Built and own the entire technical stack for a network of 20+ production web projects. Traffic & Performance. The platform handles serious load — peak evenings hit 50TB of traffic. Built the core on Symfony components (HttpFoundation, Routing, EventDispatcher) but moved the hottest paths to native PHP for raw speed. Request routing, content filtering, geo-targeting — all optimized to squeeze maximum RPS. Laravel handles the admin dashboards and internal APIs. Background jobs run on Laravel Queues with Redis as the broker. Infrastructure. Everything runs in Docker containers orchestrated with Kubernetes on AWS (EC2, RDS, S3, CloudFront). Deployments go through a CI/CD pipeline (GitHub Actions) — automated tests, build, deploy to staging, then prod. Nginx as reverse proxy with custom configs for each project. Security. Constant DDoS and bot attacks — it's part of the business. Set up layered defense: custom WAF rules, bot honeypots, L7 filtering, deep integration with DDoS-Guard. Wrote monitoring dashboards in Grafana with Prometheus metrics. The system stays up. Databases. PostgreSQL is the main workhorse. I spend a lot of time profiling with EXPLAIN ANALYZE, setting up partitioning, building partial and GIN indexes. Heavy analytics go to ClickHouse — dropped report generation from minutes to under a second. Some services use MongoDB for flexible document storage and Elasticsearch for full-text search across catalogs. Async & Data Integrity. Processing pipelines on Kafka and RabbitMQ. The tricky part was guaranteeing no duplicate messages and keeping data consistent — solved it with idempotent writes (UPSERT patterns). Zero data loss so far. Web3. Built an NFT-based auth system (token-gating) for internal B2B tools. Wrote smart contracts in Solidity, frontend integration via Web3.js and Ethers.js. AI & Automation. Built OpenClaw — an internal AI agent (Python, Node.js/TypeScript) for code generation and routine task automation. Stack: PHP (Symfony, Laravel, native), Python, Go, Node.js/TypeScript, Solidity, PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD, Nginx, Grafana

Backend engineer on a B2B financial SaaS that syncs transaction data between e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Stripe) and accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero). Core work was building reliable sync pipelines in PHP 8 — heavily using Symfony components for the service layer and Laravel for the API gateway and queue workers. External APIs are flaky — rate limits, timeouts, undocumented behavior. Built retry logic with strict idempotency so even if a sync job crashes, it picks up cleanly without double-posting transactions. Performance. Rewrote the heaviest MySQL queries, rebuilt indexes, added Redis caching. Also used TypeScript/Node.js microservices for real-time webhook processing via WebSockets. API Design. Owned the REST API and GraphQL layer. Documented everything in Swagger/OpenAPI. Auth through OAuth2 flows for third-party integrations. Infrastructure. Services ran in Docker on AWS. Set up proper CI/CD, structured logging, alerting for desync anomalies. Was the go-to person for production incidents. Code reviews, release coordination, mentoring juniors. Stack: PHP 8 (Symfony, Laravel), Node.js (TypeScript), Python, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, REST API, GraphQL, Swagger, WebSockets, OAuth2, Docker, AWS, CI/CD

Two main projects running in parallel: a custom logistics backend for an international transport company and several large-scale WordPress builds for US clients. Logistics Backend. Built the core application from scratch. The heaviest data processing pipelines (shipment tracking, cross-border financial reconciliation) were written in native PHP for maximum throughput. Laravel handled the API routing and business logic layer. Parts of the system used Yii2 for legacy integration. The data layer sat on MySQL with heavy transactional logic — had to make sure financial records stayed consistent across timezones and currencies. WordPress at Scale. These weren't basic marketing sites. Built custom PHP plugins from the ground up, modified the database schema to support non-standard content models, and wired up REST API integrations with external CRMs and shipping services. Some projects included interactive dashboards built with React.js components embedded inside WordPress. Performance & Security. Profiled and rewrote slow MySQL queries that were killing page load. Added Redis caching to handle traffic spikes without touching the database. Set up aggressive rate-limiting and bot filtering through Nginx configs. Managed the full LEMP stack deployment and server hardening. Stack: PHP, Laravel, Yii2, MySQL, Redis, WordPress, React.js, JavaScript, REST APIs, Docker, Nginx, LEMP

Worked on several large B2B e-commerce platforms selling industrial equipment. The main challenge: managing catalogs with 200,000+ products while keeping everything synced with internal business systems in real time. ERP Integration. Built a complex two-way sync between the storefronts and 1C ERP — the system used in most Russian enterprises. Products, inventory levels, dynamic B2B pricing — all had to stay perfectly in sync across multiple storefronts without hammering the database. Wrote custom sync workers in PHP/Laravel with queue-based processing (Redis) to handle the volume. Search Engine. Database queries couldn't handle filtering across 200k products with dozens of technical specs. Replaced the search layer with Elasticsearch — built faceted filtering so users could find a specific industrial part by parameters like voltage, thread size, material — all returning results in milliseconds. Payments & Tracking. Integrated multiple payment gateways for B2B checkout (large invoices, split payments). Built backend integrations for CPA affiliate networks to track marketing funnels and sales attribution. Frontend. Not just templates — built interactive product pages and dynamic catalog components in React.js with TypeScript. Styles in SASS, bundled with Webpack. Heavy focus on SSR and page generation speed for SEO — Google had to index 200k product pages correctly. Infrastructure. Core backend in Laravel with Symfony components where needed. MySQL/MariaDB as primary database, heavily optimized (query rewrites, index tuning, connection pooling). Deployed on LEMP stack with Docker for local development and staging. Stack: PHP, Laravel, Symfony (components), Elasticsearch, 1C ERP API, MySQL/MariaDB, React.js, TypeScript, JavaScript, SASS, Webpack, Redis, WordPress, Docker, Nginx/LEMP

The platform became one of the largest independent ICO tracking and analytics databases in the space — thousands of daily users watching token sales, ratings, and market data in real time. Platform Architecture. WordPress was the base, but I turned it into something completely different. Built custom post types, taxonomies, and data models so the editorial team could manage hundreds of active/upcoming token sales, tokenomics data, bounty programs, and our proprietary "Interest Level" ratings — all through a structured admin interface, not just blog posts. Frontend. Built the entire public-facing UI in React.js. Real-time ICO countdown widgets, dynamic filtering and sorting across dozens of parameters, live stats dashboards. The site had to feel fast and responsive despite constant data updates — used component-level caching and optimistic rendering. Web3 & Authentication. Engineered one of the early decentralized authentication flows using NFTs for token-gating. This was 2017 — before "token-gating" was even a term. Used it to verify permissions and secure access between internal services. Performance & Traffic. The site got hammered every time a hyped token sale was announced. Optimized MariaDB/MySQL queries aggressively, configured Nginx and the LEMP stack for high concurrency, set up multi-layer caching (object cache, page cache, CDN) to keep load times under 2 seconds even during traffic spikes. Stack: PHP, WordPress (custom architecture), React.js, Web3/Solidity, MariaDB, JavaScript, jQuery, SASS, Webpack, Nginx/LEMP

Digital agency building custom e-commerce solutions, online stores, and product catalogs for B2B and B2C clients. I was doing full-cycle delivery — from database design to frontend to deployment. E-commerce Development. Built multiple online stores from scratch on WordPress and Joomla. Not off-the-shelf templates — wrote custom PHP plugins and modules tailored to each client's business logic. Product catalogs with filtering, shopping carts, checkout flows, order management — all custom. Database Design. Designed relational schemas in MySQL/MariaDB to handle different catalog structures — some clients had 50 products, others had 10,000+ with nested categories and variable attributes. Had to think about performance from the start. Frontend. Built responsive, fast-loading interfaces with JavaScript and jQuery. Set up modern (for the time) build pipelines with SASS, Webpack, and Gulp — automated CSS/JS compilation, minification, image optimization. Cross-browser testing was a big part of the job. Infrastructure. Managed full LAMP and LEMP stacks for client projects. Server setup, SSL certificates, deployment scripts, backups. Handled everything from domain config to production monitoring. Stack: PHP, WordPress, Joomla, MySQL/MariaDB, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS, SASS, LESS, Webpack, Gulp, LAMP/LEMP

Custom web development for the US market — building business sites and marketing platforms for American companies. WordPress Development. Full-cycle custom WordPress builds. Took designs from PSD/Figma and turned them into fully functional themes with custom PHP logic. Wrote plugins for things like advanced contact forms, booking systems, and client portals that the off-the-shelf plugins couldn't handle. Frontend Engineering. Responsive, cross-browser layouts that had to work perfectly from IE10 to Chrome. Built with JavaScript and jQuery, preprocessors (SASS/LESS), and automated builds via Gulp and Webpack. SEO & Performance. Optimized page speed for US hosting environments. Configured caching, image compression, minified static assets. Made sure every site was properly indexed and met the SEO requirements American businesses expected. Stack: PHP, WordPress, MySQL/MariaDB, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML5/CSS3, SASS/LESS, Webpack, Gulp

Digital agency building multilingual web platforms for the European market. This is where I started working in English daily and doing fully remote collaboration. Multilingual Platforms. Built websites targeting multiple European markets — proper i18n, locale-aware content, multilingual SEO optimization. Had to understand EU web accessibility standards and apply them correctly. CMS Engineering. Custom solutions on WordPress and Joomla. Wrote PHP modules and plugins, modified standard data structures to handle multilingual catalogs and business directories. Not just installing plugins — real architecture work. Interactive Frontend. Built dynamic interfaces using Angular.js (v1 era) and jQuery. Client portals with real-time data updates, interactive product configurators, form wizards. This was my first exposure to SPA-style frontend architecture. Backend & Caching. Set up database schemas in SQL (MySQL), integrated Redis for caching on content-heavy e-commerce sites. Performance mattered — European hosting wasn't always fast, so optimization was a constant focus. Stack: PHP, WordPress, Joomla, MySQL, Redis, JavaScript, Angular.js, jQuery, HTML/CSS, SASS, LEMP

Built a large-scale automotive classifieds platform (think Russian AutoTrader) from scratch. Marketplace Architecture. Built on Drupal 7 — but heavily customized. Wrote custom modules for complex entity relationships: car listings with dozens of technical specs (make, model, year, engine, transmission, mileage), user ads, dealer profiles, messaging between buyers and sellers. Search. Integrated Elasticsearch early on — this was 2012 and it was still new. Built sub-second faceted search so users could filter through thousands of car listings by multiple parameters simultaneously. The search had to feel instant. Code Quality. This project had a strict engineering culture. Wrote comprehensive PHPUnit tests for all custom modules. Made sure core business logic (listing creation, transaction handling, payment flows) was covered with unit tests before deployment. Frontend. Dynamic listing submission forms, image galleries, real-time filtering UI — all built with JavaScript and jQuery. Managed the SQL database layer for secure user data handling. Stack: PHP, Drupal 7, Elasticsearch, PHPUnit, MySQL, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS

Corporate websites, online stores, food delivery platforms — full custom development, not just template installs. Each project involved database design (MySQL), backend logic (PHP), and frontend implementation from scratch. CMS Work. Deployed and heavily customized WordPress and Joomla. Wrote custom PHP plugins, built themes from designs, integrated early e-commerce functionality (payment processing, cart logic, order management). Frontend. Responsive layouts before responsive was standard. Cross-browser compatible HTML/CSS, interactive elements with JavaScript and jQuery. This was the era of manual float layouts and pixel-perfect PSD conversions. Stack: PHP, WordPress, Joomla, MySQL, JavaScript, jQuery, HTML/CSS