Principal Software Engineer / Istanbul · Remote EMEA
I build products end to end, from React interfaces to APIs and cloud infrastructure.
15+ years with US startups, including SellerCrowd’s full application and Edge Delta’s OnCall AI.
Seeking Senior / Staff / Principal product engineering and applied-AI roles. I’m interested in hands-on work across the stack, especially developer tools and AI features. Based in Istanbul; available for remote work with EMEA working hours.
Developed an internal knowledge base and AI chat assistant, with custom tools connecting GitHub, Linear, and internal resources to retrieve context and query code and issues.
Led the platform-wide Angular-to-React migration. Built the first version of OnCall AI to review observability findings and suggest actions, alongside hands-on work on Go services, APIs, and AWS infrastructure.
Led six engineers to build a property management MVP, delivering the internal deployment used for investor demos within four months. Designed an event-driven backend and integrated LangGraph for AI workflows.
Built the entire social networking application for the advertising industry using Django, React, and GraphQL, including database modeling, frontend development, and billing. Served as CTO and lead developer.
Experience
Engineering roles in observability, healthcare, retail, and AI applications. The common thread is hands-on product development.
Internal knowledge base and AI chat assistant for a confidential US client, with GitHub and Linear tools. Automated AWS infrastructure with Terraform to support SOC 2 Type II audit readiness.
Led six engineers to build an AI-assisted property management MVP. Delivered the internal deployment used for investor demos within four months.
Led the platform-wide Angular-to-React migration. Built Go backend services and Stripe billing, improved CI pipelines and DynamoDB queries, developed conversational pipeline configuration, and built the first version of OnCall AI to review findings and suggest actions.
Led engineering within a 3–4 person team serving healthcare customers including Walmart Health. Built PWA and Electron applications, EHR integrations, and DICOM-compliant QA tooling; hardened CouchDB on Kubernetes in Google Cloud (GCP).
Main engineer at a retail merchandise planning startup. Developed software with Node.js, GraphQL, and Azure, taught Node.js to teammates, and helped build the core engineering team.
Built the entire social networking application for the advertising industry, including database modeling, frontend development, and billing, serving more than 20,000 members.
Technical focus
TypeScript, React, Node.js, GraphQL, Next.js, NestJS, Python, Django, Go
Vercel AI SDK, LangGraph, custom tool calling, enterprise knowledge retrieval, conversational interfaces
PostgreSQL, Redis, Google Cloud (GCP), AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, Kafka
A little background
I’m Üstün, a software engineer based in Istanbul. I’ve worked as a founding engineer, CTO, VP of Engineering, and senior engineer at US startups, while staying close to the code.
I completed an MSc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bilkent University in 2009, researching polar codes under Prof. Erdal Arıkan. I’ve spoken and taught workshops at DjangoCon Europe, Øredev, and At the Frontend Denmark on React internals and application architecture.
Explore my GitHubOpen to Senior / Staff / Principal engineering roles
Remote from Istanbul, with EMEA working hours.
Seeking hands-on product engineering and applied-AI opportunities.