Independent consulting & contract work

Afaq Ul Haq Babar

Telecom, broadband, and cloud-native infrastructure

I help operators, CPE vendors, SIs, and platform teams ship infrastructure that has to work in the network and in production. That means cloud-native platforms and automation, with a telecom background, for teams in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and remote.

Previously I led compute on Open Telekom Cloud (T-Systems): GPU-enabled AI workloads and a fleet of 1000+ servers, combining product discovery with engineering.

01.

About

I work where telecom and cloud-native infrastructure meet: the platforms operators and vendors have to run, automate, and explain to a customer.

I am available for consulting, contract, and customer-engineering work. Public proof on this page is cloud-native (OpenStack, Kubernetes, GitOps) plus a Wi-Fi 7 article on Medium.

What I am good at

  • Taking a cloud or infrastructure product from discovery through a running platform (Open Telekom Cloud compute, including GPU/AI workloads).
  • Kubernetes, GitOps, and infrastructure-as-code that other people can operate (k3s-argocd-pi, IONOS Terraform).
  • Writing that an engineer can use (Wi-Fi 7 / 802.11be on Medium). That piece is radio/MAC, not an operator CPE runbook.

What this page is for: a serious conversation about a project. Not a job application.

Languages

  • English (Fluent - C2)
  • German (Proficient - B2)
  • Urdu (Native)

Education

M.Sc. Information and Communication Systems

Chemnitz University of Technology

2014 - 2017

B.Sc. Telecommunication Engineering

National University, Pakistan

2004 - 2008

02.

Experience

Senior Field Application Engineer (Freelance)

WNC Corporation

Jan 2026 – present

Darmstadt, Germany

Integrates, deploys, and troubleshoots wireless and broadband solutions in multi-vendor environments across Western Europe. Customer-facing engineering interface for LAN/WLAN integration, root-cause analysis, and validation.

Expert Product Owner

Open Telekom Cloud / T-Systems

2022 — 2025

Darmstadt, Germany

Led product ownership for Open Telekom Cloud, defining and prioritizing compute services product backlog.

  • Launched GPU-based compute capabilities enabling AI workloads with NVIDIA integration
  • Drove platform evolution using OpenStack and Kubernetes
  • Collaborated with stakeholders to improve cloud offerings
  • Leveraged data-driven insights for product strategy
SAFeProduct DiscoveryOpenStackKubernetesAI Workloads

2019 — 2022

Darmstadt, Germany

Managed cloud infrastructure and automated provisioning for enterprise-scale deployments.

  • Automated provisioning using GitLab CI/CD
  • Strengthened security ensuring GDPR compliance
  • Managed 1000+ servers infrastructure running OpenStack
  • Coordinated incident resolution with cloud-native tools
OpenStackCI/CDGDPRCloud SecurityAutomation

DevOps Engineer

t3.it GmbH

2017 — 2019

Wiesbaden, Germany

Designed and implemented cloud-native infrastructure and automation solutions.

  • Reduced deployment times using Docker and Kubernetes
  • Designed monitoring with Grafana and Prometheus
  • Infrastructure automation using Terraform and Ansible
DockerKubernetesTerraformAnsibleGrafana

2016 — 2017

Germany

Telecommunications network support and operations.

03.

Public work

Things you can open. No Coming Soon.

Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) explained

MLO, 320 MHz, what actually changes.

Radio/MAC explainer, not an operator CPE guide.

Wi-Fi 7802.11beMedium

K3s + Argo CD on Raspberry Pi

Production GitOps on Raspberry Pi with k3s and Argo CD.

Cloud-native proof, not broadband proof.

k3sArgo CDGitOps

Terraform + IONOS Kubernetes

Terraform and GitHub Actions for IONOS Kubernetes, plus a related app repo.

Cloud/platform proof, not broadband proof.

TerraformIONOSKubernetes
04.

Skills

Cloud-native infrastructure

  • OpenStack
  • Kubernetes
  • Terraform
  • GitOps (Argo CD)

Automation / DevOps

  • Ansible
  • CI/CD
  • GitHub Actions

Telecom grounding

  • Telecommunication engineering degree
  • Nokia (work student)
  • Wi-Fi 7 writing

Product + customer engineering

  • Product ownership on a public cloud compute platform

Languages

  • English C2
  • German B2
  • Urdu native

Certifications

  • SAFe 6 PO/PM (2023)
  • PMP ATP bootcamp (2024)
  • OTC Architect (2021)
  • Security Champion Advanced (2021)
  • OpenStack implementation (2020)
05.

Discuss a project

If you have a broadband, cloud-native, or automation problem worth a conversation, pick a time. Independent consulting and contract work. Remote and on-site.

Pick a time

Book a 30-minute conversation directly.

Pick a time

Available for remote and on-site projects