Backend & architecture
Java · Spring Boot · Spring Cloud · Spring WebFlux · microservices · REST APIs · Hibernate · JPA · design patterns
Available Amman, Jordan · open to conversations
Sufian Abu Laban
Software Engineering Manager — Payments & Fraud
Twenty-two years building systems where being nearly right isn't good enough: payment platforms processing millions of transactions a month, fraud engines that have to block the right things, and messaging infrastructure for telecom operators across ten countries. Along the way, Smart TV and Flutter apps used by hundreds of thousands of people.
- Experience
- 22+ yrs
- Payment providers
- 10+
- Telecom operators
- 23+
- Users, one TV app
- 300K+
- Countries reached
- 19
About
Two careers that turned out to be one.
The first half was telecom. Eight years at Info2cell architecting value-added services platforms — SMS and MMS engines, SDP clients, Dynamic SIM Toolkit applications — for more than twenty-three operators across ten MENA countries. That is where the instinct for throughput, delivery guarantees and other people's protocols came from.
The second was product. I co-founded Mayaal in 2014 and put that discipline behind consumer software: Smart TV applications, Flutter apps, marketplaces. The high point was Manal Alalem on Samsung Tizen — 300,000+ users across 19 countries, pre-installed on new Samsung televisions across the Middle East.
Since 2021 the two have converged at Almosafer, where I lead the Payments & Fraud engineering team. Payment systems are telecom problems wearing different clothes: high volume, unforgiving latency, someone else's protocol, and no acceptable failure rate. Ten-plus providers integrated, a fraud and 3DS risk engine in production, and a migration from PHP to reactive Java underway.
I hire, mentor and run a team, and I still write code. The parts of this job I enjoy most are the ones where a system has worked at one scale and stops working at the next, and somebody has to move it without stopping the traffic.
Experience
Twenty-two years, seven roles.
Full detail — responsibilities, achievements and technologies — is in the CV.
-
Sep 2021 — present
Software Engineering Manager — Payments & Fraud
Almosafer (Seera Group) · Amman · on-site · leading 4+ engineers
- Lead the team behind Payment and Fraud platforms serving millions of monthly transactions — technical roadmap, sprint planning and delivery
- Architected and delivered the Payment API and Fraud/Risk Engine for high-volume transaction processing
- Integrated 10+ payment providers: Checkout.com, Tamara, Tabby, STC Pay, BenefitPay, HyperPay, Amazon Pay, KNET, Emkan, Apple Pay, Google Pay
- Enhanced the fraud detection flow and 3DS risk evaluation, improving transaction success rates
- Leading the migration of Payment and Fraud systems from PHP to reactive Java (Spring WebFlux)
- Drove team adoption of agentic AI coding tools as part of a company-wide rollout
- Part of the engineering team behind Almosafer's first co-branded travel credit card in Saudi Arabia, with BSF and Visa
-
Jul 2020 — Aug 2021
FL
Senior Full Stack Engineer / Mobile & TV Apps Developer
Freelance · Amman
- Built Layalina Yummy on Flutter and Samsung Tizen — 2,000+ recipes with step-by-step video
- Delivered 6+ production Flutter applications across recipes, movies and Islamic educational content
- Built the Alwali Driver & Supervisor transport apps with real-time tracking and route optimisation
- Architected and deployed a scalable VAS platform for multiple telecom operators
-
Jul — Dec 2020
Technical Consultant / Integration
Accela · remote · contract
- Integrated Abu Dhabi Department of Health systems with the TAMM e-government portal
- Developed REST APIs and integrated the ADPay payment gateway for government transactions
- Implemented TrueProfile SourceVerification for secure personnel document verification
-
Apr 2015 — Dec 2017
Technical Manager
VasHouse · Amman · part-time · managing 6+ engineers
- Managed the team building VAS platforms for web and mobile services across multiple operators
- Supported Zain Iraq and Jordan, Orange Jordan, Ooredoo and Etisalat
-
Jan 2014 — Jun 2020
Co-Founder & Technical Manager
Mayaal · Amman · managing 8+ engineers
- Founded and ran an IT company delivering mobile, web and Smart TV solutions for regional clients
- Architected and owned an end-to-end food delivery platform — customer, restaurant and driver apps plus admin and restaurant dashboards, with full order management, delivery tracking, system architecture and database design
- Launched Manal Alalem on Tizen: 300K+ users in 19 countries, pre-installed on Samsung TVs across the Middle East
- Built high-volume VAS platforms with SMS/MMS messaging engines for multiple operators
-
Jul 2005 — Dec 2013
Technical Team Lead
Info2cell · Amman · managing 4+ engineers
- Led the team architecting and building a comprehensive VAS platform delivering SMS, MMS and WAP Push for 23+ regional operators
- Architected and built SMS/MMS engines, SDP service clients and generic DSTK applications
- Enabled scalable VAS delivery across ten MENA countries: Jordan, KSA, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Palestine, Iraq and Sudan
-
Aug 2004 — Jul 2005
Java Developer
Autographics · Amman
- Developed Document Management System applications for enterprise clients
- Implemented core modules: indexing, security, storage, OCR and archiving
Technical
What I work with.
Depth in the first three; comfortable and current in the rest.
Payments & fintech
Payment gateways · fraud detection · 3-D Secure · risk engines · reconciliation · high-volume transaction processing
VAS & telecom
SMS/MMS engines · SMPP · SDP clients · WAP Push · Dynamic SIM Toolkit · operator integration
Mobile
Flutter · Dart · Firebase · local storage · push notifications · cross-platform delivery
Smart TV
Samsung Tizen · Orsay SDK · LG WebOS · TV application architecture
Frontend
HTML5 · CSS3 · JavaScript · TypeScript · Vue.js · jQuery · Bootstrap
Data
MySQL / MariaDB · Oracle · SQL Server · MongoDB · Firebase · SQLite · Elasticsearch
Cloud, messaging & DevOps
AWS · Azure · Kafka · RabbitMQ · Kibana · Docker · Kubernetes · Jenkins · Azure Pipelines · Git · Maven · Gradle · Linux
AI-assisted engineering
Claude Code · Cursor · IntelliJ Junie · Claude Design · agentic coding workflows · prompt engineering
Leadership: hiring, 1:1s and performance reviews · team mentoring · Agile/Scrum · code review · technical documentation · QA collaboration · Jira, Slack, MS Teams
Selected projects
Six of twenty.
From a payment platform handling millions of transactions a month to apps live on both stores and a Smart TV app pre-installed across the Middle East.
Platform2021 — present
Payment & Fraud Platform
Payment API and fraud/risk engine serving millions of monthly transactions, with 10+ providers integrated.
In production
Smart TV2015
Manal Alalem
The Middle East's most-installed recipe app on Samsung Smart TV — 300K+ users across 19 countries.
Released September 2015
Mobile2023
Alwali Driver
Fleet driver app for corporate transport, with real-time tracking and route optimisation.
Live on both stores
Mobile2021
Layalina Yummy
2,000+ recipes with step-by-step photos and cooking videos, sharing one backend with the TV edition.
Live on the App Store
Platform2005 — 2021
High-Volume VAS Platforms
SMS/MMS engines, SDP clients and DSTK applications for 23+ operators across ten MENA countries.
Long-running practice
Mobile2022
MSDB — Movies & TV Shows
An entertainment database with ratings, cast, trailers and watchlists, built on a cache-first data layer.
Live on both stores
Education
BSc Computer Science
Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Amman, Jordan · 2000 – 2004
Languages: Arabic (native) · English (fluent, professional working proficiency)
Certifications
- 2005Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) 1.4
- Anthropic · UdemyAI Engineering & Prompt Engineering
Contact
Open to a conversation.
Engineering leadership, payments and fraud, backend architecture, or something in the Flutter and Smart TV space — if it's interesting, I'd like to hear about it.