SYSTEM ONLINE — PORTFOLIO v1.0

DIJAR KADRIU_

Lead Backend Engineer / Software Architect

Architecting distributed, high-throughput backend platforms that stay fast under fire.

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01

About

PROFILE

// summary

Prishtina, Kosovo · Remote (EU / US)

Lead Backend Engineer and Software Architect with 7+ years building distributed, high-throughput backend platforms using .NET, AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, Microsoft Orleans, and FIX Protocol. Currently leading backend architecture for iGaming platforms scaling to peak traffic of ~45K requests/sec and processing ~1M transactions/day across Kubernetes-orchestrated microservices. Experienced in real-time transaction processing, system design, production ownership, observability, provider integrations, compliance-heavy domains, and mentoring backend engineers.

02

Experience

UPTIME 7Y+

Lead Backend Engineer / Software Architect

03/2022 — Present
StarLabs·Prishtina, Kosovo
  • ▸Led backend architecture for high-throughput iGaming platforms across casino, sportsbook, and poker domains, supporting ~1M transactions/day and scaling to peak traffic of ~45K requests/sec.
  • ▸Designed and operated Kubernetes-based microservices on AWS EKS, using ArgoCD and blue-green deployment strategies to support zero-downtime production releases.
  • ▸Built stateful, fault-tolerant workflows using the Microsoft Orleans virtual actor model, enabling horizontal scaling, automatic failover, and elastic capacity during peak gaming and betting events.
  • ▸Designed and supported FIX Protocol integrations for sportsbook and trading-related systems, including order submission, execution reports, message validation, session handling, and transaction state synchronization.
  • ▸Improved throughput, latency, and platform stability through SQL query plan optimization, Redis caching layers, and targeted service decomposition under high-concurrency workloads.
  • ▸Integrated event-driven communication through Amazon MSK / Kafka to decouple services, improve deployment independence, and increase resilience during traffic spikes.
  • ▸Built and maintained observability using OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, distributed tracing, metrics, dashboards, and alerting.
  • ▸Owned production systems end-to-end — on-call rotation, incident response, capacity planning, and post-incident reviews within a 150-person engineering organization.
  • ▸Mentored 10+ backend engineers, established architectural standards, and improved code review and CI/CD practices using GitHub Actions and ArgoCD.
C#.NET 8Microsoft OrleansgRPCFIX ProtocolKafka / Amazon MSKRedisSQL ServerPostgreSQLAWS EKSArgoCDOpenTelemetryPrometheusGrafana

Lead Backend Engineer / Software Architect

05/2024 — 01/2026
Digital School — StarLabs Sister Company·Prishtina, Kosovo·Concurrent role
  • ▸Architected and delivered backend systems for an edutainment platform serving 15,000+ students aged 10–18 across 10+ countries in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
  • ▸Helped consolidate LMS, CRM, gamified learning modules, homework missions, and reporting features into a unified web platform.
  • ▸Designed and developed Houses, a standalone 3D gamified learning application built with React and Three.js, backed by a Laravel API.
  • ▸Integrated Houses with Moodle LMS for real-time progress tracking, mission completion, automated grading, and student learning data synchronization.
  • ▸Developed custom Moodle plugins and APIs connecting learning activities, assessments, XP, missions, and course progress across the platform.
LaravelPHPReactThree.jsMoodle

Software Engineer, Backend

03/2021 — 03/2022
AlbiSoft GmbH·Prishtina, Kosovo
  • ▸Built a fully customizable invoice system using Blazor, including a visual drag-and-drop template designer for composing invoice layouts, configuring dynamic data fields, and generating print-ready documents.
  • ▸Delivered the invoice platform to 5 production clients, supporting configurable business rules and customer-specific document layouts.
  • ▸Developed transactional APIs for regulated financial planning platforms with audit trails and strict data correctness requirements across multi-step workflows.
  • ▸Improved SQL query performance and backend throughput under concurrent load while maintaining reliability for financial data workflows.
C#.NETBlazorSQL Server

Software Engineer, Backend

04/2018 — 03/2022
DynamicSpheres·Prishtina, Kosovo·Full-time until 03/2021 · Part-time from 03/2021
  • ▸Developed and maintained backend services for a regulated banking platform serving ~30,000 customers, focusing on transactional correctness, API reliability, and data consistency.
  • ▸Implemented compliance-driven features including audit logging, transaction reconciliation, and regulatory reporting pipelines for banking operations.
  • ▸Improved long-term platform maintainability through SQL performance tuning, targeted refactoring, and technical debt reduction across core financial services.
C#ASP.NET.NET Framework.NETSQL Server
03

Projects

SELECTED WORK
PROJECT_01SHIPPED

Houses

3D gamified learning app

A standalone 3D gamified learning application built with React and Three.js, backed by a Laravel API and integrated with Moodle LMS. Powers real-time progress tracking, mission completion, automated grading, and student learning-data synchronization for an edutainment platform serving 15,000+ students aged 10–18 across 10+ countries.

ReactThree.jsLaravelMoodleWebGL
PROJECT_02LIVE

TrafficClash

Real-time PvP traffic-counting game

A retro CRT-terminal PvP game where players watch a live traffic camera and race to claim a unique integer predicting how many vehicles cross the counting line — closest guess wins the round. Real-time matchmaking and game state run on FastAPI + python-socketio backed by Valkey, while a CPU-only Ultralytics YOLO (yolo11n) + supervision ByteTrack pipeline detects and tracks vehicles from the live HLS feed. Single-node, no SQL database.

FastAPIpython-socketioValkeyUltralytics YOLOByteTrackReactViteDocker
Live
PROJECT_03LIVE

kosovaproperties

Kosova real-estate aggregator

A Kosova real-estate aggregator shipping as a static Next.js 14 site backed by a weekly Python snapshot pipeline. Scrapers normalize, geocode, and deduplicate listings across multiple sources; GitHub Actions runs the weekly refresh, exports JSON snapshots, builds the site, and deploys to Cloudflare Pages. Includes a public transparency page for data freshness and per-source health.

Next.js 14PythonScrapersGeocodingCloudflare PagesGitHub Actions
Live
PROJECT_04ACTIVE

fictional-video-generator

Autonomous YouTube Shorts pipeline

A Python pipeline that generates multi-part fictional YouTube Shorts end-to-end — ideation and scripting with Claude Haiku 4.5, imagery with fal.ai Flux Schnell, narration via Edge TTS, composed with FFmpeg, then uploaded and scheduled through the YouTube Data API. Runs daily in GitHub Actions, persists run state, and resumes after failures.

Python 3.12Claude Haiku 4.5fal.ai FluxEdge TTSFFmpegYouTube Data APIGitHub Actions
GitHub
04

Skills

STACK MAP

/Backend

  • C#
  • .NET 8
  • .NET Core
  • .NET Framework
  • ASP.NET Core
  • Blazor
  • Entity Framework Core
  • FIX Protocol
  • gRPC
  • REST APIs

/Architecture

  • Distributed Systems
  • Microservices
  • Actor Model
  • Microsoft Orleans
  • DDD
  • CQRS
  • Event-Driven Architecture
  • System Design

/Data & Messaging

  • SQL Server
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • Kafka
  • Amazon MSK
  • Message Brokers

/Cloud & Infra

  • AWS
  • EKS
  • MSK
  • S3
  • RDS
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
  • GitHub Actions
  • ArgoCD
  • n8n
  • Blue-Green Deploys

/Observability

  • OpenTelemetry
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • Distributed Tracing
  • Metrics
  • Alerting
  • On-call

/AI Tooling

  • Codex
  • Claude Code
  • AI-assisted review
  • Refactoring
  • Test generation

/Leadership

  • Architecture Ownership
  • Mentoring
  • Code Reviews
  • Capacity Planning
  • Incident Response
  • Internal Tooling
05

Education

CREDENTIALS
2020 — 2022

MSc in Computer Science and Engineering

UBT — University for Business and Technology

Prishtina, Kosovo

2016 — 2019

BSc in Computer Science and Engineering

UBT — University for Business and Technology

Prishtina, Kosovo

// publication

Multithreaded Approach for Using Blockchain as an Automated Versioning Tool

A. Kadriu, D. Kadriu, D. Salihi, E. Jajaga

UBT International Conference, Lipjan, Kosovo · October 2020

DOI: 10.33107/ubt-ic.2020.500 ↗
06

Certifications

ANTHROPIC ACADEMY

Building with the Claude API

Anthropic2026

Claude Code in Action

Anthropic2026

Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics

Anthropic2026

AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations

Anthropic2026

Introduction to Model Context Protocol

Anthropic2026

Introduction to subagents

Anthropic2026

Introduction to agent skills

Anthropic2026

Claude Code 101

Anthropic2026

AI Capabilities and Limitations

Anthropic2026

Claude 101

Anthropic2026
06

Languages

FLUENCY
  • English — Professional working proficiency
  • Albanian — Native
07

Contact

OPEN TO WORK

Building something that needs to scale, stay correct, and not fall over at peak? Let's talk.

Prishtina, Kosovo · Remote (EU / US)

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