Тарас

TARAS VLADYKA
Senior Backend Engineer | Team Lead | Java | Spring Boot |
AWS | Telegram chat-bots | AI-assisted Development
Lviv, Ukraine · [open contact info](look above in the "contact info" section) · [open contact info](look above in the "contact info" section)

Open to remote / hybrid (Lviv) · Part-time / full-time

PROFILE
Senior Backend Engineer with 9 years of commercial software development experience, primarily focused on Java, Spring
Boot, AWS, and PostgreSQL. Experienced in designing backend services from scratch, modernizing legacy systems,
building event-driven and REST-based applications, integrating third-party systems, and improving CI/CD and cloud
infrastructure. Experience as both an individual contributor and technical/team lead.

AWS Certified Developer with hands-on experience in cloud-based applications and infrastructure. Participated in EPAM
hackathons, including a MILTech-focused hackathon aimed at developing solutions for the defense sector.

Also highly experienced in independently developing Telegram chatbots and integrations for freelance, commercial, and
volunteer projects.

Academic background in Computer Engineering with university-level C/C++ experience. Comfortable learning new
technologies and domain-specific knowledge, including through relevant courses and hands-on training.

Regularly supported Ukrainian volunteer initiatives and fundraising efforts for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Motivated to
apply my engineering experience to Defense Tech and mission-oriented products with a tangible impact on Ukraine's
defense capabilities.

CORE SKILLS
Backend: Java, Python, Spring Boot, Spring Security, REST APIs, Hibernate, JUnit, Mockito, Testcontainers
Architecture: Microservices, event-driven systems, message-based systems, Clean Architecture, CQRS
Security & Reliability: Spring Security, OAuth2, API security, authentication & authorization, high availability, fault tolerance,
resilient distributed systems
Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS, GCP, Heroku, ECS, Lambda, S3, RDS, SQS, SNS, CloudFormation, CDK, Docker
Data: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, SQL
CI/CD & Engineering: GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, Bitbucket, automated testing, code reviews, production support
Leadership: Technical leadership, mentoring, onboarding, architecture, requirements clarification, customer communication
AI & Development Tools: AI-assisted development, code generation, refactoring, debugging, test generation, technical
research (ChatGPT, Claude, Github Copilot)

DEFENSE / MILTECH EXPERIENCE

EPAM MILTech Hackathon —Defense Technology | 2024 | System for artillery tasks and ammunition tracking

Participated in an EPAM hackathon focused on MILTech and defense-related technology, working on a solution for the
defense domain as part of a cross-functional engineering team.

● Initiated the team formation and helped bring together participants with complementary technical expertise.
● Contributed to the technical development of a prototype
● Worked collaboratively under a short development cycle to turn an idea into a working technical solution.
● Gained hands-on exposure to defense-oriented product development and problem-solving.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

EPAM Systems —Senior Software Engineer / Key Engineer / Team Lead | 2016–2026

E-commerce platform modernization | 2026 | Key Engineer

● Modernized a legacy Java 8 application to Java 21 and Spring Boot 3 with minimal business impact.
● Refactored legacy components, updated dependencies, and prepared the application for migration from
on-premise infrastructure to GCP.
● Worked with Docker, Gradle and GitHub Actions; investigated legacy issues and provided technical documentation
and knowledge transfer.

Finance data processing & ETL | 2025 | Key Engineer

● Developed and enhanced ETL processes using Python and AWS Glue.
● Automated financial data and reporting workflows and built integrations with internal and third-party systems.
● Worked with business users and external API teams; managed production deployments using Jenkins and
Bitbucket.
● Mentored an engineer within the team.

Event-driven order processing platform | 2023–2024 | Key Engineer

● Developed backend services for order processing in an event-driven architecture using AWS SNS/SQS and
ActiveMQ.
● Modernized workloads using AWS CDK and CloudFormation, reducing infrastructure costs by 75%.
● Worked with Lambda, ECS, EC2, S3, RDS and CloudWatch; implemented external API integrations.
● Performed code reviews, testing, technical documentation and production support.

Routing & order-processing tools | 2021–2023 | Engineer / Team Lead

● Led a team of 6 developers across backend and frontend.
● Designed backend services and contributed to architecture and technical decision-making.
● Improved engineering practices including code reviews, automated testing and integration testing with
Testcontainers.
● Implemented AWS SQS/SNS and third-party API integrations; managed production releases and onboarding.

Earlier EPAM experience | 2017–2021

● Developed Java/Spring Boot backend systems and REST microservices across insurance, banking, credit,
fleet-management and chatbot projects.
● Worked with PostgreSQL, Kafka, Docker, CI/CD and third-party integrations.
● Progressed from Software Engineer to Team Lead, taking responsibility for technical design, mentoring and
delivery.

INDEPENDENT PROJECTS / FREELANCE

Telegram chatbots development 2020 – 2026

● Developed Telegram chatbots for commercial and volunteer use cases.
● Integrated bots with external APIs, CRM/POS systems, payment services, and other third-party platforms.
● Developed and maintained backend services using Java/Spring Boot and AWS + Heroku
● Delivered software solutions from requirements through implementation and deployment.

EDUCATION
Lviv Polytechnic National University | 2017 – 2018 — Master's Degree, Specialized Computer Systems / Computer
Engineering
Lviv Polytechnic National University | 2013 – 2017 — Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Engineering

CERTIFICATIONS
● AWS Certified Developer – Associate — Amazon Web Services, 2024

LANGUAGES
English — upper intermediate · Ukrainian — native