Open to Staff+ engineering roles

Ferenc Sticza

Principal / Staff Software Engineer | Platform, Backend, TypeScript

Hands-on principal/staff-level engineer with 20+ years building backend systems, product platforms, and distributed services.

Strongest where platform redesign, delivery speed, reliability, and implementation depth all need to move together.

Recent outcomes include full-platform microservice redesign, USD 100Ks+ in annual savings from search modernization, CI feedback reduced from roughly 1 hour to 6 minutes, and public-sector systems reworked to handle millions of requests per day reliably.

End-to-end

Redesigned microservice platforms across architecture, delivery, and observability

1h -> 6m

CI feedback time cut to the development environment

Millions/day

Public systems reworked for reliable high-volume traffic

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Based in Hungary, working CET / CEST, and open to backend, platform, or full-stack Staff+ IC roles.

Professional Experience

Experience shaped by consulting, product delivery, and architecture work

Principal Engineer & Product Architect

MONAD SYSTEMS

May 2021 - Present

Hands-on principal engineering work across platform redesign, API-first delivery, event-driven systems, and production operations.

Core stack: Node.js, TypeScript, Kafka, OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, React, Vue.js, Docker, Kubernetes

Led platform redesign and implementation across clear microservice boundaries, event-driven integration, and production-grade delivery standards.
Introduced API design-first governance, observability, and quality gates, cutting CI time to the development environment from roughly 1 hour to about 6 minutes.
At Fizz, redesigned the wider microservice platform and modernized search behind an adapter pattern, delivering major speed gains and annual savings of several hundred thousand USD.

Full Stack JavaScript Engineer

Self-employed

Jul 2017 - May 2021

Independent JavaScript/TypeScript consulting across backend services, web apps, modernization work, and technical delivery.

Core stack: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, React, Vue.js, APIs

Delivered backend services, APIs, and web applications across multiple production client engagements.
Worked hands-on with Node.js, Redis, Kafka, MongoDB, OpenAPI, React, Vue.js, and React Native.
Combined implementation, modernization, and technical leadership while staying close to delivery.

Lead Full Stack JavaScript Developer

Virgo Systems

Sep 2013 - Jun 2017

Lead full-stack JavaScript delivery for social and e-commerce products.

Core stack: Node.js, Vue.js, Backbone.js, Webpack, Redis, MongoDB, Git

Led JavaScript delivery for social and e-commerce applications.
Combined architecture work with hands-on implementation and team mentoring.
Worked across Node.js services, frontend frameworks, and supporting build tooling.

Software Engineer

LogMeIn

Jan 2013 - Aug 2013

Improved front-end code quality, performance, and user experience for BoldChat.

Core stack: JavaScript, YUI, jQuery, HTML5, CSS3, Git, SVN

Improved front-end code quality for BoldChat.
Worked on performance and user experience improvements in a product engineering environment.
Delivered JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3 changes using YUI, jQuery, Git, and SVN.

Earlier Experience

Senior Frontend Developer

Virgo Systems

May 2010 - Dec 2012

Senior frontend development role at Virgo Systems.

Portal Builder

Sense/Net Inc

Feb 2010 - May 2010

Portal builder role at Sense/Net Inc.

Sitebuilder

Docler Holding

Dec 2008 - Feb 2010

Sitebuilder role at Docler Holding.

Web Developer

Consulting Ltd.

Sep 2006 - Dec 2008

Built online PHP-based systems for apartment buildings managing monthly settlement workflows with Fotav.

Education

Corvinus University of Budapest

B.Sc. in Business Information Systems, 2007 - 2010

Selected Projects

Recent platform, architecture, and delivery work

2023 - 2026

IdomSoft

Platform engineering and architecture consulting focused on cloud-native delivery and operational foundations.

Role: Platform Engineering & Architecture Consultant

Tech stack: Oracle Cloud, Kubernetes, GitOps, ArgoCD, Helm, Terraform, Node.js, TypeScript, React

Impact / outcome: Redesigned and reimplemented the former Electoral Information System while strengthening cloud-native platform foundations for high-volume, reliable public service delivery.

Problem: the former Electoral Information System needed stronger reliability and scalability to handle sustained high request volumes.
Approach: redesigned and reimplemented the platform architecture while shaping cloud infrastructure and operational practices.
Outcome: enabled the system to reliably handle millions of requests per day without operational glitches.

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2022 - 2026

Fizz

Hands-on principal engineering contribution across platform redesign, microservice architecture, team enablement, and implementation for a high-performance product platform.

Role: Principal Engineer (Platform Engineering & Architecture)

Tech stack: Node.js, Kafka, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, TypeScript, React, Azure, Azure AI Search, Kubernetes, OpenAPI, AsyncAPI

Impact / outcome: Redesigned the full microservice platform, including the search capability, to improve service boundaries, observability, delivery confidence, performance, cost efficiency, and provider flexibility.

Problem: the platform needed clearer service boundaries across all microservices, stronger operational visibility, reliable delivery gates, and a faster, less costly search capability.
Approach: redesigned and led implementation of the new microservice platform around clear service boundaries, production observability, API design-first governance, and CI quality gates.
Search outcome: replaced a slow and flaky third-party provider with an Azure AI Search-based implementation behind an adapter pattern, delivering major speed improvements and annual savings of several hundred thousand USD.
Delivery outcome: reduced CI time to the development environment from roughly 1 hour to about 6 minutes, making iteration substantially faster.

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2023 - 2025

Netrisk

Led design and implementation of a modern event-driven insurance platform on Azure, focused on reliability, extensibility, and partner integrations.

Role: Lead Architect & Principal Engineer

Tech stack: Node.js, TypeScript, Kafka, Azure, GitOps, Docker, Kubernetes, OpenAPI, Fastify

Impact / outcome: Designed a scalable event-driven insurance platform with reliable partner integration and cloud-native delivery foundations.

Problem: insurance provider integrations needed reliable asynchronous communication and extensible backend foundations.
Approach: designed Kafka-based event-driven architecture, GitOps-oriented Azure deployment workflows, and scalable Node.js services.
Outcome: enabled robust real-time communication and integration with multiple insurance partners.

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2021 - 2022

Magyar Bankholding

Full-stack engineering in a regulated environment with event-driven integration, API contracts, and cloud deployment concerns.

Role: Full-Stack JavaScript Engineer

Tech stack: Node.js, Fastify, Kafka, IBMMQ, Jest, AsyncAPI, OpenAPI, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Azure, AWS

Impact / outcome: Pioneered API spec-driven development and helped establish Internal Developer Platform foundations to speed service delivery in a regulated banking environment.

Problem: teams needed a more consistent way to define APIs and bootstrap new services quickly in a regulated environment.
Approach: introduced API spec-driven development and helped build Internal Developer Platform foundations with service templates and internally developed packages.
Outcome: improved delivery consistency and faster service initialization across teams.

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Skills