01Hello

Hi, I’m Wawan. I build the platforms other teams build on.

I’m a Platform Architect with 17+ years in backend and platform engineering. I design and build systems for payments, e-commerce and AI, from the first API to Kubernetes in production. I’ve led teams of 20, and I still write code every week. Cheerful about the work, precise about the details.

Based in Depok, Indonesia · Open to platform and engineering leadership roles, in Indonesia or the Gulf

See what I do Say hello

02The name

WK is me. And 07 is July.

People ask about the name, so here is the short story. It has three parts.

My initials

Wawan Kurniawan. Short, simple, mine.

Just me

This is a person, not a company. One name for my work, my notes and my side projects.

July, a band and a hero

I was born in July. Seven is also for Sheila on 7, a band I love, and for CR7, my football hero.

The logo is seven bars that draw a W. The last bar is gold. The dot on top is a ball, because I still love football.

03What I do

Good foundations, so teams can ship.

In plain words: I design the shared parts that many teams use every day. Systems that stay calm when traffic grows, and stay simple when the team changes.

Design

Platform architecture

Service boundaries, APIs and data flows for payments and busy products. They make sense on day one and still make sense on day 1,000.

Ship

Infrastructure and delivery

Docker, Kubernetes and GitOps CI/CD. I move teams from “git pull on the server” to deploys that anyone can run safely.

AI

AI systems

Agentic AI, voice agents and RAG with LangGraph and Qdrant. Built for production, with the same care as any backend.

Lead

Engineering leadership

Eight years as VP of Engineering, with teams of 10 to 20. Hiring, mentoring, budget and a clear roadmap.

How I work

  1. Boring tech first. Pick tools the team can still run at 3 a.m.
  2. No key-person risk. If only one person can deploy, fix that first.
  3. Automate the dull parts. Builds, deploys and backups should run by themselves.
  4. Write it down. A short doc today saves a long meeting later.

Tools I use

  • Go · Gin
  • Python · FastAPI
  • TypeScript · Next.js
  • Kubernetes · Docker
  • PostgreSQL · Redis
  • LangGraph · Qdrant
  • Ruby on Rails earlier
  • Java · Spring Boot learning now

04Track record

Real work, told short.

I don’t have side products to show yet. So here are three stories from my jobs, and the places I’ve worked.

Payments · 2026

Rebuilt a payments company in three weeks

Problem
Old systems, and deploys done by hand on the production server.
My part
I started as the only engineer and rebuilt every system with AI-assisted development.
Stack
Go (Gin), Next.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes (K3s), GitHub Actions
Result
A Go API and four Next.js apps, QRIS payments with several banks, and GitOps deploys to staging and production.
AI · 2025

An AI voice call centre for UAE government services

Goal
Let people handle government services by phone, with an AI agent.
My part
Architect and builder: the voice pipeline (speech to text, LLM, text to speech), Go services and Python agent logic.
Stack
Go, Python, LiveKit Agents, LLMs, Next.js
Result
Car registration renewal, land grants and bill payments through DubaiNow. Shown at GITEX Global 2025 in Dubai.
Video streaming

A World Cup streaming app in two months

Goal
Stream the World Cup to a very large audience, on a date that could not move.
My part
Team leader. I owned the server architecture, the database and the streaming setup.
Stack
Ruby on Rails, WebSockets, background jobs
Result
Delivered in two months, and it handled massive traffic at the same time.

Where I’ve worked

  1. 2026–nowSVP of IT and Operations · Catalyst Technology Solutions, QRIS payments
  2. 2025–2026Senior Software Engineer, Agentic AI · Zafar Labs with Kata.ai, Dubai
  3. 2023–2025VP of Engineering · Horego, food discovery
  4. 2017–2023VP of Engineering · Printerous, on-demand printing
  5. 2012–2017Software Development Team Leader · Domikado, payments and streaming
  6. 2008–2011Web and full-stack developer · Awakami and Walden Global Service, Bandung

The full story is on LinkedIn.

05Off the clock

The rest of me.

Music

Music and a guitar

I love music, and I play the guitar. Nothing serious, just for fun. Sheila on 7 is always on the playlist.

Football

Still my favourite game

Football is my hobby. I love to play, even if my knees are getting old. My hero is Cristiano Ronaldo, CR7.

Someday

The Gulf

One day I want to live in the Gulf. The desert gold on this site is a small nod to that plan.

Every day

Better English

I’m improving my English, one conversation at a time. This site uses simple words on purpose.

06Now

What I’m doing these days.

  • Running IT and operations at a QRIS payments company, and still writing code every week.
  • Building an AI customer service system with FastAPI, LangGraph and RAG.
  • Learning Java and Spring Boot, after years with Go, Python and Node.js.
  • Practising English every day.
  • Building this website, one small piece at a time.

Last updated

07Say hello

Let’s talk.

Email is the best way to reach me. I read every message, and I reply when I can.