Valerii Smoliakov

Full-Stack Engineering Lead | Technical Lead | Senior Backend / Platform Engineer

Batumi, Georgia
Email: valery@smoliakoff.com
Website: smoliakoff.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/valery-smolyakov

Summary

I am a full-stack engineer and technical leader with 16+ years in software development and 5+ years in lead roles. My strongest commercial background is in backend engineering with PHP, Laravel, Symfony, and Java, designing APIs and integrations, high-volume data processing flows, platform engineering, and production systems that need to stay reliable under real business pressure. At the same time, I remain hands-on: I am comfortable making technical decisions, writing production code, debugging difficult issues, improving architecture, and helping teams move from ambiguity to a working release.

I do my best work where architecture, delivery, and practical engineering meet. I enjoy problems that require balancing engineering quality, delivery speed, and business reality instead of optimizing only one side. Over the years I have worked across e-commerce, SaaS, internal platforms, and integration-heavy products. I am comfortable working with both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, translating business needs into technical decisions, and keeping delivery moving in a calm, pragmatic way.

I also have a strong product mindset and enjoy end-to-end ownership. I like building systems as a whole: backend architecture, APIs, CI/CD, infrastructure, and frontend integration. In recent years I have actively used AI tools in my development workflow for research, drafting, faster iteration, and review support, while keeping final technical judgment and validation fully manual.

Core Skills

  • Technical leadership, team leadership, mentoring, onboarding, code review
  • Backend architecture, platform engineering, system design, delivery management
  • PHP, Laravel, Symfony, Zend Framework, Java, Spring, Go, Rust, Node.js, Python
  • REST API, GraphQL, integrations, distributed workflows, microservices
  • Vue.js, Nuxt.js, React, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, Nest.js
  • PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse, Elasticsearch, Redis
  • Docker, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Linux, Kubernetes, OpenShift
  • Zabbix, SonarQube, Prometheus, Grafana, Nginx, Traefik
  • Shopify, Shopware, Magento, BigCommerce
  • Stakeholder communication, estimation, planning, release coordination

Technology Stack

Backend: PHP, Laravel, Symfony, Zend Framework, Java, Spring, Go, Rust, Node.js, Nest.js, Python
Frontend: Vue.js, Nuxt.js, React, Next.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS
API & Integrations: REST, GraphQL, SSO, RBAC, platform integrations, microservices
Databases & Search: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, ClickHouse, Elasticsearch, Redis
DevOps / Infrastructure: Docker, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Linux, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Zabbix, SonarQube, Prometheus, Grafana, Nginx, Traefik
Domains: SaaS, e-commerce, internal platforms, data pipelines, merchant-facing products

Professional Experience

Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer — A-Players

May 2025 – Mar 2026 | Remote, Georgia

  • Delivered production functionality across Laravel backend and Vue.js / Nuxt.js frontend as part of a cross-functional product team.
  • Contributed to the architecture and rollout of a subscription billing engine, workflow-related backend logic, and internal integrations.
  • Worked with product and business stakeholders on clarification, estimation, trade-offs, and delivery planning.
  • Improved delivery confidence through code review, test reliability work, and CI/CD enhancements.
  • Helped stabilize legacy functionality and increase release predictability.

Team Lead / Full-Stack Architect — FireBear Studio

Oct 2020 – Feb 2025 | Remote, Georgia

  • Led a team of 4–6 engineers building a SaaS platform for Shopify, Shopware, and BigCommerce merchants.
  • Owned day-to-day technical delivery: planning, task decomposition, code review, release coordination, and engineering guidance.
  • Designed backend integrations and data transformation pipelines handling large-scale import and processing scenarios, including up to 500k records.
  • Worked closely with stakeholders on scope, trade-offs, risk management, and delivery expectations.
  • Mentored engineers, supported onboarding, and helped build a more predictable engineering process.
  • Stayed hands-on in both backend and frontend implementation whenever it improved delivery speed or quality.

Team Lead / Senior Full-Stack Developer — kt.team

Oct 2015 – Oct 2020 | Russia

  • Led delivery streams for enterprise projects involving distributed backend services, e-commerce platforms, and integration-heavy systems.
  • Worked on Java and Spring services, BPMN-driven processes, Keycloak SSO, jBPM, Camunda, and Red Hat Fuse / Apache Camel.
  • Participated in planning, estimation, architecture discussions, code review, release preparation, and cross-team coordination.
  • Contributed to Magento-related projects, enterprise integrations, and internal platform development.
  • Helped strengthen CI/CD practices, engineering discipline, and release stability.

Head of ACS Department / IT Infrastructure and Development Roles — Multiple Companies

2003 – 2015 | Russia

  • Worked not only as a system administrator and internal systems developer, but also as Head of the ACS Department.
  • Was responsible for server infrastructure, networks, internal tools, and business-critical services.
  • Designed and deployed a high-availability virtualization cluster on Proxmox and led the migration of legacy physical servers into a virtualized environment using OVZ and KVM.
  • This stage of my career gave me a strong foundation in reliability, infrastructure, operations, and the practical realities of production systems.

Open-Source Projects

Author — rload

2025 – Present

  • Author of rload, an open-source deterministic load testing engine written in Rust.
  • GitHub: github.com/smoliakoff/rload
  • A K6-like load testing engine / CLI with a deterministic execution model.
  • Key ideas: a tick-based scheduler that transforms workload stages (duration_sec + rps) into a stream of ticks.
  • Includes a VU runtime for executing journeys and steps, deterministic planning via seed for reproducible runs, and JSON Schema-based scenario validation.

Personal Projects

Founder / Engineer — MyBanks.ge

2025 – Present

  • Built and launched a production platform using Go, Rust, GraphQL, Nuxt, and PostgreSQL.
  • Took full ownership of architecture, backend, frontend integration, deployment, CI/CD, and overall delivery.
  • Implemented typed API integration, production infrastructure, and a Rust-based data collection pipeline.
  • The project reflects my interest in platform thinking, performance, maintainability, and building products end to end.

Additional Information

  • My strongest commercial depth is in PHP/Laravel/Symfony, Java, backend integrations, and hands-on delivery leadership.
  • I am comfortable operating both as a senior individual contributor and as a technical lead / engineering lead.
  • I have solid remote work experience with strong async communication, documentation habits, stakeholder alignment, and ownership.
  • My engineering style is pragmatic: no unnecessary complexity, but no careless shortcuts either.

Education & Certifications

  • Java Programming
  • PHP Programming
  • Programming with Google Go
  • Concurrency in Go
  • Learn TypeScript
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