ANDREW KOROLEV
Staff Engineer / Principal Architect
Experienced Staff Engineer & Backend Architect with 18 years of hands-on experience.
Specializing in high-load architecture, mission-critical fault-tolerant systems from scratch,
and rescuing complex monoliths. Core expertise: FinTech (crypto-processing, Web3),
E-commerce (catalogs with tens of millions of SKUs, PIM/MDM),
and integrating AI solutions (LLM) into real business processes.
Remote · B2B / Contract · Result-driven · Zero-Bullshit culture
Experience
Own Project (Sole Proprietor)
Sep 2024 — Present
Principal Engineer / Software Architect
B2B SaaS platform development (PIM/MDM, AI, ERP, Price Aggregator). Solo founder & architect after a successful exit from a previous startup. Acting as an independent Fractional Architect for B2B clients.
- Headless E-commerce & Multi-tenant Architecture: Designed a universal core and white-label storefront system — launching a fully new online store from scratch in minimal time.
- Deep AI Integration (LLM): Automated content & operational workflows — AI assistants autonomously heal product cards, generate descriptions, build catalog trees, and distribute products from different suppliers. Onboard supplier catalogs per contract with automated markup rules, handle AI-driven product returns with expert analysis, generate legal documents, and communicate with suppliers on stock availability — automatically sourcing replacements from alternative suppliers upon rejection.
- Data Processing Engine: Built a price parsing, aggregation, and contract processing engine. Implemented custom PIM & MDM systems for full product lifecycle management.
- Private R&D Cluster (Proxmox VE): Managing a bare-metal cluster for architectural prototyping, AI/LLM deployment, and highload testing. Full Infrastructure-as-Code approach (Terraform/Ansible) for dynamic KVM/LXC provisioning.
- Career Sniper (AI Job Radar): Automated job discovery & intelligent vacancy analysis system. Semantic pre-filtering eliminates 60% of noise before LLM evaluation. TLS-impersonation (curl_cffi) to bypass WAF/Anti-bot. Semaphore-based parallel analysis reduced Time-to-Insights by 90%.
- Work Format: Individual Contributor & Fractional Architect (sole proprietorship). Result-driven, async communication, Zero-Bullshit culture — no micromanagement, no unnecessary meetings. Workflow: business objective → architecture ownership → solution design → core code / infrastructure → delegate routine → Code Review → ship product.
Stack: Go, PHP, Python, AI Integrations (LLM, RAG), PIM, MDM, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Docker, Proxmox VE, Terraform, Ansible
MoneyChange
Sep 2018 — Nov 2024 · 6 yr 3 mo
Tech Lead / Architect (Go, PHP)
FinTech startup — international crypto transfers & B2B exchanges. Key engineer from day one. Designed and built the entire technical foundation of a platform that processed $20M+ in Bitcoin volume with high margins.
- Core Architecture: Designed a fault-tolerant FinTech platform core (cross-exchange arbitrage). Single-handedly deployed and maintained a cluster of crypto nodes (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero…) on Docker Swarm.
- B2B Integrations: Built technical integrations with 7 partner exchanges. Coordinated external IT teams, platform served 50+ operators.
- Stack Migration: Initiated successful migration of critical financial modules to Go + PostgreSQL for order-of-magnitude throughput scaling.
- DevSecOps: Built a robust security perimeter for high-risk assets — repelled dozens of hacking attempts and social engineering attacks.
Stack: Go, PHP, PostgreSQL, Docker Swarm, RabbitMQ, Web3, React
Automix
Jan 2014 — Jun 2021 · 7 yr 6 mo
Lead PHP Developer / Architect (from 2018 — Technical Consultant)
Major e-commerce auto parts aggregator. The system I built from scratch became the key technology asset that contributed to a successful company sale (M&A deal).
- High-load Architecture: Designed and led development of a platform processing a catalog of 40M+ SKUs from 150+ suppliers with 3× daily update cycles.
- Database Optimization: Accelerated MariaDB performance through schema redesign. Implemented RabbitMQ for async queue processing under peak high-load.
- Technical Consulting (2018–2021): After company acquisition, served as technical consultant to the buyer's IT department — ensuring business continuity and knowledge transfer through the transition.
Stack: PHP, Yii2, MariaDB, RabbitMQ, Redis, Sphinx, Docker Swarm
TorSystems
Jan 2014 — Sep 2014 · 9 mo
Web Developer
Server-side MMO game development & RESTful API. Database design, microservices, async game event processing.
Stack: PHP, Yii2, MariaDB, RabbitMQ, Docker
OOO Sirius
Oct 2011 — Dec 2013 · 2 yr 3 mo
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack web app development, business logic, payment system integrations.
Stack: PHP, MySQL, MongoDB, Symfony
VIANOR Tire Center
Mar 2010 — May 2011 · 1 yr 3 mo
PHP Developer
E-commerce: product catalog, shopping cart, customer portal, and info kiosk software.
Stack: PHP, MySQL
Key Competencies
Go / Golang
PHP / Yii2
PostgreSQL / MariaDB
Docker / Swarm / K8s
System Architecture
Linux / Infrastructure
Web3 / Blockchain
AI / LLM Integration
RabbitMQ / Messaging
CI/CD Pipelines
Proxmox / Virtualization
Terraform / Ansible
JavaScript
Python
Corporate Meetings
Work-Life Balance
Education
2007
Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU)
Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering
2007
Lingua Language Center
Translator in the field of professional communication
$ system-check --target=candidate --verbose
[ OK ] System Analysis: COMPLETED
[ OK ] Skill Verification: PASSED
[ OK ] Culture Fit: ZERO_BULLSHIT_COMPATIBLE
[ OK ] Availability: READY