Zakir Shah

Lead five cross-functional engineering teams (40+ professionals) supporting mission-critical banking shared services powering core account, customer, and transaction data across the enterprise.

• Own 50+ core APIs/services supporting 1M+ daily transactions; availability is critical to enterprise operations.
• Led modernization of 40+ legacy services to scalable microservices architecture while maintaining ~99.95% availability.
• Improved MTTR by approximately 30% through enhanced monitoring, automation, and structured post-incident governance.
• Reduced repeat production incidents by 25% after implementing resiliency patterns including asynchronous processing and circuit breaker logic.
• Partner closely with business and technology stakeholders to define modernization strategy and architectural roadmap.
• Led enterprise API transformation (SOAP → REST) across 35+ services, improving scalability and deployment flexibility.
• Strengthened automated API and regression testing, improving release stability and reducing production defects.
• Managed 300+ incidents annually, ensuring root cause resolution and preventive controls.
• Applied AI-assisted log analysis and anomaly detection techniques to enhance observability and accelerate root cause identification during production incidents.
• Leveraged generative AI tools to assist in automated test case creation and expansion of edge-case coverage, strengthening regression depth and improving release confidence.
• Strong advocate of disciplined documentation practices; require teams to document architectural changes, design decisions, and production learnings in shared knowledge repositories.
• Played a key leadership role in Discover–Capital One integration initiatives impacting 20+ applications/services.

Led four engineering teams (30+ professionals) responsible for Discover’s enterprise Contact Center platform serving 10M+ customers and supporting JD Power award-winning customer service for multiple consecutive years.

• Supported and architected a $25M Service Innovation modernization program transforming legacy servicing systems into scalable, cloud-based platforms across Web, Mobile, BOT, and Contact Center channels.
• Architected highly available, low-latency APIs and UI platforms supporting high-traffic channels (1B+ web/mobile interactions, 50M+ IVR interactions, 10M+ contact center calls annually).
• Reduced Average Handle Time (AHT) by approximately 15% through predictive customer intent panels and real-time servicing dashboards.
• Improved first-call resolution by ~12% through “Know Me / Help Me” intelligent agent insights.
• Reduced new agent training time by ~20% via conversational and intuitive UI design.
• Generated estimated operational savings of $3–5M through performance optimization and workflow improvements.
• Implemented voice biometric authentication reducing fraud-related servicing exposure by ~18%.
• Managed 500+ escalated incidents annually and led structured postmortems to prevent recurrence.
• Regularly met with call center agents to observe workflows and directly resolve usability pain points.
• Active member of core listening and strategy groups shaping platform modernization and customer experience direction.
• Consistently rated Above Expectations; recipient of leadership awards.

• Member of Discover’s first Agile pilot team, helping transition the organization to Agile methodologies.
• End-to-End Solution Architect for high-volume servicing systems supporting millions of customers.
• Designed scalable service integrations for rewards and cashback platforms.
• Served as enterprise SME for accessibility (JAWS), enabling visually impaired agents to operate servicing systems effectively.
• Led modernization efforts transitioning legacy applications toward web-based and microservices architectures.
• Winner – Discover Hackathon (2014); Dispute solution deployed to production.
• Recipient – Individual Leadership Excellence Award.