systems that someone can actually understand three years later.”
Why technical skills are not enough
Farid isn’t dismissing deep technical knowledge – he’s got it. Linux, networking, Kubernetes, delivery pipelines, multiple advanced certifications.
“In our field, pure technical knowledge used to be enough for a long time,” he says. “These days? It’s just the entry ticket. The real impact comes when you combine that with communication, empathy, understanding how your system affects actual lives.”
He points to his experience working with cross-functional teams.
“Infrastructure by itself doesn’t do anything. You need product managers, designers, analysts, support people. If you can’t explain why your approach matters to them – or if you just ignore their constraints – your beautiful architecture is going to fail in the real world. I’ve seen it happen.”
This mix of technical and people skills became even more critical after the pandemic shifted everyone to remote work.
“You don’t just bump into people in the office corridor anymore,” he says. “You have to be way more deliberate. Clear documentation, predictable processes, simple mental models – those became even more important. The upside is that remote work opened things up. An engineer in Baku can contribute to a product in London now, if they’re visible and prepared.”
AI, engineers, and the changing nature of work
AI comes up in basically every conversation about engineering’s future. Farid doesn’t see it as either a miracle or a threat.
“AI is a tool that changes how we work,” he says. “It’s not going to eliminate the need for engineers, but it’ll quickly leave behind people who refuse to use it.”
For him, the key is figuring out where AI adds value and where human judgment still matters most.
“AI can draft code, generate tests, help with incident analysis,” he explains. “What it can’t really replace is responsibility. Someone still has to decide which system to build, which risks are okay to take, how to explain the solution to people who aren’t technical.”
He thinks the engineers who’ll stand out are those who treat AI as a collaborator.
“If you know how to ask good questions, structure problems, verify the answers – AI becomes this multiplier for your skills. If you treat it like a magic answer machine, it’ll expose weak thinking pretty fast.”
Safe Circle: turning infrastructure thinking into public safety
Farid’s newest project, Safe Circle, shows how his thinking about responsibility and infrastructure extends beyond enterprise systems.
Safe Circle is a mobile app that lets people report incidents anonymously, check safety information on an interactive map, and get neighborhood-based alerts. The app aggregates reports and visualizes them so users can see accidents, suspicious activity, emergencies around them in near real-time.
“Banks taught me that systems should protect people even when they’re not paying attention,” he says. “With Safe Circle we’re applying the same principle to everyday safety. You should be able to see what’s happening around you and make informed decisions – about your route, where you’re meeting someone – without giving up your privacy.”
Privacy is built into the design. Safe Circle supports anonymous reporting, encrypts data in transit, follows data protection regulations, and gives users control over notifications and location access.
“The rule is simple,” Farid explains. “We want more awareness in the city, but we’re never trading that for exposing individuals.”
He sees Safe Circle as more than just an app – it’s an experiment in community behavior.
“Every report is a signal. When enough people participate, the city becomes more transparent. You can notice patterns, see which areas need attention, respond earlier. Our job is to provide a reliable channel for that information.”
Safe Circle is being developed through Quberts Technologies, the company Farid co-founded with other Azerbaijani engineers in the UK. Their goal is building international products while involving specialists from Azerbaijan and other regions in meaningful work.
“We want to show that a team with Azerbaijani roots can build products at a global level,” he says. “At the same time, we’re giving engineers back home access to serious projects, not just outsourcing tasks.”
Technology as an environment, not a label
Toward the end of our conversation, Farid circles back to the theme that runs through his career – from bank infrastructure to Safe Circle.
“IT isn’t just a profession,” he says. “It’s this environment that keeps changing and forces you to keep learning. Some people find that exhausting. I find it… I don’t know, motivating? Most of the time.”
He believes the teams that’ll shape the next decade aren’t the ones who simply consume tools, but the ones who interpret them and build new things on top.
“In the next few years, the difference will be made by people who understand and direct technology instead of just letting it push them around,” he says.
For Farid right now, that means two parallel tracks. On one side, he’s still designing infrastructure and CI/CD foundations for demanding products. On the other, he’s working on Safe Circle and the broader Quberts mission, using that engineering experience to build services that affect everyday urban life.
“I like the combination,” he says. “You learn from large systems with strict requirements, then you use that knowledge to build something that helps regular people feel a bit safer walking home. For me that’s a good balance between technology and people.”
