Hi everyone! My name is Nikita Mikaev.
I’m an Engineering Manager and Staff Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience in backend and distributed systems. Most of my time, I work with Java, Kotlin, and Spring (and sometimes Python/FastAPI), building high-load, scalable systems that actually survive production — not just look good on diagrams.
I’ve helped launch 15+ products across fintech, health, media, music, and retail; scaled systems to ~100k RPS with 99.999% availability; and worked with everything from greenfield projects to very “legacy” legacy code. I care a lot about reliability, simplicity, and long-term architecture — shipping fast is great, but shipping something that lasts is better.
Right now, I’m building a GenAI product and writing both a book and this blog.
This blog is where I share real-world lessons about software architecture, distributed systems, and engineering leadership — the stuff you usually learn the hard way.
I hope you enjoy it.