Available for select work

Mario Sokolovsky

Principal Software Engineer · Infra / DevOps Lead

Currently @ MASTERREMIT · Victoria, Australia

I build systems that scale, and bills that don't.

Principal software engineer and Infra / DevOps lead, ten years deep. I cut infrastructure costs by 73%, ship platforms that hold 100M+ records, and lead delivery end-to-end, from multi-account AWS and Terraform to the Laravel, Symfony, and NestJS services running on top. On my current fintech build I'm folding in AI agents and automation flows where they earn it. Measured by what ships: lower bills, faster APIs, systems that hold under load. Off the clock, I build games.

Based in Australia · Collaborating globally · Delivered across 3+ countries

Mario Sokolovsky

Trusted by teams behind

AsahiWestfieldLGColesAdidasEuronicsAsahiWestfieldLGColesAdidasEuronics
73%
Infra cost cut
AUD 4.5k → 1.2k/mo, MASTERREMIT
100M+
Digital records served
Asset platform, DESYGNER
20%
Lower AWS spend
EC2 rightsizing, DESYGNER
5M+
Monthly active users
E-commerce backend, CURRYS

Selected work

Things I built that people actually use.

01 Experiential / VR·AR 2022–2024

Zebrar Interactive

Senior Full Stack Engineer

The backends behind physical, branded interactive installations like arcade cabinets, AR experiences and live activations for Asahi, Westfield (Vivid), LG and Coles. Real-time WebSockets, Laravel/Python APIs, and AWS pipelines holding tens of thousands of players per campaign.

50,000+ daily users / campaign

LaravelPythonWebSocketsAWSPlayCanvas/WebGL
02 Startup · Wellness 2025–Now

Wimflame

Co-Founder & Senior Full Stack Engineer

A modern breathwork analytics platform, real-time session tracking, breath-pattern visualization, and progress reporting. Built and shipped from zero, to 100+ users in three months.

100+ users in first 3 months

Vue 3NestJSSupabase / PostgreSQLVercel
Visit ↗
03 E-commerce / CMS 2019–2021

Antik U Papouska

Full Stack Tech Lead

A full-featured CMS and e-commerce platform built from scratch for an antique retailer, leading a team of three. 5,000+ products, 99.9% uptime over two years.

10,000+ monthly active users

LaravelVue.js / QuasarMySQL
04 SaaS Platform 2024

Webrand

Architecture & Cloud Infrastructure

An all-in-one marketing platform built on microservices, AI-assisted brand assets, templates, and growth tooling, served from a containerised AWS backend designed to scale without ballooning the bill.

Microservices · AWS

SymfonyNode.jsAWSDockerTerraform
B Game Dev · Unity 6
05 Game Dev · Unity 6 In development

Breadlines

Solo Developer, code, art & design

A 3D tower-defense roguelite I'm building solo in Unity 6. You're a mad bakery baker holding the line as pastries and food go rogue, modular towers, a roguelite run loop, and quirky, colourful low-poly art. Everything ships from my hands: gameplay, C#, and the 3D art. AI only writes the music and plays rubber duck, never the code.

Solo-built in Unity 6

Unity 6C#3D Art / Low-polyGame Design

Experience

A decade of shipping under load.

  1. Jan 2026 – Now Now

    DevOps / InfraOps Lead & Principal Software Engineer

    MASTERREMIT · Contract

    • Led end-to-end modernization of a fintech platform across infrastructure and application code, using AWS, Terraform, Next.js, NestJS, and Laravel.
    • Re-architected a fragile single-account AWS setup into isolated multi-account dev/staging/production environments with private VPC networking and ALBs.
    • Cut infrastructure spend from ~AUD 4,500/mo to ~AUD 1,200/mo while improving security, stability, and deployment reliability.
    • Rebuilt core internal systems in Laravel (compliance CMS, support tooling, transaction management) with a database redesign for scale.
    • Folded AI agents and automation flows into the delivery workflow, using LLM tooling to take repetitive ops and glue work off the team's plate.
    AWSTerraformLaravelNestJSNext.jsAI agents
  2. Mar 2024 – Apr 2025

    DevOps Engineer & Senior Software Engineer

    DESYGNER · Full-Time

    • Architected asset-management and rendering platforms handling 100M+ digital records for millions of users on Symfony 4/5, Node.js, and NoSQL.
    • Redesigned queue systems and DB queries to lift rendering performance 40% (Node.js, TypeScript, SharpJS/C++).
    • Built a multithreaded PHP + Redis deletion pipeline that safely removes 1.2M users/day, including their images and videos.
    • Cut AWS EC2 spend ~20% via rightsizing, autoscaling, and workload scheduling, trimming a meaningful share off the monthly cloud bill.
    • Containerised and automated the platform with Docker, Terraform, and CI/CD; deployed Datadog, Sentry, and Grafana observability.
    • Mentored junior and mid engineers, cutting onboarding ramp-up time 50%.
    SymfonyNode.jsTypeScriptRedisAWSDockerTerraform
  3. Nov 2022 – Jan 2024

    Senior Full Stack Engineer

    ZEBRAR · Contract

    • Engineered backends powering interactive VR/AR campaigns for Asahi, Westfield, LG, and Coles, up to 50,000+ daily users per campaign.
    • Led AWS/EC2 infrastructure design and Docker deployment pipelines, cutting deployment times.
    • Refined REST APIs (Laravel, Python) and PlayCanvas/WebGL tooling for a 40% drop in API latency.
    • Moved releases from weekly to daily via GitLab CI/CD, and ran secure WebSockets for 10,000 concurrent users with zero downtime.
    LaravelPythonAWSDockerWebSocketsPlayCanvas/WebGL
  4. Apr 2021 – May 2022

    Senior Full Stack Engineer

    CURRYS · Full-Time

    • Built and maintained a high-traffic e-commerce microservices backend (PHP 8, Symfony, RabbitMQ) serving 5M+ monthly active users.
    • Designed a scalable Notification Center (Symfony, RabbitMQ) guaranteeing 99.99% message delivery.
    • Led PII and payment-data security to full PCI DSS compliance, zero breaches across the contract.
    • Applied domain-driven design to cut complexity and speed up feature releases; raised team standards through reviews and mentorship.
    PHP 8SymfonyRabbitMQMySQL
  5. Jun 2022 – Feb 2023

    Senior Full Stack Engineer

    ADDMENTION · Full-Time

    • Directed full-stack delivery (Laravel, Vue.js 2/3, MySQL) of a social-media auction platform.
    • Hardened the platform with stronger auth, encryption, and user-data safeguards, zero reported breaches or vulnerabilities.
    • Engineered resource handling that held response times steady through concurrency spikes.
    • Worked in iterative cycles with product and design, raising feature-release stability.
    LaravelVue.jsMySQL
  6. Nov 2018 – Mar 2021

    Senior Full Stack Engineer

    ZEUS SOLUTIONS · Full-Time

    • Led automation and back-office systems, client portals, and cross-platform mobile apps (Laravel, Vue.js, PostgreSQL) for 5,000+ daily business users.
    • Built secure e-signature workflows that cut contract turnaround 60% while meeting legal and regulatory standards.
    • Optimised the database with triggers, materialized views, and a 3NF redesign for faster queries.
    • Drove CI/CD adoption to bi-weekly deployments and mentored junior developers.
    LaravelVue.jsPostgreSQL
  7. Oct 2017 – Apr 2018

    Junior to Mid Full Stack Engineer

    DATAVIEW · Full-Time

    • Built analytics dashboards for ADIDAS franchise clients (Nette, Laravel, MySQL) for real-time business insight.
    • Produced interactive visualizations letting managers track sales, inventory, and KPIs across stores.
    NetteLaravelMySQL
  8. Mar 2016 – Sep 2017

    Junior Backend Engineer

    ETRIM · Full-Time

    • Built payment-terminal and inventory-management software for Euronics Slovakia (Genero, Informix).
    • Added inventory tracking that improved stock accuracy and cut manual reconciliation time.
    GeneroInformix

Stack

The tools, grouped by what they do.

Languages

  • PHP 8+
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Python
  • C#
  • C++

Frameworks

  • Laravel
  • Symfony
  • Vue.js
  • React
  • NestJS
  • Nuxt

Cloud / DevOps

  • AWS (EC2, EKS, ECS, Lambda, SQS, IAM)
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Terraform
  • GitLab CI/CD

AI / Automation

  • LLMs & Claude API
  • AI agents & MCP
  • Workflow automation
  • Systems integration

Data

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • MariaDB
  • OpenSearch
  • Redis
  • Couchbase

Other

  • Linux
  • Grafana
  • RabbitMQ
  • WebSockets

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Who is Mario Sokolovsky?

Mario Sokolovsky is a principal software engineer and infrastructure / DevOps lead based in Victoria, Australia, with over ten years of experience building cloud-native SaaS, e-commerce, and interactive-media systems across Australia and Europe.

What does Mario specialise in?

End-to-end delivery of scalable backend and cloud systems: AWS (EC2, EKS, ECS, Lambda), Terraform and Kubernetes infrastructure, and application code in PHP (Laravel, Symfony), Vue.js, and NestJS. He also integrates AI agents and automation flows into delivery pipelines.

What results has Mario delivered?

He has cut infrastructure costs by 73% (AUD 4.5k to 1.2k/month), architected platforms holding 100M+ digital records, trimmed AWS spend by around 20%, and built e-commerce backends serving 5M+ monthly active users with PCI DSS compliance and zero breaches.

Is Mario available for work?

Yes. Mario is available for select work. He is based in Australia, collaborates globally, and has delivered projects across more than three countries. The fastest way to reach him is by email at mario.sokolovsky@gmail.com.

What is Breadlines?

Breadlines is a 3D tower-defense roguelite that Mario is building solo in Unity 6 and C#. You play a mad bakery baker holding back waves of rogue pastries and food, with modular towers and colourful low-poly art. Mario makes all of the code, 3D art, and design himself.

Rates

What it costs to work with me.

$60+USD / hour
≈ A$85€52/ hour
Approx. rate

Starting point for freelance and contract work. The exact rate depends on scope, length, and stack. Backend, cloud/DevOps, and architecture sit at the higher end. Reach out and we'll figure out what fits.

Contact

Have a system that needs to scale, or a bill that needs to shrink?