Leni Kirilov

Software architect & engineering lead · Sofia, Bulgaria

17+ years building distributed systems at scale, and the engineering cultures that sustain them.

I care about

  • Making future-proof architecture decisions.
  • Keeping teams technically sharp without micromanaging.
  • Making AI tooling produce measurable outcomes — not just impressions.
  • Treating every commit as a long-term commitment.

What I'm doing now

  • Lead Software Architect on a platform for real-time quality analysis of video streams (2024–present). First engineer; designed and led a platform processing tens of thousands of concurrent HLS streams, with automated quality monitoring and event-driven data pipelines.
  • Volunteer Software Architect at DariVreme.com — helping a Bulgarian time-donation platform reach more people, faster.
  • Burning tokens — building cool personal tools and optimizing my workflow.
  • Writing the "20 months on a platform for real-time quality analysis of video streams" series — see the blog.

Full career history (Adverity · Taulia · VMware · SAP) on LinkedIn →

Stack & expertise

  • Languages: Java (primary, 17+y) · TypeScript · Groovy · Python · PowerShell
  • AI tooling: Claude Code (daily driver) · GitHub Copilot · OpenAI API integration · agent skills design
  • Architecture: distributed systems · event-driven · multi-tenant SaaS · microservices · SOA migrations
  • JVM stack: Spring Boot · Spring Framework · Kafka · Kafka Streams · ActiveMQ · JPA / Hibernate
  • Cloud & infra: AWS (App Runner, Lambda, CloudFront, S3, MediaLive, EKS) · Terraform · GitHub Actions
  • Data: PostgreSQL · multi-tenant data architecture · event-driven persistence
  • Practices: ADRs as a forcing function · DORA metrics · observability-first · structured code review at scale · technical hiring

Open to

Senior architecture or head-of-engineering contracts — remote, EU companies. Distributed real-time systems, platform work, engineering-culture rebuilds. Open to advisory work for AI-adoption programmes in established teams.

Find me