Konstantin Marinenkov

I lead the Platform Engineering team at an early-stage FinTech startup that is developing a B2B gateway for cryptocurrency payments (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, USDT, etc.).

My team is responsible for architecting and building the central server-side infrastructure from the ground up. This platform serves as the core of the entire product and is our primary competitive advantage. My future responsibilities include scaling the team and establishing formal engineering processes post-investment.

Key Areas of Responsibility & Achievements:

Platform Architecture & Development:
Architecting and developing a high-performance platform using a modern tech stack: PHP Laravel, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Kafka. I established the local development workflows (Docker) and created the deployment pipelines to our cloud infrastructure (AWS EC2).

Core Monetization Engine:
Developed the key business component: a billing service that automatically meters and bills clients based on their usage of our infrastructure. This underlying platform processes raw data from cryptocurrency nodes (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) to provide our clients' gateways with near real-time access to balances and transaction data.

Security & Compliance:
Co-architecting a hybrid security model (on-premise gateway + cloud platform) with a primary focus on maximum client data security. The entire system is designed to comply with regulatory requirements, such as AML (Anti-Money Laundering), for the EU and future US markets.

Strategic Planning & Future Leadership:
Responsible for the platform's technical roadmap and its evolution. In preparation for post-investment growth, my responsibilities will expand to include hiring and managing engineers, distributing knowledge to reduce the "bus factor," and formalizing the development lifecycle.

I joined the company as a Backend Developer to play a pivotal role in the architectural overhaul of its core product. After one year of significant technical contributions and demonstrating leadership potential, I was promoted to Team Lead, taking charge of the 9-person cross-functional team responsible for the project.

Key Achievements & Responsibilities:

System Performance & Modernisation:
Led the migration of a high-traffic monolithic PHP API to a high-performance microservices architecture in Go. This strategic initiative delivered critical improvements:

Reduced server costs by decreasing CPU usage by 50% and memory consumption by up to 60%.

Enhanced user experience by cutting the average API response time from ~90-100ms down to ~13-20ms.

Established system observability by implementing a new metrics framework, providing clear insights into application performance for the first time.

Internal Tools & Process Optimisation:
Architected and built a new back-office system from the ground up using Laravel. This platform empowered non-technical departments with secure, self-service access to critical data, which eliminated development bottlenecks and freed up engineering resources from manual data-pulling tasks.

Team Leadership & Engineering Management:
Managed and mentored a team of 9 professionals (4 Backend, 2 Frontend, 3 QA). My core responsibilities included:

Translating business requirements from the Project Manager into a clear technical roadmap and actionable tasks for the team.

Ensuring high code quality and best practices through systematic code reviews.

Fostering a productive and healthy team environment through regular ceremonies like retrospectives, 1-on-1 meetings, and team-building activities.

Contributed to a product team developing digital services for the pharmaceutical industry. My work involved developing and supporting systems that aggregate and serve data from key state registries of medicinal products (GRLS, MDLP, etc.).

Developed and maintained REST APIs and internal back-office services for the core application using PHP (Laravel) and PostgreSQL.

Built high-performance microservices in Go (Echo framework) to efficiently process and deliver data from government health registries.

Participated in the containerization (Docker) and deployment of applications within a Kubernetes environment.

Contributed to services that enabled pharmaceutical companies and distributors to access up-to-date regulatory and compliance data.