Alex K. Team Lead / Tech Lead / Software Engineer / Blockchain Developer
Summary
- Team Lead / Tech Lead / Software Engineer / Blockchain Developer with 10 years of experience.
- Strong expertise in blockchain development, building decentralized applications (dApps) using Solidity and Rust for EVM and Solana networks.
- Proficient in frameworks like HardHat and Anchor.
- Develop, test, and deploy smart contracts, integrating wallets (e.g., Metamask) and working with DeFi protocols (Uniswap, Aave) and NFT standards (ERC-20, ERC-721).
- Has solid experience in backend development using Django, FastAPI, and SQLAlchemy for scalable APIs and microservices.
- Familiar with CI/CD automation (e.g., GitLab CI/CD, GitHub Actions) and cloud infrastructure on AWS (Lambda, EKS, RDS).
- Skilled in integrating blockchain technologies with backend systems, ensuring code quality through unit testing, fuzz testing, and security audits with tools like RustSec and Slither.
Experience
Team Lead / Software Engineer / Blockchain developer, DEFI ECOSYSTEM HUB
08.2022 - till now
Description: DeFi Ecosystem Hub offers next-generation decentralized finance (DeFi) products built on DeFiChain, a Bitcoin-based blockchain that incorporates native DeFi capabilities.
Responsibilities
- Collaborated with multiple cross-disciplinary teams and provided technical leadership, guidance, and coaching to engineers through brainstorming sessions, design reviews, and pair programming;
- Conducted and managed daily stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and sprint reviews to keep the team aligned and focused on goals;
- Tracked and reported on key Agile metrics;
- Blockchain development;
- Design project architecture;
- Prepare reports summarizing audit findings and recommendations for improvement;
- Integration with Wormhole;
- Integrate with new blockchains and side-chains to increase the multichain infrastructure;
- Implement buy and burn algorithms;
- Optimize performance of blockchain applications and smart contracts;
- Develop smart contracts for various DeFi products;
- Integrate with decentralized exchanges and other DeFi protocols;
- Updating and maintaining smart contract code and associated documentation as required to ensure accuracy and adherence to evolving standards;
- Preparing contracts for security review by conducting necessary testing and organizing relevant documentation in advance of the audit process;
- Stay up-to-date with the latest blockchain and Python technologies and drive the adoption of best practices with the team;
- Contribute to high-level architectural decisions for blockchain infrastructure and software systems, ensuring alignment with business goals;
- Implement EIP-712 for secure and efficient signatures;
- Implement robust security measures for all smart contracts to safeguard users' assets;
- Create comprehensive documentation for smart contracts, integration processes, and architecture design;
- Analyze and refine transaction processing to improve throughput and user experience;
- Code review.
Environment: Python, Solidity, Hardhat, Solhint, Wormhole, Base, Slither, Mythril, ERC-20, ERC-1155, ERC-721, ERC-721A, EIP-712, Web3.py, Pyth, Subgraphs, Aave, DAO, DeFi Metachain, GitHub.
Tech Lead / Software Engineer / Blockchain developer, PLAY2EARN GAME
08.2020 - 07.2022
Description: Web3.0 application with play2earn mechanics, which is on movement by car. Users owning a car earn standing in traffic, being behind the wheel while traveling, moving a car around the city. Each NFT car owner earns in-game currency, which can be used in-game or cashed in for profit.
Responsibilities
- Leading the team in making key architectural decisions, such as technology stacks, frameworks, etc.;
- Collaborate with product owners and stakeholders to refine user stories and clarify backlog items to ensure a clear understanding of project priorities and goals;
- Led Agile ceremonies, organized and facilitated different meetings;
- Blockchain development;
- Conducting security audits using RustSec to identify vulnerabilities and potential risks within dependencies and code;
- Writing and testing smart contracts using SPL;
- Development of dApp applications by integrating blockchain technology with gaming mechanics, including tokenomics and NFT assets;
- Specify and implement consensus mechanism;
- Developing and optimizing system components for transmitting and receiving payments;
- Customize transaction execution;
- Optimize smart contracts for gas efficiency to minimize transaction costs for users;
- Conduct performance testing and benchmarking of blockchain transactions to ensure scalability;
- Build custom runtime upgrade mechanisms;
- Implementing utility tokens;
- Integrate off-chain data services to enhance gameplay experiences and provide real-time data for in-game events;
- Implement reward distribution mechanisms for players based on their in-game activities and performance;
- Building custom metrics and monitoring systems;
- Functional test of blockchain;
- Solve security issues;
- Mentoring new developers;
- Code review.
Environment: Solidity, Rust, JavaScript, TypeScript, RustSec Cargo, Audit, Rust, Fuzz, Cargo, Solana, Anchor, SPL, EVM networks, Polygon, Uniswap v2/v3, OpenZeppelin, ProxyContracts, GitHub.
Software Engineer / Blockchain developer, INVESTMENT PLATFORM
06.2019 - 07.2020
Description: Platform for investment in digital assets. The De-Fi platform combines a variety of broad functionality that makes it easier to work, the automation of many functions makes the user's work easier.
Responsibilities
- Close communication with customer and stakeholders to align project goals, ensure transparent progress, and incorporate feedback.
- Blockchain development using appropriate technologies and frameworks.
- Blockchain integration into applications, developing APIs and ensuring compatibility.
- Smart contract development to automate processes, manage assets, and enforce business rules.
- Custom algorithm development to address specific blockchain requirements.
- Signature EIP-721 implementation for NFTs.
- ERC-20 token development.
- Wallet integration for storing and managing digital assets.
- Smart contract development for blockchain migration.
- Mentoring new developers on blockchain concepts and best practices.
- Code review to ensure quality, identify issues, and enforce standards.
Environment: Solidity, JavaScript, TypeScript, web3.js, Wallets integration(Metamask), EVM networks, Binance Smart Chain, PancakeSwap, Uniswap v2/v3, OpenZeppelin, ProxyContract, Alpaca Finance, EIP-721, ERC-20, GitHub.
Software Engineer, IN-GAME COMMERCE
02.2018 - 06.2019
Description: With the introduction of gComm – the first-ever purchasing platform that lets gamers buy physical products directly inside mobile games – the company pioneered a brand new market category: In-Game Commerce.
Responsibilities:
- Backend development;
- Optimizing API performance;
- Integrate external services with the application
- Configure Kubernetes (k8s) load balancing;
- Connect upload to AWS S3 triggers with AWS Lambda;
- Configuring AWS S3 events publishing to AWS SNS topic;
- Implement receiving notifications when new file uploaded to an AWS S3 bucket with AWS SNS;
- Ensuring high performance and adherence to REST principles;
- Defining roles on IAM;
- Configure sending an alert on a specific event from AWS CloudWatch with AWS Lambda;
- Create complex migrations in raw SQL.
Environment: Python, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Alembic, Pydantic, Celery, AWS(SQS, SNS, RDS, Lambda, ECR, EKS, API Gateway, IAM, CloudWatch, CloudFormation, etc.), MongoDB, Kafka, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Redis, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Docker, Docker Compose, Terraform, Kubernetes(k8s), Pytest.
Software Engineer, LOAN APPLICATIONS BUILDER
09.2016 - 01.2018
Description: Application for creating loan applications. The user creates a loan application, the data about the user and his application are sent to an intermediary (bank). After confirming the user’s data, all information is sent to the bank and a response is expected from the bank.
Responsibilities:
- Backend development;
- Building serverless part of application using AWS Lambda functions;
- Create technical and API documentation that meets required standards;
- Deploying and managing containerized applications using AWS ECS;
- Integrate the application with third-party services;
- AWS S3 configuration for storing images and other files;
- Scaling and configuring AWS EC2 instances;
- Monitor SQL server performance using tools and scripts;
- Create and manage indexes to improve the performance of SQL queries;
- Write automated tests to ensure quality and prevent regressions.
Environment: Python, Django, Django Rest Framework, Pytest, AWS(RDS, S3, Lambda, EC2, ECS, Cloudformation, Cognito, IAM, etc.), PostgreSQL, Celery, Nginx, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Docker, Docker Compose.
Software Engineer, SMART ADVERTISING PLATFORM
03.2015 - 09.2016
Description: Platform for advertising in mobile applications. The main idea behind the app was dynamic ads based on likes and shares on Facebook. We, together with a team of data engineers, implemented the collection, storage and display of data.
Responsibilities:
- Backend development;
- Optimizing API performance and scalability through monitoring, load testing, and performance tuning;
- Create technical and API documentation using required standards;
- Implement background serverless calculations with AWS Lambda;
- Configure AWS S3 triggers with AWS Lambda;
- Management virtual machines on AWS EC2;
- Analyzing SQL query performance using query execution plans and optimizing it;
- Configuring CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins;
- Writing unit tests.
Environment: Python, Django, PostgreSQL, AWS(EC2, Lambda, S3, API Gateway, RDS, etc.), Redis, Celery, Jenkins, Docker, Docker Compose, Github.
Achievements
Blockchain Performance Optimization
Improved transaction throughput by 25% and reduced latency by 15% through implementation of state sharding and off-chain computation solutions.
Smart Contract Security
Conducted thorough audits and implemented best practices in smart contract development, resulting in a 40% decrease in contract vulnerabilities and a 20% reduction in security incidents.