Complexity.Under control.

I build the systems you don’t see.
And the reliability you do.

From the first byte to global scale.
Architecture, performance, and everything in between.

Explore my work Let’s talk

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Distributed systems / Reliability / Performance

5+Years in production

Backend & systems engineering, using Node.js, TypeScript, Rust and C++

200M+Monthly active users

Scale of the platform I support at Warner Bros. Discovery

5–10 msCached search queries

Down from approximately 400 ms on average

3.6M+Requests per hour

Handled by the platform I support at Warner Bros. Discovery

01The approach

Behind every effortless experience. A system that holds.

I’m Okan, a backend and systems engineer in Amsterdam. I work where software gets demanding: concurrent workloads, unreliable networks, and milliseconds that matter.

01 / Connect

Distributed systems

Services that work together predictably. Clear API contracts, event-driven workflows, and replay-safe processing under concurrent load.

Event-driven architecture · Data-intensive workflows

02 / Refine

Reliability & performance

Make the critical path faster and the failure modes visible. Caching, bounded retries, profiling, and observability built into production delivery.

Caching · Concurrency · Observability · Correctness

03 / Understand

Systems programming

Work close to the machine. C++23 and Linux tooling with attention to memory locality, CPU cache behavior, and efficient memory management.

C++23 · Linux · Network protocols · Memory management

02The evidence

Less friction. More possibility.

The approach becomes tangible here. A database built from first principles. Faster search. Integrations that recover when the network doesn’t cooperate.

01 / Independent engineering · C++23

Radish

Fast in memory.
Persistent by design.

A Redis-inspired key-value store built around TTL-aware data, durable persistence, and deterministic crash recovery.

RESP2 / RESP3 server compatible with redis-cli
Append-only logging and atomic compaction
Recovery, protocol, and TCP regression tests

C++23
Asio
CMake
TCP

Explore on GitHub

r.RADISH / SYSTEM MAPIn memory. On disk. After restart.01

01redis-cliRESP2 / RESP3CLIENT

02Asio TCP serverNonblocking connectionsI/O

03In-memory storeTTL-aware · Concurrent readers

Append-only logDurable writes

Crash replayDeterministic recovery

Selected production workPerformance. Reliability. Delivery.

02Warner Bros. Discovery

5–10 msAverage query latency

A faster search hot path

Led the implementation of a faster search hot path, reducing average query latency to 5–10 ms. Leveraging Redis for caching and Node.js with TypeScript for service implementation.

Redis
Node.js
TypeScript

03Warner Bros. Discovery

Leadership & ownershipSitemap generation delivery

From architecture to rollout

Led sitemap architecture and cross-team delivery (six teams), turning product and SEO requirements into backend responsibilities and a coordinated production rollout.

Architecture
Backend delivery
SEO

04FANSTR via. Pixelware

25–30%Fewer failed external transactions

Integrations that recover

Made customer-critical integrations more reliable through deterministic idempotency, deduplication, and bounded retries under concurrent load.

Node.js
PostgreSQL
RabbitMQ

Also exploring the visual side of systems. A ray tracer built from scratch in C++ and SDL, plus low-level graphics work with Vulkan and DirectX.

03The progression

Closer to the metal. Further in scale.

Device protocols taught me precision. Event-sourced platforms taught me consistency. Global consumer systems put both to the test.

Mar 2026 — Present

Current role

Warner Bros. Discovery

Software Engineer

Amsterdam

Building and operating Node.js and TypeScript microservices for a platform serving 200M+ monthly active users.

Led Bleacher Report sitemap architecture, cross-team alignment, and production rollout.
Delivered search caching, replay-safe Kafka consumers, and shared Datadog instrumentation across Kafka, Redis, and Node.js.
Develop and operate TypeScript/Node.js microservices using Kafka and gRPC, including replay-safe, idempotent consumers for at-least-once event processing.
Extended shared Datadog instrumentation for Kafka, Redis, and Node.js services to improve production monitoring and troubleshooting.

Node.js · TypeScript · Kafka · Redis · AWS

Aug 2024 — Aug 2025

FANSTR

Software Engineer

Rijswijk

Owned reliability and performance improvements across backend services and customer-critical integrations.

Reduced failed external transactions by approximately 25–30% with idempotency, deduplication, and controlled retries.
Improved performance by approximately 40% and built RabbitMQ email and SMS pipelines with independent retries and failure isolation.
Refactored PHP API integrations by consolidating provider-specific clients into a reusable API client abstraction, simplifying support for new integrations and reducing duplicated integration logic.

TypeScript · Node.js · RabbitMQ · PostgreSQL

Mar 2023 — Aug 2024

TJIP The Platform Engineer

Software Engineer

Delft

Architected reusable event-sourced workflows in Go, enabling auditable state transitions and adoption across teams.

Refactored legacy PHP into modular, testable services and strengthened delivery with automated tests, quality gates, and deployment checks.
Developed backend contracts and shared platform capabilities across TypeScript/Node.js, Go, and PHP services.

Go · TypeScript · PHP · MySQL · Azure DevOps

Apr 2021 — Mar 2023

Alflex Technologies

Software Engineer

Zoetermeer

Connected firmware and backend systems through an in-house TCP/IP protocol in PHP and C.

Built binary parsing and validation, then improved relational data access with MSSQL indexing, transactions, and query optimization.

PHP · C · MSSQL · MySQL · TCP/IP

04The responsibility

Build the system. Bring the team.

Good architecture needs shared understanding. In independent and founding roles, I connect technical decisions to the people who deliver them.

Jun 2024 — Present

Pixelware

Freelance Software Engineer

Rotterdam

Taking ownership of backend architecture and delivery for concurrent, multi-tenant systems.

Tenant isolation, deterministic state transitions, idempotency, and row-level database locking.
Performance-focused C++23 and Linux tooling: parsers, serializers, and synchronization prototypes.

May 2025 — Feb 2026

Cyber Dev

Technical Co-founder

Rijswijk

Shaped technical strategy, security architecture, and delivery for a client-facing cybersecurity platform.

Established secure coding, testing, review, observability, and release standards.
Led and mentored engineers and interns, with clear ownership and security-sensitive reviews.

05The toolkit