Rust Saiargaliev
Curious engineer in Berlin, passionate about open source and maintainable code.
Summary
Lead Engineer with 10+ years building reliable Python/Django platforms. OSS maintainer, prolific tinkerer always building something on the side, and a firm believer that great software is a team sport.
Experience
Lead Engineer @ voiio
July 2024 – present
June 2021 – July 2024, 3 years as a Senior Engineer
Building and evolving a B2B platform and related services together with a brilliant small team.
- Redesigned the data warehouse to use database views on a replica instead of loading the production database; drove org-wide data literacy through workshops — the team now runs on Metabase
- Implemented a video-on-demand solution based on AWS infrastructure (MediaConvert, Lambda, CloudFront)
- Co-developed emark — an open-source Django library to create and send markdown-based emails
- Created an AI deployment pipeline for OpenAI-based internal and external assistants
- Achievement unlocked: survived a team event bike accident with a concussion — commitment level 100%
Model Bakery
2018–present
Core maintainer of a popular Django fixture library — 1.4M+ monthly downloads, listed in the official Django ecosystem.
Senior Engineer @ thermondo
April 2019 – May 2021, 2 years
March 2016 – April 2019, 3 years as a Software Engineer
Owned backend systems — a monolith (~150kloc) and microservices — powering core business processes.
- Improved engineering processes (architectural decision notes, post-mortems, maintenance)
- Integrated Salesforce into business processes in under 3 months by building the backend-to-Salesforce API layer from scratch
- Created a bidirectional sync microservice for CRM communication (Salesforce+Close.com)
- Kept the stack and open-source/closed-source libraries up-to-date and well-tested (90%+ coverage)
- Bootstrapped a Slack bot to share feedback between team members
- Built an incident monitoring tool for 3rd party services
- Bonus stat: broke a finger and injured a knee during team events — unmatched dedication to teamwork
Web Developer (volunteering) @ MKCorp
November 2014 – March 2016, 1.5 years
With a bunch of creative people around the world, we were building an indie MMORPG game. Lack of time and any funding stopped us from going any further than a basic prototype.
- Bootstrapped a website
- Developed a fully functional game forum from scratch
- Started building a payment system integrated with the game API
Web Developer @ SMENA
October 2013 – December 2015, 2 years
Built and maintained various websites and complex web services for external clients.
- Built a backend for Boostframe crowdfunding platform
- Maintained food delivery website and CRM
- Created API libraries and various automations to work with advertising networks Yandex.Direct and Mail.Ru Target
Security Engineer @ Bashneft
February 2013 – October 2013, 9 months
Security administrator in charge of the corporate antivirus and antispam security systems covering 20,000 users.
Engineer's degree @ UUST (ex USATU)
2008 – 2013, 5 years
Thesis: "Innovations in a corporate network security infrastructure"
Skill set
- Backend & APIs — Python, Django, DRF, FastAPI, Flask, Celery, Dramatiq
- Frontend — htmx, Lit, Svelte, Vue, React, jQuery
- Data & storage — PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Redis, Metabase, Heroku Connect
- Infrastructure & CI — Docker, AWS (Lambda, S3, SES, etc.), Heroku, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
- AI & integrations — LLM pipelines, Salesforce, OpenAI
- Testing & quality — pytest, 90%+ coverage practices
- Team leadership — hiring, onboarding, mentoring, process improvement
Extra
- Languages — English (fluent), Russian (native), German (intermediate)
- Open Source — active OSS contributor, see github.com/amureki
- Community — Moderated @pydjango (6000 members) and founded @django_jobs (4000 members)
- Talks — co-organized and talked at DUG and PUG Berlin meetups
- Hobbies — jogging, photography, video games
- Fun fact — known to turn ordinary team events into survival challenges