online · available for conversations
a Network & Systems Virtuoso
Keeping mission-critical systems online, and finding out exactly why when they aren't.
01 / about
I'm an IT systems and network engineer with more than fourteen years spent designing, deploying, integrating and supporting enterprise infrastructure: networks and security, Windows and Linux platforms, Active Directory, virtualization, cloud, storage, databases, high availability, monitoring and automation.
With Rapiscan Systems I deliver international deployments of RTT X-ray screening systems, integrating them with the enterprise networks, servers, security, databases and virtualization platforms they depend on. These are airports, cargo hubs and government sites, where availability, security and operational continuity are not negotiable.
The road here started in desktop and network support on a campus in Colombo in 2011. It ran through Doha to more than thirty international projects on four continents. Each step was bigger than the one before, and each was paid for in long hours of work and study, most recently an MSc in Cyber Security, completed with Merit in 2026.
Alongside the infrastructure work I build diagnostic, monitoring and automation tools. I'm at my best on problems that don't come with convenient documentation.
name: Sarooj Zawahir role: Network & IT Systems Engineer company: Rapiscan Systems experience: 14+ years projects: 30+ international continents: 4 domains: - routing & switching - network security & firewalls - windows & linux systems - active directory & identity - virtualization & high availability - databases & storage - monitoring & observability - automation & tooling - rtt110 x-ray scanners - airport security screening certifications: [CCNP, CCNA, Fortinet NSA] education: - MSc, Cyber Security - BSc (Hons), Computer Systems & Networking - BSc, Computer System & Networking Engineering status: building the next thing
02 / experience
Rapiscan Systems · an OSI Systems company
Architect and support mission-critical IT infrastructure for global airport security screening deployments, integrating enterprise L2/L3 networking, security, Active Directory, DNS, virtualization, storage, databases, Linux/Windows platforms and Rapiscan RTT/BPI X-ray screening systems. Lead complex troubleshooting, root cause analysis, system integration, commissioning, infrastructure upgrades and operational handover across international deployments. Design high-availability environments with VMware and everRun, implement monitoring and observability with Nagios, Nozomi and Splunk, and administer MFA, endpoint security, WSUS and Ansible-based configuration management. Develop in-house AI-assisted and automation tools for X-ray image analysis, log intelligence, network monitoring and hardware telemetry, working with engineering, development and product teams to validate releases and deliver production-safe solutions.
AFG College with the University of Aberdeen
Managed and engineered the end-to-end campus IT infrastructure, including Cisco, Aruba and Meraki networking, Fortinet, Sophos and SonicWall security, VPNs, VoIP, Windows/Linux services, Active Directory, virtualization, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, SAN/NAS storage and enterprise backup platforms. Designed and implemented resilient services spanning identity, networking, security, cloud, data protection and application hosting. Led data-centre operations, cybersecurity initiatives, infrastructure governance, asset management, vendor coordination and technology projects, while providing technical leadership and mentoring to the IT team.
Arabian MEP Contracting
Administered multi-site enterprise infrastructure supporting 600+ users, covering Windows Server, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, MDT, TFTP, file and print services, backup, endpoint security and Cisco networking. Implemented and supported VPNs, firewalls, wireless infrastructure, IP PBX platforms, CCTV and access control across distributed offices. Led infrastructure troubleshooting, server and network maintenance, business continuity, ERP support and technology deployments, coordinating with vendors and internal stakeholders.
Coastal Qatar
Provided day-to-day IT administration and technical support for end users, workstations, network connectivity, hardware and software. Handled system configuration, troubleshooting, maintenance and routine infrastructure operations while maintaining IT assets.
The Great Lake Holdings (Pvt) Ltd
Supported Cisco-based network infrastructure through hands-on configuration, troubleshooting, monitoring and maintenance, while delivering CCNA/CCENT training in the classroom and in practical networking labs, building strong foundations in routing, switching and enterprise network operations.
IBS Campus (Private) Limited
Managed day-to-day network and systems operations across Windows and Linux environments, with desktop, hardware, software and peripheral support. Workstation deployment, hardware assembly, network troubleshooting and infrastructure maintenance kept IT services reliable for users and campus operations.
03 / international projects
Airports, cargo hubs, government and critical facilities. Below is a selection of the sites I've delivered or supported: infrastructure, integration, commissioning and the support that keeps them running.
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Swipe or use the arrows. Plus more airport, cargo and government sites around the world: 30+ in total.
04 / skills
05 / tools & builds
Every tool here began with a real problem in the field and no existing solution, so I built one. Each serves a different purpose: log intelligence, watching many remote systems at once, catching anomalies on X-ray machines, replaying images remotely, tracing packet loss and trending optical power across a network. Built with AI-assisted development, they take on work that used to need hours or days of an engineer's attention, and every one of them is deployed and in daily use in live operational environments.
06 / approach
Most failures don't announce their cause, but they leave evidence: in event logs, syslog, application and database logs, firewall sessions and switch counters. Across servers, operating systems, networks, security, applications and databases, my job is to read that evidence faster and more carefully than the problem can hide.
What exactly fails, for whom, since when, and what changed? A sharp symptom and a timeline rule out half the possibilities before a single system is touched.
Windows event logs, Linux syslog and journald, application, SQL, firewall and switch logs, correlated on one timeline. The cause usually lives in a different system from the symptom.
Interface errors, VLANs and routing, DNS and authentication, OS resources and services, then the application and its database. Each layer is proven healthy or guilty, never assumed.
Test a single theory at a time, change one thing, then measure again. A fix that can't be explained is a fix that comes back.
Reproduce it, or show the evidence that ties cause to effect. "It works after a reboot" is a workaround, not an answer.
Monitoring, alerting, a hardened configuration, or a tool that finds it in seconds next time. Then it gets documented, so the next engineer starts where I finished.
Critical systems don't keep office hours, so neither does the investigation. I stay with a problem until it's closed, and some of the most satisfying ones were issues others had accepted as "just how it behaves".
07 / education
Learning has never been a phase for me; it's the habit that holds everything else together. Each qualification here added a new layer to what I was already doing in the field, and each one sent me straight back to work with better questions. Technology moves faster than any syllabus, so I treat certificates as milestones rather than finish lines. Between them sit the release notes read late at night, the lab builds nobody asked for and the problems that sent me back to first principles. The day I stop learning is the day I stop being good at this, and I don't intend to find out what that feels like.
University of Gloucestershire
2026
University of Greenwich
2023
IIC University of Technology
2018
certifications
08 / recommendations
09 / off the clock
Travel is the one thing I make real room for outside of work. It's less a hobby than a reset. My days are spent inside systems that are supposed to behave predictably: logs, packets, configs. A new city is the opposite. Nothing is where I expect it, the language is a guess, the trains run on someone else's logic, and for a few days I get to work it all out from scratch.
I think that's the part that gets addictive: being a beginner again, on purpose. It's also how I keep things in proportion. Somewhere in a Roman piazza, or on a Taipei street at midnight, last week's outage shrinks back to its real size. I come home quieter and more curious, and usually already planning the next one.
The count is 28 countries so far. I care less about the number than about watching the map fill in.
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10 / beyond the work
“If you don't wake up in the morning excited to pick up where you left your work yesterday, you haven't found your calling yet.”
Mike Wallace
I came across those words while I was in a role that asked very little of me. It was secure and comfortable, and in one sentence I recognised exactly what was missing. I left. The years since have been more demanding and far more rewarding, and I have made it a habit to learn something new every day, so that each morning still carries the pull of unfinished work.
I did not begin with advantages, and I don't attribute what followed to luck; I have never found much evidence for it. What I have seen, consistently, is the help of God, the prayers of people who wanted good things for me, and the steady return on effort that most would consider excessive.
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.”
Calvin Coolidge
Behind every step there have been people. A mother whose faith in me arrived long before I had earned it, and whose prayers and sacrifices I am still coming to understand. She is no longer here to see where they led, yet with every milestone my first thought is still of her, and of how proud she would have been. A wife and children who have carried my absences, the late nights, the study weekends and the departures for yet another airport, with a grace I never take for granted. A father and a sister who held me up when there was little to show for the effort, and a brother who has stood beside me at every step, then and now. Managers and colleagues who extended their trust before it was fully earned. And many others, some whose names I will never know, who simply wished me well.
My own part has been simpler: I don't stop. Not at the first answer, not at the workaround, and not when a problem has already been written off. When the usual path is closed I look for another, I hold steady through the difficult seasons, and I try to end each day a little better than I began it.
Tomorrow, I will pick up where I left off today, and I am still looking forward to it.
11 / contact
A deployment that needs a steady pair of hands, a network that refuses to behave, an opportunity worth a conversation, or simply the best place to grab a coffee near an airport. I read every message that comes in, myself.
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