Typically 1–2 weeks
Discovery
Senior-led. We map the constraint, the systems in play, and a buildable scope. You leave with a written shape of the work — not a slide deck.
About
Senior engineers. Lean. Production-first.
AKAF Inc. is a small Canadian consultancy — the people who scope the work are the people who ship it.
Who
AKAF Inc. is senior engineers, not a layered firm. We take production work — pipelines, reporting, AI that ships, websites and apps — and we stay small so you talk to the people doing the job.
Who you'll work with
Syed Kaleem
Founder and Senior Data Engineer
Syed Kaleem is the founder of AKAF and its senior data engineer. He brings 15+ years in database engineering, data warehousing, ETL, and BI across SQL Server, Azure, and AWS.
At AKAF he leads data engineering, analytics, and AI work end to end: Databricks and Azure Data Factory lakehouse pipelines, SQL Server and Power BI models, and production agentic AI with guardrails. He was also a DB & Application Architect at Research in Motion (BlackBerry) in Waterloo. He holds an MSc in Management of Technology from the University of Waterloo.
Recent work includes:
- Metadata-driven ADF pipelines into Databricks Unity Catalog medallion layers, with Delta Live Tables and data-quality checks
- A Delta-based ETL control framework that gates failures against silent stale loads, with Azure Monitor alerting
- An investment portfolio system managing $7M+ in assets, with role-based access and real-time dashboards
- A production MCP server (10 tools) and agentic AI assistant with scoped tool permissions and deterministic fallbacks
- 9 years of project management: RFPs, release cycles, risk analysis, and mentoring
Who we work with
Lean teams and mid-market groups that need senior engineers on a real constraint — not a process layer between them and the work.
Typical rooms: investment operations, data and analytics teams, and product groups who already know the problem is production. Pipelines, a number the room can defend, AI that has to survive Monday, a site that has to launch. We do not list client logos. We do not invent names.
If you want a large firm, a staff-aug bench, or a demo week with no owner, we are the wrong shop. If you want a written scope, a senior at the keyboard, and a system you can run, start with the engagement shapes below.
Where
Waterloo, Ontario, and remote across Canada.
How we work
Clarity first: we scope before we start. Then we ship to production. Then we hand the system over so your team can own it. Typical engagement shapes are below.
Short answers
- Who does AKAF work with?
- Lean teams and mid-market groups that want senior engineers without firm markup — typically investment operations, data and analytics, and product teams with a production constraint.
- Who is not a fit?
- A large-firm RFP, a staff-augmentation bench, or a demo week with no owner. We scope, ship to production, and hand the system over.
- Where is AKAF based?
- Waterloo, Ontario, and remote across Canada.
- What does a typical engagement look like?
- Discovery for one to two weeks, a fixed-scope build measured in weeks to a few months, then optional month-to-month continuity after handover.
Typical engagement
What working together usually looks like
Ballpark shapes — not a rate card. Duration follows the constraint. Senior-led, lean, then yours to run.
Typically weeks to a few months
Fixed-scope build
One or two seniors, AI-accelerated. We ship against the scope we agreed. A personal site is weeks; a lakehouse or app is longer. Production, or we say don't build it.
Optional, month to month
Continuity
After handover, light retainer-style support so the system stays yours: alerts, small changes, a named person. Not a bench of juniors sitting on the clock.
We quote after we understand the work. If the shape is unclear, that is the first conversation. Start a conversation →