Virtualization and recovery
Proxmox VE on bare metal, with twelve isolated VMs and automated nightly backups.
Muhammad Nabeel Yousafzai
Infrastructure Engineer
Infrastructure that survives failures.
Director of IT at Austin Distributions LLC — bare-metal Proxmox, segmented networking and DevOps for 200+ users, leading six developers who ship the apps on top.
Stack highlights: Proxmox, Docker, Laravel, Linux, Vue, MySQL, GitHub Actions, Nginx.
0
developers
0
users
0
uptime
0
VMs
01 — Infrastructure
Bare-metal virtualization, built to survive failures.
Servers fail. Disks die. Networks get misconfigured at 2 a.m. I design infrastructure on the assumption that something will break, so the business can recover quickly when it does.
0
host
0
VMs
02:00
nightly backup
0
uptime
At Austin Distributions I run Proxmox VE on bare metal, hosting twelve virtual machines for the company's CRM, communications and internal applications. Isolating each workload in its own VM keeps changes, faults and restores contained.
Every night at 2 a.m., automatic backups run across the environment, so any workload can be restored to a known-good state. Production has held 99.9% uptime since go-live about 1.5 years ago.
Around it sits a network built on purpose: NAT, VLAN segmentation, routing and firewalls, so internal systems are separated, exposed only where they need to be, and understood by the people who run them.
Work
Selected work
Infrastructure first, then the production applications built and operated on top of it — telephony, CRM and education delivery.
Proxmox bare-metal consolidation
Approach
Deployed Proxmox VE on bare metal, moved the CRM and business apps onto one high-performance host running twelve VMs, automated nightly backups at 2 a.m., and built the network around VLAN segmentation, NAT, routing and firewalls.
Why it matters
One platform to secure, monitor and restore, running at 99.9% uptime since go-live about 1.5 years ago.
Enterprise VoIP platform
Context
Sales teams running multiple calling campaigns need telephony that is reliable and tied to the customer record.
Approach
I built the platform on Asterisk with PJSIP and integrated it with the CRM, so calls and lead data live in one workflow. It handles more than 1,000 calls a day across campaigns.
Why it matters
Agents work from one system, and operations can reason about call infrastructure as a single service rather than separate tools.
Real estate CRM
Context
A sales organisation with thousands of property records and more than 50 agents needed lead management in one place.
Approach
I architected the CRM to centralise leads, integrate Zillow, automate qualification, and bring voice, SMS, email and AI assistance into a single set of workflows.
Why it matters
Fewer manual hand-offs between channels, and a consistent record of every conversation.
Learning management system
Context
Online education delivery that has to scale and keep its email dependable.
Approach
I extended Moodle with custom PHP services and REST APIs, and set up the supporting mail stack with Mailcow, Dovecot and Postfix.
Why it matters
The platform fits the institution's workflow, and the mail infrastructure is under its own control.
Career
Experience
Infrastructure engineering and IT leadership — from networking and virtualization to directing enterprise systems at Austin Distributions.
Jan 2026 — present · Full-time · Remote
Director of Information Technology
Austin Distributions LLC · Florida, United States
- Lead IT strategy and enterprise architecture across CRM, communications and internal platforms.
- Run Proxmox VE on bare metal with twelve production VMs, nightly backups at 02:00, and 99.9% uptime since go-live.
- Built secure internal networking with NAT, VLAN segmentation, routing and firewalls.
- Own monitoring, hardening and disaster recovery for virtualized workloads.
- Ship Laravel and Vue workloads with Docker and CI/CD via GitHub Actions; monitor and tune MySQL at scale.
Mar 2025 — Dec 2025 · Full-time · Remote
Senior Web Developer
Home Offer Today · Florida, United States
- Built a full-scale real estate CRM for leads, property workflows and sales operations.
- Connected Zillow for listings, valuations and market-driven qualification.
- Delivered Asterisk VoIP, PJSIP softphone, SMS and chat in one agent workflow.
- Added AI assistance for lead responses and cold-call training; ran bare-metal infra and Mailcow email.
Sep 2024 — Feb 2025 · Contract · Remote
Senior Web Developer
Mulhim Platform · Islamabad, Pakistan
- Designed and developed a full-featured LMS for courses, users and assessments.
- Extended Moodle with PHP/MySQL services and REST APIs for modular scale.
- Deployed Mailcow and Dovecot; added automation, monitoring and backups for uptime.
Apr 2024 — Aug 2024 · Contract · Remote
Web Developer
FEX Callers · Islamabad, Pakistan
- Led Vicidial development and dialplan work for multi-client call routing.
- Hardened Linux telephony servers and built routing, user and reporting backends.
Feb 2024 — Mar 2024 · Full-time · On-site
Software Engineer Intern
Corporate Research and Investigations · Islamabad, Pakistan
- Built an HR Management Portal in PHP and MySQL to centralise employee data.
- Contributed full-stack work on internal tools alongside senior engineers.
Jan 2024 · Contract · Remote
Web Developer
Call Craft Solutions · Rawalpindi, Pakistan
- Designed a Call Center Management System with attendance, payroll and performance modules.
- Shipped real-time dashboards for agent and call metrics.
Dec 2023 · Freelance · Remote
Web Developer
Kundan Tour & Travels · Islamabad, Pakistan
- Delivered a responsive travel site with packages, contact and booking flows.
Mar 2023 — Nov 2023 · Part-time · On-site
Web Development Intern
University of Haripur · Haripur, Pakistan
- Built an Affiliated College Management System with the university IT team.
- Extended the university portal with exam management and student-record automation.
Jan 2022 — Feb 2023 · Full-time · On-site
Web Developer
Meta Voice · Rawalpindi, Pakistan
- Built a Call Center Management System and Laravel/PHP/MySQL backends.
- Designed and managed network infrastructure, including Cisco-based connectivity for operations.
Skills
Capabilities
Infrastructure and networking first; software and automation close behind.
Infrastructure and networking
Proxmox VE on bare metal, Linux, Docker and AWS. VLANs, NAT, routing, VPN, firewalls and zero-trust networking. SELinux, Cloudflare, Nginx and Apache. CI/CD with GitHub Actions and DevOps practices that keep production recoverable.
IT leadership and operations
Owning infrastructure and delivery, leading engineers, planning for reliability, and treating security and operational risk as everyday concerns.
Software engineering
Laravel, Vue, PHP and JavaScript on MySQL, PostgreSQL and Redis. CRM and business applications, API integrations and enterprise workflows.
Telephony
Asterisk, PJSIP and Vicidial, connected to CRM workflows.
Automation and agentic AI
Python scripting, repeatable operational workflows, and AI-assisted tools connected to business systems. See the next section for how I frame this.
Automation
Automation and agentic AI
An impressive demo and a dependable workflow are different things. I aim for the second.
My practice is to automate repetitive administrative and engineering work with Python and scripts, connect business systems through their APIs, and explore AI agents that plan a task, use tools and coordinate several steps. I have worked on AI assistance inside a production CRM; I do not present myself as a machine-learning researcher.
In enterprise IT, an agent needs the same things any service does: clear scope, limited permissions, logging, and a person who can review what it did. Automation is worth building when it makes work more consistent and takes manual effort out of it, and when someone can explain it a year later.
Principles
How I approach technology
- Reliability comes before cleverness. Add complexity only when it pays for itself.
- Security and maintainability are requirements from the first design, not later fixes.
- Automate what is repeated and well understood. Write down what is not.
- Adopt AI with controls: defined scope, review, and a way to turn it off.
- Choose technology for the business problem in front of the team.
Profile
About
I am Muhammad Nabeel Yousafzai, an Infrastructure Engineer with more than five years across networking, virtualization, DevOps and full-stack development. As Director of Information Technology at Austin Distributions LLC, I set direction and own outcomes while staying close enough to the systems — Proxmox, VLANs, backups, Laravel and Vue — to judge the trade-offs myself.
I am studying for a BS in Computer Science at the University of Haripur, Pakistan (in progress).
Contact
Let's talk
If you are working on networking, virtualization, DevOps, infrastructure or Laravel/Vue engineering, I would like to hear about it.