szalik.dev
Backend engineer building production systems trusted by thousands of users.
$ whoami szalik.dev $ role backend engineer $ focus scalable systems discord infrastructure production reliability $ status building
Experience
Early Development
Started building web applications and backend logic. First exposure to production systems and self-hosting.
Backend Focus
Deepened backend skills using PHP and SQL. Built systems designed for stability and long-term maintenance.
Scalable Systems
Designed and maintained systems used by large user bases. Focus on reliability, performance, and automation.
Tooling & Infrastructure
Building backend-heavy tooling and infrastructure with a strong emphasis on correctness and scale.
Projects
Portfolio
Personal portfolio built with Next.js and Framer Motion. Features automated releases via GitHub Actions, static site generation, and a terminal-inspired design aesthetic.
build: framework: next.js output: static deployment: automated ci/cd: releases: on_commit assets: production_build hosting: ready_to_deploy
Internal Tooling
A collection of backend-heavy tools built to automate workflows and reduce operational overhead.
scheduler: retries: true backoff: exponential observability: logs: structured metrics: enabled
Experimental Lua Systems
Lua-based scripting systems used for rapid prototyping and embedded logic.
runtime: sandboxed: true hot_reload: enabled memory: manual_control: true
Tech Stack
Primary
Technologies I rely on for building and maintaining production systems.
Secondary
Used when lower-level control or embedded scripting is required.
Approach
Principles that guide my technical decisions more than any framework.
Lab / Writeups
Short engineering notes about decisions, trade-offs, and constraints. Some finished, some in progress.
Reliability Over Features
PlannedWhy I prioritize correctness, observability, and failure modes over rapid feature expansion.
Things I No Longer Do in Production
PlannedA living list of patterns and shortcuts that repeatedly failed under real-world usage.
What Breaks First in Small Systems
PlannedNotes on which assumptions tend to collapse first as systems grow beyond their initial scope.
Let’s build something solid
Interested in working together, collaborating on tooling, or building infrastructure that needs to hold up in production?