CSPermanent collection

Cabinet of Systems Archive / 01

Selçuk Cihan

Senior Software Engineer | Backend, Platform & Cloud

Senior software engineer with 17+ years of experience building distributed systems.

Former Amazon Software Development Engineer with hands-on experience across Node.js, Python, AWS, GCP, serverless architectures and observability.

Trusted in multi-year remote contracts to own ambiguous problems from architecture and implementation to operations and mentoring. Based in Istanbul (UTC+3).

Enter the collection
Portrait of Selçuk Cihan
Portrait study Acc. 00—8

Gallery I

Engineered objects

A chronological study in systems, interfaces, and infrastructure.

Index

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R

OBJ—01 · 2023 - 2026

Senior Software Engineer

RTIC Outdoors

  • Created mobile device management tools to support warehouse ops, reducing manual device setup and improving reliability across Android-based workflows.
  • Automated warehouse operations such as processing returns, customization of products and workflows, resulting in more efficient use of resources.
  • Expanded backend observability, giving engineering & operations teams more visibility into failures affecting warehouse.
S

OBJ—02 · 2022 - 2023

Senior Software Engineer

Serverless Inc.

  • Created the Python AWS Lambda SDK for Serverless Console, an observability platform for applications running on AWS Lambda.
  • Owned release coordination & backward compatibility of the SDK, supporting dependable adoption among customers.
T

OBJ—03 · 2019 - 2022

Senior Software Engineer

Tellimer

  • Created serverless backends on AWS using Node.js & Python for multiple products, including a machine-learning SAAS application and a substack-like platform for financial writers.
  • Designed customer-facing GraphQL APIs, serverless execution orchestration, data-ingestion workflows and priority-queue services for mission-critical financial products.
  • Delivered analytics, article recommendation, summarization, and automated sitemap capabilities for customer-facing products on tellimer.com
  • Led architecture/design sessions, clarified ambiguous requirements, mentored engineers and reviewed technical documentation.
  • Improved production monitoring & operational excellence across distributed systems.
T

OBJ—04 · 2018 - 2019

Senior Software Engineer

Toptal

  • Developed a public facing REST API, fully serverless on AWS, serving hundreds of thousands of customers.
  • Reduced AWS bill by more than 50% through architecture and resource-usage optimizations.
  • Mentored developers and reviewed design documents for reliability & maintainability.
A

OBJ—05 · 2017 - 2018

Software Development Engineer

Amazon

  • Developed and maintained the orchestration platform that powers Amazon’s product catalog.
  • Executed zero-downtime migrations across several web services and retired legacy services that constrained catalog growth.
I

OBJ—06 · 2013 - 2017

Senior Software Engineer

Intertech

  • Supported the workflow engine serving banking applications such as loans, customer complaints etc.
  • Designed a workforce management system that empowers the bank’s operation center.
Z

OBJ—07 · 2011 - 2013

Software Development Engineer

Ziraat Teknoloji

  • Implemented workflow engine running on top of Oracle, serving over 100,000 workflow instances daily.
  • Served as scrum master and mentored junior developers.
A

OBJ—08 · 2009 - 2010

Software Development Engineer

AirTies

  • Developed solutions for IPTV products in C & C++.
  • Implemented teletext and RTSP parsers along with closed captioning and subtitles for IPTV.

Gallery II

The technical archive

Credentials, methods, and working materials.

A / Materials

Skills

  1. 01TypeScript
  2. 02Node.js
  3. 03Python
  4. 04Java/Scala
  5. 05SQL/NoSQL
  6. 06REST/GraphQL
  7. 07AWS
  8. 08GCP
  9. 09Cloudflare
  10. 10Serverless
  11. 11Distributed Systems
  12. 12React

B / Provenance

Education

BS. & MS. in Computer Science

Boğaziçi University

C / Authentication

Certifications

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

Amazon Web Services

Oral histories

Notes from collaborators

“I've been most impressed by his exceptional ability to tackle every phase of software development with in-depth knowledge, confidence and clear communication. I cannot emphasize enough how good Selcuk is at communicating in a clear and structured manner.”
Daniel VliegenthartTeam Lead, Tellimer
“He was the perfect remote contractor in many ways. His communication skills are top, he is very much a self-starter who can get stuck in on work with minimal guidance or oversight, and his code quality (and documentation!) is exceptional.”
Ian WattCo-founder, Tellimer
“Selçuk is a quick learner, he approaches problems systematically and understands the business and customer needs. He is very detail-oriented, and a hard worker. You can trust him with the most challenging issues.”
Erdem KurulSoftware Development Manager, Intertech
“I had the pleasure to manage and to work with Selcuk Cihan for the past 2 years while at Tellimer. He rose brilliantly to all challenges thrown at him both technically and communication wise. I would say his superpower is his communications skills, both writing and talking.”
Decebal DobricaSoftware Architect, Tellimer