Nikolai Kutiavin

As a Senior C++ Developer on the Navigation project, I work on the Android SDK with a focus on C++ architecture, Kotlin integration, performance, testing, and build infrastructure. My role combines practical software design with hands-on engineering: • analyze feature requirements and design maintainable solutions across C++ and Kotlin layers • profile, investigate, and fix performance and memory bottlenecks in C++ and Kotlin code • introduce clang-tidy and automated quality checks into CI • design the testing strategy for a dedicated project library • develop testing modules and improve test automation • extend the CMake build system with new C++ modules and integrate them with Gradle for Android

Worked on an internal event-driven C++ framework in a small engineering team, with responsibility across feature design, implementation, API usability, testing, documentation, customer enablement, and support. A significant part of my role was turning loosely defined internal customer requests into practical framework features. I collaborated with customer-facing colleagues to clarify requirements, coordinated with other departments when features depended on their systems, and designed architecture-level solutions for the framework. My main engineering focus was API design: making the framework simple to use, safe by default, well documented, and backed by clear implementation and strong test coverage. Key contributions: • owned new framework features from initial idea to design, implementation, documentation, and customer enablement • designed C++ APIs with a focus on simplicity, safety, maintainability, and correct usage • translated ambiguous customer needs into concrete technical solutions • coordinated cross-team dependencies for features involving other departments • created documentation, examples, and training materials for framework users • prepared and delivered technical presentations for internal customers on new features and best practices • supported framework adoption by explaining its capabilities to potential internal users • investigated complex client-reported issues using logs, core dumps, and client integration code • debugged problems across framework internals and customer-side usage

Worked on cross-platform C++ software for the professional audio industry, with a focus on product stability, platform support, build infrastructure, testing, and performance optimization. One of my key projects was porting the C++ plugin infrastructure from Windows and macOS to Linux. I worked on the technical design and implementation of the port, created CMake build configurations, added GoogleTest-based unit tests, implemented Linux-specific functionality using Gtk, and maintained Jenkins jobs for multiple build artifacts. I also mentored a junior developer throughout the project. Another major area of work was optimizing the OpenGL ES rendering engine used for UI rendering on embedded devices. I used perf and Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers to identify bottlenecks, reduced the number of OpenGL calls, and moved more computation to the GPU. Key contributions: • ported C++ plugin infrastructure from Windows/macOS to Linux • designed CMake-based build configuration for the Linux platform • improved reliability through new GoogleTest unit tests • implemented Linux-specific functionality using Gtk • maintained Jenkins pipelines for different build artifacts • mentored a junior developer during the porting project • optimized OpenGL ES rendering for embedded UI • doubled rendering performance by reducing CPU/GPU overhead and improving rendering flow

As a C++ developer, I have solved nontrivial bugs in complex distributed system environments involving multiple communication protocols such as TCP, UDP, SCTP, SIP, and SIGTRAN. These systems provided telecommunications operators with intelligent network services, handling call-related logic such as blacklisting, whitelisting, redirection, and more. One of the most memorable bugs I encountered was in a live system and led to a memory leak. It couldn't be reproduced in the testing environment, so I had to start with a 4 GB core dump and an overly complex C library for IP-telephony protocol parsing. With the help of GDB and a hex editor, I was able to identify the root cause of the problem and resolve it, even though my manager was prepared to pay penalties. When needed, I quickly ramped up on Spring framework programming and assisted my colleagues in completing a project on time. I also patched the Golang project Stolon to meet our project's requirements for data replication, significantly reducing downtime in our PostgreSQL cluster when the master node was lost.

As a software developer, I designed and implemented utilities to automate the routine tasks of my colleagues, the radio engineers, based on their requirements. I led discussions and gathered feedback directly from the engineers. I successfully delivered a Qt-based application that collected the health status of Ericsson RBS 6000 and RBS 3000 series before and after software installation, helping engineers effectively identify problematic stations from a list of hundreds. Another major achievement was a web application that tracked the current software versions for thousands of Ericsson RBS 6000 and RBS 3000 base stations, detecting those that had been sporadically downgraded. This significantly reduced the time needed by the software upgrade team to identify such stations and perform timely upgrades. Additionally, I was involved in the initial setup of Ericsson RBS 6000 and RBS 3000 series (including parameters, transport, and other configurations). A mobatch script I created based on that experience helped the engineering team accelerate their work by 40%.