Umar J.

Senior Python developer with 8+ years building backends in Django, Django REST Framework (DRF) and FastAPI, and adding AI to real products: LLM APIs (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini), AI agents and RAG pipelines. $200K+ earned across 73 projects. Upwork Expert-Vetted (top 1% of talent). I build Python backends that hold up in production, and I add AI to them without making them fragile. Most clients come to me with one of three things: an AI feature to add to an existing product, an AI prototype that needs to become a reliable product, or a Django or FastAPI backend to build or fix. AI integration: - Adding LLM features to existing Python, Django and FastAPI apps with the OpenAI, Claude and Gemini APIs - AI agents and agent workflows that call tools and APIs, with retries, fallbacks and logging so you can see what the model did and why - RAG pipelines: document ingestion, embeddings, retrieval and answer quality tuning - LLM chatbots and voice agents, including live call automation - Token limits, retry logic, cost control and observability, so AI features don't break or overspend under real traffic As Senior Python AI Engineer at Legal Utopia, I built AI-powered lawyer matching and document automation on a Django backend, with DocuSign and Companies House integrations. Python and Django development: - Python backends in Django, Django REST Framework (DRF), FastAPI and Flask - Django REST APIs, admin, authentication and permissions - Fixing slow, buggy or hard-to-maintain Django codebases - PostgreSQL schema design and query optimization - Celery and Redis for background jobs, queues and caching, Docker for deployment FastAPI development: - Async REST APIs in FastAPI - Backends and services for AI products, including streaming responses - Clean API design, request validation and auto-generated API docs How I work: - I tell you upfront if something takes 3 weeks instead of 1 - I build for what happens when the happy path breaks, not just the demo - Clear updates, and code your team can maintain after I'm done Have an AI integration to add to your product, or a Django or FastAPI backend to build? Send me a message and tell me what you're building.