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Nikolay Popov

@nikolaypopov

Senior .NET/ Python backend engineer and tech lead specializing in high-load distributed systems and database-heavy applications.

Spain

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a full-time Senior/Lead .NET role in Spain or an EU remote team—leading backend architecture, performance optimization, and delivery from design to production.

I’m a Senior Backend Engineer and Tech Lead focused on the .NET ecosystem—building high-load, distributed systems and database-heavy applications end-to-end, from architecture to production. With 20+ years of software development, I lead backend teams through major releases and drive performance-focused delivery across gaming, healthcare, and enterprise domains.

Most recently, I led a backend team of 3–7 developers for a Medical Diagnostic Backend Platform (Healthcare SaaS), building microservices with .NET Core and PostgreSQL using Clean Architecture and pragmatic DDD. I handled multi-tenant requirements, healthcare compliance, integrated external identity providers (IdentityServer), and AWS services (S3/SQS/SNS), while maintaining ~60% unit test coverage on critical business logic.

Previously, at DraftKings/SBTech, I built real-time chat and large-scale notification systems, including DB sharding, message-queue scaling, and resilient multi-region deployments. I also developed Kafka-driven player limits, and implemented SSO/MFA flows for high-load authentication services—then optimized schemas, stored procedures, and indexes across app, messaging, and database layers.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Tech Lead / Backend Architect

Current

Intellectsoft

Sep 2020 - Present (5 years 9 months)

Tech Lead / Software Architect at Intellectsoft. Led architecture and delivery of cloud-native backend and AI/LLM platforms across healthcare, analytics and enterprise automation. Built scalable systems with .NET, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, Kubernetes, GraphQL, LangChain and LangGraph. Owned system design, technical decisions, code reviews, mentoring and production readiness.

ASP.NET Core Microservices PostgreSQL AWS S3 Docker Kubernetes Terraform xUnit Python fastAPI SQLAlchemy Celery Monolithic Applications

Senior Software Developer

DraftKings / SBTech

Aug 2015 - Sep 2020 (5 years 1 month)

Senior Software Developer at SBTech / DraftKings. Designed and developed high-load .NET services for online gaming platforms, including chat, player tracking, time limits, notifications, MFA and alert systems. Built distributed systems with C#, .NET Core, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MSSQL and PostgreSQL, supporting up to 300,000 online players.

.NET Core Kafka RabbitMQ Event Sourcing SSO SQL Server PostgreSQL

Senior Software Engineer

Infopulse

Sep 2014 - Oct 2015 (1 year 1 month)

Designed complex SQL Server database structures for a Deloitte enterprise audit management questionnaire with deep tree-based hierarchies. Built ADO.NET data access logic and optimized SQL Server performance for node-level permission models.

SQL Server T SQL ADO.NET Database Design Performance Optimization Stored Procedures .NET

Senior MS SQL / .NET Developer

EPAM System

Sep 2012 - Sep 2014 (2 years)

Built and maintained 60+ ETL workflows, data warehouse, and analytics systems for financial reporting on a Barclays Capital project. Delivered end-to-end reporting capabilities using SQL Server data warehousing technologies.

C .NET SQL Server SSIS SSAS ETL Data Warehousing Financial Reporting

Senior Database/.NET Engineer

Softline UA

Nov 2010 - Sep 2012 (1 year 10 months)

Senior Microsoft Database Engineer at Softline Ukraine. Designed and implemented fault-tolerant MS SQL Server clusters, Active Directory infrastructure and data integration solutions for government and enterprise clients. Worked with .NET, ADO.NET, SQL Server, SSIS, SSRS and SSAS, focusing on reliability, performance and secure infrastructure.

.NET MS SQL Server ADO.NET