Kristiyan Nikolov
Chief Technology Officer
Cloud architect and technical leader passionate about building scalable systems and empowering the next generation of tech talent.
Core Specializations
- System Design
- Software Architecture
- AI & ML Application Architecture
- Cloud Architecture & Migrations
- Kubernetes & Container Orchestration
- Distributed Systems & Microservices
- DevOps & CI/CD Pipelines
- Cost Optimization & Performance
- Observability & Monitoring
- Security & Compliance
Technical Leadership
- Technical Strategy & Vision
- Team Building & Mentorship
- Community Building & Education
- Product Development
- Due Diligence for Mergers/Acquisitions
Industry Experience
- Healthcare Technology
- Enterprise Software
- Cloud Services
- FinTech
- B2B SaaS
Co-Founder & CTO @ xHeal.ai
October 2025 - Present | Miami, FL (Remote)
Building the future of preventive healthcare - making it understandable, actionable, and affordable.
- Launched platform live in the US with Europe expansion coming soon
- Architecting 360° healthcare platform that transforms how people think about their health
- Creating technology that catches health issues before they become critical
- Building scalable infrastructure to support international growth
Cloud Architect @ EquityMultiple
October 2022 - Present | Remote (Contract)
Leading cloud infrastructure initiatives for leading real estate investment platform.
- Architecting scalable AWS infrastructure supporting investment platform
- Implementing Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
- Designing PostgreSQL database optimization strategies
- Establishing continuous delivery pipelines
- Managing complex product development lifecycle
Organizer @ BalchikCon
August 2023 - Present | Balchik, Bulgaria
Founded and organizing annual conference helping kids and young minds discover their path in IT.
- Created platform connecting aspiring tech enthusiasts with industry professionals
- Building bridges between curiosity and career opportunities in tech
- Organizing workshops, talks, and mentorship programs
- Growing local tech community and fostering next generation of engineers
Mentor @ Mentor the Young Bulgaria
October 2024 - January 2025 | Sofia, Bulgaria (Hybrid)
Guiding next generation through 12-week intensive mentorship program.
- Providing career orientation and soft skills development
- Teaching technical skills and industry best practices
- Helping mentees navigate their path into tech industry
- Sharing real-world experience and insights
Software Craftsman @ ST6.io
November 2021 - October 2022 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Built the first native Kubernetes distribution for MacOS.
- Developed core Kubernetes components in Go and Swift
- Designed cloud-native observability using Prometheus and Grafana
- Implemented peer mentoring programs for engineering team
- Created innovative solutions for local development environments
Principal DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2019 - October 2021 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Led large-scale infrastructure transformations and cloud migrations.
Kubernetes Migration Leader: Architected and led migration from legacy EC2 to Kubernetes
- Designed auto-scaling, load balancing, and CI/CD strategies
- Implemented CRDs and Operators for Kubernetes-native architecture
- Right-sized infrastructure reducing costs by 60%+
Distributed Systems Architect: Designed SOA-based products using event-driven patterns
- Built observability pipelines with Prometheus, Zabbix, PagerDuty
- Architected multi-account-multi-region continuous deployments with Jenkins
- Re-architected logging with Kafka and Fluentbit for durability
Technical Leadership: Served as SME in pre-acquisition due diligence
- Interviewed 100+ engineering candidates
- Led cloud cost-cutting initiatives across organization
- Designed cross-team fan-out multi-region deployment strategies
Senior DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2018 - February 2019 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Evolved infrastructure architecture and established modern DevOps practices.
- Designed and implemented cloud network architectures
- Built compute-intensive application architectures on AWS
- Established monitoring and alerting best practices
- Led edge proxy migration initiatives
DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2017 - February 2018 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Worked on high-value products including Telerik Platform, Kinvey, NativeChat, and AppBuilder.
- Implemented continuous delivery pipelines for multiple products
- Performed cloud migrations from single to hybrid/multi-cloud
- Designed distributed systems architectures
- Improved deployment automation and reliability
Junior DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
January 2016 - February 2017 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Started journey in DevOps, learning fundamentals of cloud infrastructure and automation.
- Supported production environments for multiple products
- Implemented basic CI/CD pipelines
- Learned cloud platforms and infrastructure management
- Contributed to team automation initiatives
System Administrator @ Liquidnet Limited (ResellerPanel)
September 2014 - December 2015 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Managed infrastructure backbone for ResellerPanel hosting platform across 5 datacenters with thousands of servers and VPS instances.
- Architected and built distributed backup system for ZFS backup servers
- Developed SNMP metric pushers in C for network device monitoring (StatsD)
- Mastered PostgreSQL triggers and advanced database optimization
- Managed thousands of physical servers and VPS instances across 5 global datacenters
- Gained foundational knowledge in distributed systems architecture
- Automated infrastructure monitoring and alerting at scale
- Learned C programming for system-level tools and integrations
Co-founded xHeal.ai - revolutionizing preventive healthcare in the US
Organized BalchikCon - helping young minds discover their path in IT
Led large-scale Kubernetes migration from legacy EC2 systems at Progress
Designed SOA architectures processing millions of requests daily
Architected cloud cost-cutting projects saving 60%+ on infrastructure
Helped building the first native Kubernetes distribution for MacOS at ST6 (Customer: MacStadium)
Managed infrastructure across 5 datacenters with thousands of servers at ResellerPanel
Built distributed ZFS backup system handling petabyte-scale data
Interviewed 100+ engineering candidates throughout career
Languages & Frameworks
Cloud & Infrastructure
Data & Analytics
Core Specializations
- System Design
- Software Architecture
- AI & ML Application Architecture
- Cloud Architecture & Migrations
- Kubernetes & Container Orchestration
- Distributed Systems & Microservices
- DevOps & CI/CD Pipelines
- Cost Optimization & Performance
- Observability & Monitoring
- Security & Compliance
Technical Leadership
- Technical Strategy & Vision
- Team Building & Mentorship
- Community Building & Education
- Product Development
- Due Diligence for Mergers/Acquisitions
Industry Experience
- Healthcare Technology
- Enterprise Software
- Cloud Services
- FinTech
- B2B SaaS
Co-Founder & CTO @ xHeal.ai
October 2025 - Present | Miami, FL (Remote)
Building the future of preventive healthcare - making it understandable, actionable, and affordable.
- Launched platform live in the US with Europe expansion coming soon
- Architecting 360° healthcare platform that transforms how people think about their health
- Creating technology that catches health issues before they become critical
- Building scalable infrastructure to support international growth
Cloud Architect @ EquityMultiple
October 2022 - Present | Remote (Contract)
Leading cloud infrastructure initiatives for leading real estate investment platform.
- Architecting scalable AWS infrastructure supporting investment platform
- Implementing Infrastructure as Code with Terraform
- Designing PostgreSQL database optimization strategies
- Establishing continuous delivery pipelines
- Managing complex product development lifecycle
Organizer @ BalchikCon
August 2023 - Present | Balchik, Bulgaria
Founded and organizing annual conference helping kids and young minds discover their path in IT.
- Created platform connecting aspiring tech enthusiasts with industry professionals
- Building bridges between curiosity and career opportunities in tech
- Organizing workshops, talks, and mentorship programs
- Growing local tech community and fostering next generation of engineers
Mentor @ Mentor the Young Bulgaria
October 2024 - January 2025 | Sofia, Bulgaria (Hybrid)
Guiding next generation through 12-week intensive mentorship program.
- Providing career orientation and soft skills development
- Teaching technical skills and industry best practices
- Helping mentees navigate their path into tech industry
- Sharing real-world experience and insights
Software Craftsman @ ST6.io
November 2021 - October 2022 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Built the first native Kubernetes distribution for MacOS.
- Developed core Kubernetes components in Go and Swift
- Designed cloud-native observability using Prometheus and Grafana
- Implemented peer mentoring programs for engineering team
- Created innovative solutions for local development environments
Principal DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2019 - October 2021 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Led large-scale infrastructure transformations and cloud migrations.
Kubernetes Migration Leader: Architected and led migration from legacy EC2 to Kubernetes
- Designed auto-scaling, load balancing, and CI/CD strategies
- Implemented CRDs and Operators for Kubernetes-native architecture
- Right-sized infrastructure reducing costs by 60%+
Distributed Systems Architect: Designed SOA-based products using event-driven patterns
- Built observability pipelines with Prometheus, Zabbix, PagerDuty
- Architected multi-account-multi-region continuous deployments with Jenkins
- Re-architected logging with Kafka and Fluentbit for durability
Technical Leadership: Served as SME in pre-acquisition due diligence
- Interviewed 100+ engineering candidates
- Led cloud cost-cutting initiatives across organization
- Designed cross-team fan-out multi-region deployment strategies
Senior DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2018 - February 2019 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Evolved infrastructure architecture and established modern DevOps practices.
- Designed and implemented cloud network architectures
- Built compute-intensive application architectures on AWS
- Established monitoring and alerting best practices
- Led edge proxy migration initiatives
DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
February 2017 - February 2018 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Worked on high-value products including Telerik Platform, Kinvey, NativeChat, and AppBuilder.
- Implemented continuous delivery pipelines for multiple products
- Performed cloud migrations from single to hybrid/multi-cloud
- Designed distributed systems architectures
- Improved deployment automation and reliability
Junior DevOps Engineer @ Progress Software
January 2016 - February 2017 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Started journey in DevOps, learning fundamentals of cloud infrastructure and automation.
- Supported production environments for multiple products
- Implemented basic CI/CD pipelines
- Learned cloud platforms and infrastructure management
- Contributed to team automation initiatives
System Administrator @ Liquidnet Limited (ResellerPanel)
September 2014 - December 2015 | Sofia, Bulgaria
Managed infrastructure backbone for ResellerPanel hosting platform across 5 datacenters with thousands of servers and VPS instances.
- Architected and built distributed backup system for ZFS backup servers
- Developed SNMP metric pushers in C for network device monitoring (StatsD)
- Mastered PostgreSQL triggers and advanced database optimization
- Managed thousands of physical servers and VPS instances across 5 global datacenters
- Gained foundational knowledge in distributed systems architecture
- Automated infrastructure monitoring and alerting at scale
- Learned C programming for system-level tools and integrations
Co-founded xHeal.ai - revolutionizing preventive healthcare in the US
Organized BalchikCon - helping young minds discover their path in IT
Led large-scale Kubernetes migration from legacy EC2 systems at Progress
Designed SOA architectures processing millions of requests daily
Architected cloud cost-cutting projects saving 60%+ on infrastructure
Helped building the first native Kubernetes distribution for MacOS at ST6 (Customer: MacStadium)
Managed infrastructure across 5 datacenters with thousands of servers at ResellerPanel
Built distributed ZFS backup system handling petabyte-scale data
Interviewed 100+ engineering candidates throughout career
Languages & Frameworks
Cloud & Infrastructure
Data & Analytics
Let's Build Something with Kristiyan Nikolov
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