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Alexander Glushkov

@cutalion · Senior Backend Engineer · Tbilisi

cutalion@gmail.com · github.com/cutalion · linkedin.com/in/cutalion

Senior backend engineer with 19+ years in web development and a decade as hands-on CTO of Kidsout — a babysitter marketplace scaled from 300 early MAU to 10k peak, 280k registered users, and 1.2M+ orders. Ruby/Rails at the core. T-shaped by intent, AI-native in daily work, happiest in small teams that ship often.

Experience

Founding Partner / CTO / Lead Backend Developer · Kidsout

Feb 2017 — Mar 2026

Scaled the platform from 300 to 10k peak MAU; 1.2M+ orders for 280k registered users, backed by comprehensive testing and monitoring.
Designed a secure KYC system: hybrid encryption (Yandex KMS), encrypted PII storage, audit logging, external identity verification.
Owned technical direction for a small team (2–5 engineers) in a 20–30 person org — hiring, code reviews, cross-team communication.
Architected and maintained a Rails monolith serving a Grape JSON API for mobile and web clients, plus an internal admin panel.
Owned the PostgreSQL schema and query performance for the core domain (users, bookings, payments, messaging) as the dataset grew.
Built reliable background processing on Sidekiq and Redis for payments, notifications, KYC pipelines, and content moderation.
Built a BI pipeline (PostgreSQL → ClickHouse → DataLens) with Python forecasting (pandas, Prophet), ~80% cheaper than commercial BI.
Implemented LLM-based content moderation for user profiles (text and images), cutting manual review workload.
Migrated the legacy AngularJS admin to a responsive Rails + React panel; integrated and later migrated the payment gateway, unblocking native mobile apps.
Kept Ruby and Rails on supported major versions across the decade through incremental upgrades.
Owned the deploy pipeline (Docker, Ansible, CircleCI) for zero-downtime releases; monitoring via New Relic, Sentry, Rollbar, Netdata.
Shipped a price-cap feature on job postings, giving parents budget control and driving a 10% reduction in average sitter rates.

Rails · Grape · Sidekiq · RSpec · PostgreSQL · ClickHouse · Redis · React · GraphQL · Docker · Ansible · CircleCI · Yandex Cloud (KMS, DataLens) · AWS · Python · pandas · Prophet · OpenAI API

Senior Web Developer · Shakuro

Dec 2015 — Jan 2017

Built core backend for MMKT Exchange, a financial platform ($59M raised), using a Rails API with an Angular frontend.
Built real-time collaborative features and led Adobe RMS API integration for digital rights management.
Planned a 3.5-month feature and delivered in 4 — an accurate estimate on a complex system.

Rails · PostgreSQL · Rails API · Angular · Adobe RMS API

Senior Web Developer · Kodo Labs

Oct 2012 — Nov 2015

Pioneered Ruby on Rails adoption in a PHP/CakePHP shop; established coding standards for new projects.
Mentored junior developers through code reviews and Rails workshops; several later advanced to senior roles.
Automated deployments with Jenkins CI/CD pipelines.
Led development for multiple mid- and long-term Rails projects — architecture, client communication, and planning.
Refactored payment processing code and improved maintainability, reducing technical debt across legacy modules.

Rails · MySQL · CakePHP · PHP · Jenkins CI/CD · Git

Earlier roles (2006 — 2012)

Ruby on Rails Developer · Freelance

Jan 2012 — Oct 2012

Delivered CRM, flight-booking, car-booking, and video-processing projects for distributed clients via Upwork.
Designed a video upload and transcoding pipeline (FFmpeg) integrating with Amazon S3 and the Dropbox API.

Web Developer · Kodo Labs (formerly Upscript)

Jan 2008 — Dec 2011

Full-stack across multiple client projects — planning, implementation, deployments, and direct client communication.
First on the team to take on a Rails client project, laying the groundwork for the company's later shift from PHP/CakePHP to Rails.
Integrated AWS (S3, EC2), Google APIs, Stripe payments, and full-text search via Sphinx and Solr; built frontends with MooTools, Prototype, jQuery.
Migrated workflows from SVN to Git and from Windows to Linux servers; co-founded the Sevastopol.rb developer community.

Junior Web Developer · MK-Studio

Feb 2008 — Nov 2008

Built and customized websites on the 1S-Bitrix CMS.
Helped open a new MK-Studio office in Sevastopol, participating in hiring and onboarding.

Trainee · Upscript

Nov 2006 — Nov 2007

Contributed to client projects with backend and frontend development, debugging, and manual testing.
Delivered a map feature for Gloria Jeans Coffee Shops (Australia).
Owned end-to-end delivery of HowHub, a platform for user-generated how-to guides.

Skills

Languages — Ruby, Python, JavaScript, Go (learning)

Backend — Rails, Grape, Sidekiq, RSpec, pandas, Prophet; REST, GraphQL, JSON:API

Frontend — React, React Native (working knowledge)

Databases — PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, Redis, Elasticsearch

Cloud & DevOps — AWS (S3, SES, SQS, Route 53, CloudFront), Yandex Cloud (KMS, DataLens), Docker, Ansible, CI/CD (CircleCI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins), Linux

Monitoring — New Relic, Sentry, Rollbar, Netdata

AI tooling — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Zed, OpenAI API

Projects

`tic-tac-chec` (Go)

Hybrid board game — chess piece movement with tic-tac-toe win conditions on a 4×4 board. Terminal UI, online multiplayer over SSH, Docker deployment. Built in Go from scratch (no game frameworks) as a hands-on learning project with Claude Code in learning mode.

More side projects on GitHub — MCP servers, AI experiments, and terminal apps.

Education

Sevastopol National Technical University — Master's, Automation and Computer Engineering (2003–2008).

Community

Co-founded Sevastopol.rb (later BlackSeaCoders) Ruby community.
Organised technical meetups and delivered talks to grow the local Ruby ecosystem.

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