Open to opportunities

Valery Smolyakov

@valerysmolyakov

Engineering lead and backend architect who ships pragmatic SaaS platforms—leading architecture, delivery, and unblocking teams.

Georgia

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a role where I can lead architecture and delivery end to end—shipping production code, mentoring engineers, and partnering with stakeholders on trade-offs, while improving reliability through thoughtful CI/CD and observability.

I’m an Engineering lead with 16+ years in software development and 5+ years in lead roles across SaaS, e-commerce, internal platforms, and integration-heavy systems. I combine commercial backend depth with PHP/Laravel, Java, SQL, APIs, and distributed workflows—while staying hands-on across Vue.js/Nuxt.js and Go-based services.

I work best where architecture, delivery, and product thinking meet: shaping pragmatic technical direction, writing production code, unblocking engineers, and helping stakeholders make sound trade-offs. In remote teams, I lead technical discussions with both engineers and non-technical partners, with strong written communication and documentation habits.

Most recently, I delivered production functionality end to end across Laravel backends and Vue/Nuxt frontends, including subscription billing engine workflows and integrations. Earlier, as Team Lead / Full-Stack Architect at FireBear Studio, I led a 4–6 engineer team building a SaaS platform for Shopify/Shopware/BigCommerce merchants and designed scalable integrations and high-volume data transformation pipelines (imports up to 500k records).

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer

A-Players

May 2025 - Mar 2026 (10 months)

Delivered production features across a Laravel backend and Vue.js/Nuxt.js frontend in a cross-functional product team. Contributed to the architecture and rollout of a subscription billing engine and improved release confidence via code review, test reliability work, and CI/CD enhancements.

PHP Laravel Vue.Js Nuxt.Js Billing REST APIs CI CD Automated Testing Code Review Backend

Team Lead Full-Stack Architect

FireBear Studio

Oct 2020 - Feb 2025 (4 years 4 months)

Led a team of 4–6 engineers building a SaaS platform for Shopify, Shopware, and BigCommerce merchants. Owned backend and frontend delivery, designed scalable integrations and high-volume data transformation pipelines processing up to 500k records, and mentored engineers to ensure predictable client-facing delivery.

Team Leadership SaaS Delivery Shopware BigCommerce Data Pipelines Service Design Code Review Mentoring CI CD

Team Lead Full-Stack Developer

Kt.team

Oct 2015 - Oct 2020 (5 years)

Led delivery streams for enterprise projects involving distributed backend services and integration-heavy e-commerce workflows. Worked on Java/Spring services with BPMN-driven process automation and Keycloak SSO, and supported CI/CD and deployment practices using GitLab CI, OpenShift, and Kubernetes.

Java Spring Keycloak Enterprise Integration Apache Camel Gitlab CI OpenShift