My name is Denis Savenko, and I’m a Python backend developer with a long track record and a broad technical mindset.
I graduated with a Master’s degree in Physics, specializing in photonics and nanoelectronics, from ETU University. My career started in 2007 as a web developer at the architecture bureau “A.Len,” where I worked on improving corporate websites in PHP. In 2009, I joined the web studio ABCbox, creating websites on various PHP CMS and frameworks such as Symfony, and also worked on Ruby on Rails projects. In 2012, I moved to Ferrum Studio and continued developing numerous e-commerce projects.
In 2014, I joined Orange Bank as a web developer. Over two years, I worked first as a PHP backend developer and then as a JavaScript full-stack developer (React, Angular, Express, Koa). Around this time, I started building pet projects in Python, experimenting with machine learning and image recognition, and realized I enjoyed backend development in Python far more than frontend and JS full-stack work. This led me to switch fully to Python backend development within the bank’s backend team.
In 2021, I joined the fintech company UpTrader as a Senior Python Backend Developer. UpTrader builds a large-scale, complex CRM for crypto and forex brokers. The system heavily customizes and extends Django modules (authorization, authentication, DSL modules, etc.) and uses Django, DRF, PostgreSQL, Celery, Sentry, Redis, React on the frontend, along with custom C++ modules and proxy microservices — all running across roughly twenty Docker containers. My work included developing backend features for lead and manager interaction, integrating multiple payment systems, refactoring legacy code, and fixing issues in close collaboration with the QA team.
From 2023 to 2025, I worked at Surf (surf.dev), a mobile and web development company, as a Tech Lead for Python Backend. I built the Python department from scratch: conducted interviews, hired and managed two backend teams (8 developers total), led code and performance reviews, and mentored team members. I improved DevOps processes by migrating from Docker to Minikube, reducing project setup time from one week to two hours. I designed system architectures, provided technical consultations, and took part in presale activities, including project timeline and budget estimations. As a Team Lead and developer, I worked on five major projects, including two food tech mobile app backends, a dating app backend with ML-based pair matching, a crypto fund fintech platform backend, and a large-scale booking marketplace backend refactor.
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