About Me

I'm Ashok Pokharel, a Fractional CTO and Solutions Architect based in Kathmandu, Nepal, working with clients globally. I help organizations transform through cloud-native architecture, AI innovation, and strategic technical leadership.

With over a decade of experience building and leading engineering teams, I've learned that great technology is only valuable when it solves real business problems. That's why I focus on outcomes—reduced costs, increased revenue, faster delivery—not just technical metrics.

10+ Years Experience

20+ Engineers Mentored

3 Cloud Certifications

50+ Projects Delivered

Leadership & Credentials

Technical Leadership

Managing 20+ engineers

Leading cross-functional DevOps teams across multiple client projects
Mentoring junior engineers and fostering a culture of continuous learning
Driving technical strategy and architectural decisions for enterprise clients
Building partnerships with AWS and other cloud providers

Certifications

AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

Amazon Web Services

Certified

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

Amazon Web Services

Certified

Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect

Google Cloud

Certified

Experience

Fractional CTO

TekBay International Pvt. Ltd.

Nepal

Jul 2025 - Present

Set the company's AI strategy and technical direction, turning an R&D function into a shipped GenAI product line
Architected Lasius, an enterprise agentic AI platform, on multi-tenant Amazon EKS with GitOps (Cilium, Argo CD, LGTM) and Amazon Bedrock knowledge bases for RAG
Delivered GenAI products end to end — an agentic contact center on Amazon Connect + Bedrock (16 MCP tools, sub-10-second responses), plus claims and recruitment automation on Bedrock and SageMaker
Built the FinOps practice governing $1M+ in annual cloud spend, and drove the organization through SOC 2
Turned pre-sales into an engineering discipline — idea to working MVP for 50+ prospects in under two days
Set the engineering standards, review cadences, and delivery model the R&D org runs on

AWSAmazon BedrockGenAIKubernetesFinOpsStrategic Planning

Technical Lead

Adex International Pvt. Ltd.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Aug 2020 - Present

Lead 40+ engineers delivering cloud, DevOps, and platform engagements for clients across Australia, the US, and Nepal
Architected production Kubernetes platforms on Amazon EKS — GitOps delivery, autoscaling, and multi-AZ resilience — for SaaS and data-heavy workloads
Stood up multi-account cloud governance (AWS Control Tower, SCPs, Account Factory for Terraform) that cut new-account provisioning from weeks to under an hour
Ran cloud migrations and FinOps programs that cut client TCO 20–50% through right-sizing, Spot, and Savings Plans
Delivered a healthcare data-security program to full HIPAA compliance, cutting breach risk 45% and incident response time 40%
Built the internal deployment framework (releases from days to under 2 hours) and mentored 20+ engineers, 5 into cloud certifications

AWSKubernetes / EKSTerraformControl TowerFinOpsTeam Leadership

Senior Solution Architect

Certegy

USA (Contract)

Feb 2023 - Aug 2025

Led a zero-downtime migration of 80+ applications from an on-prem data center to AWS, sequencing waves so critical payment systems stayed live
Delivered a $2M+ infrastructure program on schedule across three phases, coordinating four cross-functional teams (dev, QA, ops)
Designed the hybrid network architecture securing 10K+ daily financial transactions through the cutover
Automated infrastructure provisioning with Terraform and CloudFormation, making every environment repeatable and auditable
Built disaster-recovery and failover procedures that met the firm's RTO/RPO and regulatory requirements
Modernized legacy C and Java systems, cutting maintenance overhead 60%

Cloud MigrationAWSTerraformHybrid NetworkingDR / FailoverJava / C

DevOps Engineer

Home Loan Experts

Australia (Remote)

Jun 2020 - Nov 2022

Replaced manual, error-prone releases on a serverless mortgage platform with custom build-and-deploy tooling (AWS SAM, Terraform, CloudFormation) — 50+ microservices at 99.9% deploy success
Designed multi-environment IaC with Terraform and Terragrunt across 12 environments, ending config drift
Stood up centralized observability and alerting on DataDog across the serverless estate, cutting incident response time ~70%
Re-architected core loan flows to be event-driven, improving processing efficiency ~30% and absorbing traffic spikes
Automated release, rollback, and routine operations, reclaiming 15+ engineering hours a week
Shifted security left by embedding scanning into the pipelines, catching vulnerabilities before deploy

AWS SAMServerlessTerraformTerragruntDataDogEvent-Driven Architecture

DevOps Engineer

Genese Solutions

Kathmandu, Nepal

Sep 2019 - Jun 2020

Made the jump from security into DevOps and re-platformed client infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Salt) across AWS, GCP, and Azure
Containerized and hardened workloads on Kubernetes (cloud and self-hosted), carrying a security-first lens into every deployment
Built CI/CD pipelines that automated build, test, and release, cutting manual steps and deployment errors
Standardized multi-environment provisioning so dev, staging, and production stayed consistent and recoverable
Wired security tooling (SIEM, vulnerability scanning) into the delivery pipeline, shifting checks left

TerraformAnsibleKubernetesAWSGCPAzureCI/CD

Security Engineer

Genese Solutions

Kathmandu, Nepal

Jan 2019 - Aug 2019

Ran black-box and gray-box penetration tests on client web apps and APIs using MITRE ATT&CK-aligned methods
Led PCI, SOC, and HIPAA readiness assessments end to end — gap analysis, remediation, and formal attestation
Built an AWS security baseline (GuardDuty, CloudTrail, Inspector, WAF, Security Hub, KMS) for continuous monitoring
Stood up SIEM on AWS-managed services, centralizing logs and alerting for real-time detection
Turned findings into fixes that stuck — remediation runbooks and hands-on guidance for client teams

Penetration TestingAWS SecurityComplianceSIEMKubernetes Security

Software Developer

Binary Logic

Nepal

2017 - 2019

Built and shipped full-stack web applications end to end with Laravel and Vue.js in a small, fast-moving product team
Modeled data across MySQL, PostgreSQL, and DynamoDB, choosing relational vs. NoSQL per each feature's access patterns
Designed REST APIs and moved batch work onto event-driven, serverless functions
Contributed to embedded-systems work, bridging firmware and web platforms for connected-device features
Built reusable components and build scripts that sped up delivery across projects

LaravelVue.jsPHPPostgreSQLDynamoDBServerlessEmbedded Systems

My Journey

My career started in electronics and communications, but I quickly discovered my passion for building systems that scale. Early exposure to Linux and open-source tools sparked a curiosity that led me from hardware into the world of cloud infrastructure and automation.

Over the years, I've worn many hats—security engineer, DevOps engineer, solution architect, and technical lead. Each role taught me something valuable: security taught me to think about risk, DevOps taught me to automate everything, and leadership taught me that technology decisions are ultimately business decisions.

Today, I focus on helping growing companies navigate complex technology challenges. Whether it's migrating legacy systems to the cloud, implementing AI solutions, or building high-performing engineering teams, I bring both strategic vision and hands-on expertise to every engagement.

2024

Fractional CTO & AI Solutions

Expanded into AI/GenAI solutions, helping organizations build intelligent applications with agentic systems and RAG pipelines.

2022

Enterprise Cloud Migration

Led major data center to cloud migrations for financial services companies, architecting complex hybrid cloud solutions.

2020

Technical Leadership

Stepped into leadership roles, building and mentoring DevOps teams while driving technical strategy for enterprise clients.

2018

Security & DevOps

Focused on security-first infrastructure, combining DevOps practices with robust security frameworks.

2014

Cloud Journey Begins

Started working with cloud technologies, discovering the power of infrastructure as code and automation.

How I Work

Business-First Thinking

Technology is a means to an end. Every solution I build is designed to drive measurable business outcomes, not just technical elegance.

Pragmatic Innovation

I embrace new technologies when they solve real problems, not for the sake of being cutting-edge. Boring technology that works is often the right choice.

Knowledge Transfer

My goal is to make myself unnecessary. I build solutions and train teams so organizations can sustain and evolve their technology independently.

Continuous Learning

The technology landscape changes constantly. I dedicate significant time to learning, experimenting, and staying ahead of industry trends.

Beyond Work

When I'm not architecting cloud solutions or debugging Kubernetes clusters, you'll find me exploring the mountains around Kathmandu, experimenting with new AI tools, or mentoring the next generation of engineers through workshops and community events.

I'm a strong believer in giving back to the community. I regularly speak at meetups and conferences, contribute to open-source projects, and help aspiring engineers navigate their career paths in technology.

"Automate more, sleep better."

Let's Work Together

Have a project in mind? I'd love to hear about your challenges and explore how I can help.

Get in Touch View Solutions