Kiren S - Technical Lead & Backend Engineer

Selected work

Three systems that show how I design, decide, and deliver. Full write-ups on request.

01 · System Designer & Lead Developer · Hensel Electric, Germany

Hensel PIM - product data for a German manufacturer

Context. Hensel manufactures electrical installation systems; their product data lived in spreadsheets and disconnected tools. I designed and led the build of a Product Information Management system end to end.

Decisions. Laravel with a reusable component library; an approval workflow engine for product changes; ACL for role-based access; BMECAT export for catalogue distribution; Zapier for automation; full media and translation management.

Outcome. A single source of truth for the full product catalogue, multi-language, with automated exports replacing manual catalogue work.

Laravel MySQL BMECAT Zapier

02 · Backend Engineer · EQS Group

Core Microservices - CQRS gateway for a product suite

Context. EQS's investor-relations products each needed the same foundational capabilities. We built shared microservices consumed across the whole suite.

Decisions. CQRS-based event architecture; an API gateway layer in Symfony and Node.js; Elasticsearch for cross-service search. Maintained 80–90% test coverage with TDD across all features.

Outcome. Shared services adopted suite-wide; CRM homepage load time cut significantly through targeted optimisation; CI/CD pipeline integrated.

Symfony Node.js Elasticsearch CQRS

03 · System Designer & Lead Developer · San Diego State University, USA

SDSU - rescuing a legacy 4GL/Informix system

Context. Student invoicing, disbursements, and academic management ran on a decades-old 4GL/Informix stack that few people could still maintain.

Decisions. Full migration to PHP/MySQL on Zend Framework; role-based ACL; Kendo UI for the administrative front end; SOS Berlin job scheduler for batch processing.

Outcome. A university-critical system moved off unmaintainable infrastructure with its business rules preserved - the kind of migration where the only acceptable defect count is zero.

Zend Framework MySQL Informix

More work

RelayIQ

Process-analysis platform - led Symfony 5.4 → 6.4 migration with zero downtime; optimised anomaly-detection pipeline.

Symfony · MySQL

EQS CRM

Investor-relations contact & mailing platform - homepage performance optimisation, TDD, Angular coaching.

Symfony · Angular

Shopware 6 Integration

Reusable PHP package syncing full product catalogues - media, variants, cross-selling - via the Admin API.

PHP · Shopware 6

BeaRecorderStar

Interactive music-learning platform with drag-and-drop notation and Canvas animation, deployed on AWS.

Laravel · AWS

Appointment Management

Enterprise scheduling integrated directly with Microsoft Exchange (EWS), with real-time notifications.

Laravel · MS EWS

Experience

Jul 2025 - Present

Technical Lead · Gadgeon Smart Systems

Leading backend engineering - architecture direction, review standards, and delivery.

Feb 2020 - Jul 2025

Technical Lead · Yuhiro Technologies

Led development and system design across enterprise projects for German clients over 5+ years - Hensel PIM, RelayIQ, Shopware integrations. Mentored developers and set engineering standards.

Jan 2018 - Jan 2020

Senior Developer · EQS Web Technologies

EQS CRM and Core Microservices - CQRS gateway, 80–90% TDD coverage, performance optimisation, live coding sessions for backend developers.

Sep 2014 - Jan 2018

Senior Developer · Micro Objects

SDSU legacy migration, BeaRecorderStar, mobile game web services, CoFoundersLab social platform.

Jul 2013 - Sep 2014

Developer · SOD Technologies

Backend development and client delivery at an Infopark-based software company.

Dec 2010 - Jul 2013

Junior Developer · Feathersoft Info Solutions

Started my career building web applications on PHP and MySQL.

How I lead

Five convictions from fifteen years of shipping with teams.

Tests are the architecture's contract.

I've held 80–90% coverage on enterprise codebases for years - not for the metric, but because TDD is how a team changes systems without fear.

Mentoring is part of the job, not extra.

Live coding sessions, pairing, and code review as teaching - at EQS I coached backend developers through JavaScript and Angular the same way.

Precision is a habit, not a phase.

Seven years of German client work taught me that quality standards live in daily practice - specification, review, delivery - not in documents.

Translate both directions.

A lead's job is bridging business stakeholders and engineers - making constraints legible to one side and intent legible to the other.

Boring architecture, deliberately.

DDD, CQRS, and event sourcing where they earn their complexity - and plain, well-tested Laravel where they don't. The system that lasts is the one the next team can hold.

Technical expertise

Core - daily, expert

PHP · Laravel · Symfony
MySQL · Doctrine ORM
DDD · CQRS · Microservices
REST APIs · TDD / PHPUnit
Docker · CI/CD

Production experience

Shopware 6 · API Platform
Node.js · React · Angular
Elasticsearch · RabbitMQ
AWS (EC2 · S3 · SNS · ELB)
Stripe · Braintree · PayPal · MS EWS

Legacy systems rescued

Informix 4GL · Zend Framework
Laminas · jQuery-era frontends
SVN → Git migrations

Old stacks don't scare me - migrating them safely is a specialty.

About

I lead backend teams that ship enterprise software German clients sign off on. Over 15 years I've architected PIM systems, CQRS microservices, and legacy migrations for clients across Germany, the US, and India - and spent seven of those years holding my work to German engineering standards.

My expertise spans clean architecture, domain-driven design, and backend systems that are secure, testable, and built to grow. Beyond the code, I care about the people around it: mentoring developers, bridging business stakeholders and technical teams, and building cultures of ownership.

Master of Computer Application (MCA), 2011. Based in Kochi, Kerala, India - working with teams worldwide.