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// Solution Architecture · Applied AI · IoT

AI prototypes, shipped into messy, high-stakes organisations.

I'm Huzi Patel. A solution architect and applied-AI practitioner working at the point where ambitious prototypes meet real procurement, real governance, and real users. Currently IoT tech lead at Westminster City Council. Available for selected advisory and delivery engagements.

See the work How I can help
£2–4m
annual rateable value uncovered
£200k+
saved via IoT estate recovery
150k+
meters in winning Smart City RFP
6 yrs
solution architecture
§ Previously, & currently
  • WestminsterCity Council
  • Connexin
  • Remote Sense
  • BannerChemicals
  • ImperialCollege London
// Selected work

Case studies

01 2024 — Present

VLM-driven rateable value discovery

Westminster City Council

£2–4m / year in missed business rates, surfaced by a vision-language model over Google Street View.

Vision-Language ModelsProductRevenueSelf-initiated
02 2024 — Present

Bin-truck computer vision platform

Westminster City Council

A cross-council computer-vision platform for waste operations, built on the back of cross-functional buy-in.

Computer VisionPlatformCross-council
03 2024 — 2025

LoRaWAN estate recovery

Westminster City Council

£200k+ in commercial recovery by breaking supplier lock-in on the housing LoRaWAN gateway estate.

IoTCommercialProcurement
04 2024 — Present

Connected London / OpenRoaming public WiFi

Westminster City Council — Mayor's Office initiative

Technical architecture lead for a Mayor-of-London-backed city-wide public WiFi programme.

ArchitectureNetworkingPublic sector
05 2021 — 2022

Smart City water-meter rollout

Connexin

End-to-end Smart City architecture that supported a winning RFP for a 150,000+ LoRaWAN water-meter rollout.

Smart CityLoRaWANEdge AI
06 2020

Serverless oil-condition monitoring for mining

Remote Sense

Real-time, serverless oil-condition monitoring for a multinational miner across African sites.

ServerlessIndustrial IoTReal-time
// Services

Four ways we tend to work together.

Engagements are kept deliberately small — one lead practitioner, no account layer. Most work is fixed-scope: a prototype, a review, a target architecture. Longer advisory retainers for programmes that need a steady technical voice over quarters.

— 01 —

Applied AI prototypes

Zero-to-one prototypes that de-risk an AI product before you commit a team to it. I design, build and demo the thing — and shape the business case around it.

VLMsLLM pipelinesEvaluation
— 02 —

Solution architecture

End-to-end architecture for IoT, data and AI systems. C4 diagrams, threat modelling, supplier selection, governance — the full stack a serious programme needs.

C4Threat modellingTDF / ARB
— 03 —

IoT & smart city delivery

Device-to-cloud design for LoRaWAN / 5G / Edge AI programmes. I have lived inside RFPs for water, waste and public realm — I know what makes them land.

LoRaWANEdge AISmart City
— 04 —

Technical advisory

Fractional architect / tech lead on retainer. Second opinion on a programme in trouble, a review of your AI roadmap, or a credible voice in a supplier negotiation.

AdvisoryReviewsSupplier strategy
// How I work

A short, honest method.

01

Understand the actual problem

Discovery with the people doing the work, not the people writing the brief. The business case is usually hiding somewhere else.

02

Prototype before promising

A rough, working prototype resolves ten arguments cheaper than a steering committee. I build early, demo often.

03

Architect for the second user

Design for the team that will inherit the system, not the one that built it. Governance, documentation, and a honest view of risk.

04

Ship, measure, hand over

An AI prototype that never reaches production is an expensive demo. I stay in long enough that the thing survives me.

// Said about the work

Words from the people who've shipped it with me.

Huzi walked in with a prototype, a business case and a working relationship with the team that needed it. We'd been trying to get that initiative off the ground for two years.
Service lead
UK local authority
He's the rare architect who's as comfortable in front of a CTO as he is pair-programming on a Friday. That's what made the LoRaWAN recovery actually land.
Programme director
Public-sector technology
On a 150,000-meter RFP you need a solution architect who can hold the full stack in their head. Huzi could — and the response showed it.
Commercial lead
Smart City infrastructure

// quotes are representative and anonymised; named references on request

// Experience

Where I've worked

  1. Jan 2024 — Present
    London, UK
    Solution Architect / IoT Tech Lead
    Westminster City Council
    • ▹ Conceived and delivered a self-directed revenue initiative — vision-language model + Google Street View — that uncovered £2–4m of additional annual rateable value. Now being commercialised to other UK councils.
    • ▹ Recovered the housing LoRaWAN gateway estate from supplier lock-in; saved £200k+ in commercial costs ahead of re-tender.
    • ▹ Orchestrated a cross-council computer vision platform (bin truck vision) via high-level design and cross-functional championing.
    • ▹ Pioneered a prototype-driven product development process with service teams.
    • ▹ Spearheaded the organisation's IoT Maturity Model, reducing vendor lock-in and improving rationalisation.
    • ▹ Led technical architecture for Connected London / OpenRoaming public WiFi (Mayor's Office initiative).
    • ▹ Stepped in as data engineer during a short-staffed stretch — Python + Kubernetes cron jobs on Azure ingesting third-party time-series APIs into InfluxDB — preventing a 3-month roadmap slip.
  2. Feb 2023 — Jan 2024
    Runcorn, UK
    Account Manager
    Banner Chemicals
    • ▹ Managed a 35-account manufacturing and aerospace territory; surpassed targets by securing agreements with mid-market and large multinationals through precision-cleaning process optimisation.
  3. Feb 2021 — Jul 2022
    Hull, UK
    IoT Solutions Architect
    Connexin
    • ▹ Architected end-to-end Smart City solutions from IoT sensors and Edge AI to LoRaWAN / 5G and enterprise apps; supported a winning RFP for 150,000+ water meters.
    • ▹ Overhauled Smart Waste platform strategy to resolve critical client disputes; pivoted accounts to collaborative relationships (~28% performance improvement).
  4. May 2020 — Dec 2020
    London, UK
    Solutions Architect
    Remote Sense
    • ▹ Partnered with a global systems integrator to architect and deliver a real-time, serverless oil-condition monitoring platform for a multinational miner across African sites.
  5. Feb 2018 — Apr 2019
    London, UK
    Engagement Manager
    Imperial Consulting Group
    • ▹ Delivered three strategy consulting projects for London and Cambridge startups as associate, project manager and engagement manager — primarily market sizing to support investor decks.
// About

Background.

MEng Chemical with Nuclear Engineering, Imperial College London (2:1, 66%). McNab Lacey Prize — 1st place out of all UK universities for designing an innovative process converting waste wood into jet fuel.

A-Levels: Mathematics (A*), Chemistry (A*), Biology (A*), Physics (A) — Canon Slade Sixth Form, Bolton.

Languages: English (native), Gujarati (fluent), Hindi (fluent).

// Toolkit

What I work with.

Architecture
Solution ArchitectureEnterprise ArchitectureTDF / ARBC4 ModelThreat ModellingSupplier Selection
Cloud & Infra
AWS (SAA, 2022)AzureGCPKubernetesDockerIaCFinOpsLoRaWAN
Data & AI
PythonClaudeOpenAIHermesADFSnowflakeInfluxDBGrafanaPower BI
§ Roles & studies
  • Westminster
    City Council
    Solution Architect · IoT Tech Lead
  • Connexin
    IoT Solutions Architect
  • Remote Sense
    Solutions Architect
  • Banner
    Chemicals
    Account Manager
  • Imperial
    College London
    MEng, Chemical Engineering
// Let's talk

Got a prototype that needs to become a product?

Applied AI, IoT platforms, public-sector delivery, or getting a messy AI prototype across the line to production. Advisory, fractional, or fixed-scope — happy to chat.

huzaifa@live.co.uk LinkedIn →