Zak Pacha

About

Zak Pacha

London, UK · Available for new roles

Zak Pacha

I'm a software engineer based in London. My full name is Zakaria Hamdi-Pacha, but everyone calls me Zak. I've spent over seven years building backends, full-stack applications and AI tooling.

I'm currently Lead Programmer at VStars, working mostly full-stack on XR and VR applications. Across the role I've worked on servers, databases and REST APIs, and on full-stack apps for Android, iOS and Meta Quest VR, with releases to Google Play, the App Store, Oculus App Lab and the Meta Quest Store.

I use AI daily in how I build software, and integrate it into the products I work on — from AI-assisted development set-ups and MCP servers through to calling language models directly from application code.

What I work with

AI & LLM

  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • ChatGPT Codex
  • MCP servers
  • Agent skills
  • Tool calling

Languages

  • C#
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • C++
  • PHP
  • SQL
  • Objective-C

Backend & data

  • REST APIs
  • Laravel
  • MySQL
  • Firebase
  • AWS EC2

XR & mobile

  • Unity
  • Meta Quest
  • Android Studio
  • Xcode
  • .NET

Tools

  • Git & GitHub
  • Plastic SCM
  • Visual Studio
  • IntelliJ IDEA
  • CLion
  • PhpStorm

Experience

  1. Aug 2019 – Present

    Lead Programmer · VStars Ltd, London

    Currently working mostly full-stack on XR and VR applications. Across the role: servers, databases and REST APIs on Amazon EC2, PHP, MySQL and Firebase, plus full-stack apps for Android, iOS and Meta Quest VR in C#, Java and Objective-C. Releases to Google Play, the App Store, Oculus App Lab and the Meta Quest Store, with GitHub pull requests and Plastic SCM day to day.

  2. Jan 2019 – Aug 2019

    Junior Programmer · VStars Ltd, London

    Databases and REST APIs in PHP and MySQL, and full-stack Android and iOS apps.

  3. 2016 – 2017

    Director & Software Developer · PixelTechCreative Ltd

    Founded a studio during my university placement year and published mobile apps on Google Play.

Education

  1. 2014 – 2018

    BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming, 2:1 · Staffordshire University

    Modules included artificial intelligence, low-level C++ and Java.

Elsewhere

Have a look at what I've built, or get in touch.