Sina Ghazi

Profile

Twenty years across banking, payments, and AI, mostly in systems where getting it wrong is expensive. I learned to build in Iran, where half your energy goes into working around obstacles. Then nine years in Dubai, two in Tbilisi, and now a practice in Finland, where that energy goes into the work itself. Every move taught me the same craft from a new angle: understanding difference, and building what depends on it.

Experience

1. 2019–now

   Founder & Principal Architect

   Innovategy Oy

   Independent architecture practice for founders across Finland, the US, and Europe. Builder of työ.

2. 2022–2026

   Board Member, Director of Finance

   PMI Finland Chapter

   Kept the chapter's finances in order and mentored project managers on technology and agile practice.

3. 2016–2018

   Chief Information Officer

   NICI Brokerage

   Owned the architecture and delivery of Boursam, a regulated online stock-brokerage platform.

4. 2015–2016

   Manager, Customer-Centric Solutions

   DOTIN (FANAP Holding)

   Led an API banking platform and customer-data analytics for credit scoring, loyalty, and KYC across nine financial institutions.

5. 2012–2014

   Founder & Technical Director

   Independent software studio, Tbilisi

   Built a studio from scratch in Georgia: engineers, designers, app developers, UX and DevOps. More than fifty bespoke web and app projects delivered.

6. 2010–2012

   IT Architect & Project Manager, independent

   Contract work across the UAE, Iraq, and Qatar

   Advised the Trade Bank of Iraq's CIO on IT projects and procurement under ISO 38500, and architected a Java payment-reconciliation solution for Visa member-bank flows.

7. 2008–2010

   Senior Solution Architect & Project Manager

   Jacquard Systems FZ-LLC, Dubai

   Temenos T24 core banking in Baghdad, and a match-on-card biometric payment reference: AFIS, EMV chip cards, custom ATMs, EFT switch. A team of ten nationalities.

8. 1998–2007

   Earlier roles: Tehran, then Dubai

   Tarbiat Modares University, Afranet, Arian Ava, Vira Universal, Sharif University courses, enigmatis

   Network administration, programming, then web architecture and business analysis in Tehran. From 2003, taught C, Java, and web technologies to more than 120 students at Sharif University courses. Moved to Dubai in 2004 as team leader at enigmatis, delivering the full ICT architecture for a Swiss private bank and a SaaS platform for DIMOCO in Vienna.

Domains

• Banking
• Payments (EMV, EFT)
• Brokerage
• Identity & KYC
• Agentic AI

Selected engagements

• työ · AI communication hub that gathers messages, drafts a framed reply, and keeps a human in the loop.
• TELOS · AI-native platform for structured synthesis, decision support, and report generation.
• referensipalvelu.fi · B2B verification and reference-intelligence platform.
• Brontie.ie · End-to-end design and delivery of a customer-facing digital payment platform.
• Boursam · Production-grade online stock brokerage with deterministic transaction flows and strong auditability.
• 3S Swiss Solar Solutions · PMO and IT set-up, plus delivery of transformation and growth programs.

Products & frameworks

• työ · An AI communication hub for teams. Built in Finland.
• Sina's Model of Layered Communication (SMLC) · Maps a person, a business, and a society on three shared dimensions; explorable on this site as the SMLC Cube.
• Agentic Development course · An eight-module interactive course on directing and reviewing coding agents, with certification. In English and Finnish.

Education

I spent my school years in three countries: Iran, then Romania, then the United States. I learned BASIC and MS-DOS in Bucharest and started building web pages in the US. When we returned to Iran in 1996 I was sixteen, and school had nothing left to teach me that I wanted. I left and went to work, and I have been self-taught since, on a curriculum of my own.

In 2007 the University of Wales admitted me to its MSc programme in Advanced IT & Business Management. I completed the coursework and chose to leave: my own exploration was teaching me faster. I still think the academic world needs to rethink and evolve.

Certifications & continuous learning

Self-taught does not mean unexamined. A selection, most recent first; currently preparing for the Anthropic Certified Architect.

• 2026Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics · Anthropic (ID fznvsi32je5f)
• 2026Claude Code in Action · Anthropic (ID uzecao8uctwb)
• 2026Building with the Claude API · Anthropic (ID dgvr55px8y2z)
• 2024Talking to AI: Prompt Engineering for Project Managers
• 2024Data Landscape of GenAI for Project Managers
• 2022Remote Team Management · GitLab
• 2021Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)
• 2021AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
• 2020–2021Service Design · University of Vaasa, Finland
• 2020Innovation Management · Erasmus University Rotterdam
• 2020API Economy · University of Tampere, Finland
• 2020Blockchain for Business · Aalto University
• 2018Certified Hyperledger Blockchain
• 2016Certified Disciplined Agilist (CDA)
• 2009 · 2012Project Management Professional (PMP)
• 2009Sun Solution Architect (sizing, storage, virtualization)
• 2008ITIL V3

Track record

32

client engagements as an independent architect

100%

job success score

Expert-Vetted

on Upwork