Open to opportunities

Vlad Gerchikov

@vladgerchikov

Message

Senior software engineer focused on ultra-low-latency, distributed systems and lock-free performance engineering.

Canada

Message

What I'm looking for

I’m looking to lead performance-focused engineering on mission-critical distributed platforms—using modern C++ concurrency, lock-free designs, and fault-tolerant architectures to cut latency and scale reliably.

I’m a Senior Software Engineer with 20+ years architecting ultra-low-latency, high-performance distributed systems for financial trading, communications, and enterprise platforms. I’m recognized for solving exceptionally difficult performance and scalability challenges through modern C++ and concurrent system design, delivering order-of-magnitude improvements (up to 30×) and dramatically faster historical data retrieval (up to 1000×).

I’ve led fault-tolerant architectures that keep users operating during complete database outages and built distributed systems supporting hundreds of thousands of concurrent users. Across roles, I’ve modernized critical components—like migrating from Sybase-native APIs to ODBC—while mentoring engineers and driving confidence with comprehensive automated testing (300+ unit tests), performance optimization, and rigorous debugging.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Senior Software Engineer

BlackRock

Aug 2023 - Jan 2026 (2 years 5 months)

Re-architected BlackRock’s database access layer by migrating from Sybase-native code to a unified ODBC-based implementation. Built Python automation and an automated testing framework (300+ unit tests) to support regression comparisons and cutover while resolving 200+ SQL incompatibilities.

RHEL Git Sybase Microsoft SQL Server ODBC Python BULK INSERT Automated Testing SQL Portability Regression Testing

Senior Software Engineer

Morgan Stanley

Apr 2021 - May 2023 (2 years 1 month)

Architected and implemented latency-critical improvements across an FX trading platform by removing mutex contention, reducing dynamic allocations, and introducing lock-free data structures. Optimized the FIX message pipeline and network gateway using techniques such as message reuse and zero-copy networking, and built Python tooling to analyze trading logs.

RHEL Git TCP IP Python Lock Free Programming Concurrency Performance Optimization Log Analysis

Senior Software Engineer

PokerStars

Oct 2017 - Apr 2021 (3 years 6 months)

Architected and implemented an internal data replication framework for efficient, fault-tolerant replication at high volume and concurrency. Integrated UDT to improve transfer performance on lossy/high-latency networks and increased performance up to 30x in critical paths by replacing mutex-protected containers with in-house lock-free data structures.

Windows Server Linux Git OpenSSL TCP IP Fault Tolerance Performance Optimization

Senior Software Engineer

Fuze

Jun 2015 - Oct 2017 (2 years 4 months)

Served as lead backend engineer on a high-definition, real-time video conferencing system with performance exceeding target benchmarks. Implemented bandwidth-minimization and adaptive quality, built a lock-free concurrent circular-buffer caching layer, and contributed to scalability and fault-tolerance design for backend features.

C++11 Git Valgrind Video Conferencing Adaptive Concurrency Network Performance

Senior Software Developer

Questrade, Inc.

Apr 2010 - Jun 2015 (5 years 2 months)

Architected and implemented a commission and fee calculation module for Questrade IQ, including a full automated unit-test suite. Improved historical data access speed by roughly 1000x and built an asynchronous offline transaction framework to allow trading during database outages, plus high-availability/failover functionality.

C++11 Intel TBB C#Java High Availability Database Failover Automated Testing Asynchronous API Development

Product Manager & Team Lead

NexJ Systems Inc.

Feb 2008 - Apr 2010 (2 years 2 months)

Architected and built the Quick Reports feature, enabling thousands of concurrent users to generate ad-hoc reports without degrading application performance. Implemented database performance tuning across SQL Server and Oracle and developed C# utilities to automate long-running testing processes.

Java SQL Server Oracle C#C++Database Performance Tuning Automated Testing

Software Developer

Angoss Software Corporation

Jan 2005 - Feb 2008 (3 years 1 month)

Delivered performance improvements (up to 10x) for a key KnowledgeSTUDIO feature by identifying and eliminating inefficiencies. Independently designed and implemented new product features end-to-end and ported a C++ data mining engine from 32-bit to 64-bit on HP-UX/Itanium 2 while supporting QA automation.