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I’m a software architect and technical leader with 15+ years of fintech and scalable backend experience, focused on building reliable, high-availability systems with strong end-to-end ownership. I’ve architected real-time payment platforms that handle 150+ transactions per second, designed API and event-driven integrations, and led engineering teams as a cross-team SME while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery. I’m also an AI- and product-minded founder—building and scaling ventures from data models through deployment, whether that’s a payments-compliant dispute forwarding integration or consumer-facing platforms. Alongside my enterprise work, I co-found AI-driven products like virtual try-on/virtual wardrobe solutions and develop mobile event and photo/video sharing platforms, keeping a practical eye on performance, unit economics, and secure engineering.…I’m a software architect and technical leader with 15+ years of fintech and scalable backend experience, focused on building reliable, high-availability systems with strong end-to-end ownership. I’ve architected real-time payment platforms that handle 150+ transactions per second, designed API and event-driven integrations, and led engineering teams as a cross-team SME while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery. I’m also an AI- and product-minded founder—building and scaling ventures from data models through deployment, whether that’s a payments-compliant dispute forwarding integration or consumer-facing platforms. Alongside my enterprise work, I co-found AI-driven products like virtual try-on/virtual wardrobe solutions and develop mobile event and photo/video sharing platforms, keeping a practical eye on performance, unit economics, and secure engineering.

Nikolas Andreou

Architect, Software Engineer, Web Developer, +2

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I’m a software architect and technical leader with 15+ years of fintech and scalable backend experience, focused on building reliable, high-availability systems with strong end-to-end ownership. I’ve architected real-time payment platforms that handle 150+ transactions per second, designed API and event-driven integrations, and led engineering teams as a cross-team SME while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery. I’m also an AI- and product-minded founder—building and scaling ventures from data models through deployment, whether that’s a payments-compliant dispute forwarding integration or consumer-facing platforms. Alongside my enterprise work, I co-found AI-driven products like virtual try-on/virtual wardrobe solutions and develop mobile event and photo/video sharing platforms, keeping a practical eye on performance, unit economics, and secure engineering.…I’m a software architect and technical leader with 15+ years of fintech and scalable backend experience, focused on building reliable, high-availability systems with strong end-to-end ownership. I’ve architected real-time payment platforms that handle 150+ transactions per second, designed API and event-driven integrations, and led engineering teams as a cross-team SME while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery. I’m also an AI- and product-minded founder—building and scaling ventures from data models through deployment, whether that’s a payments-compliant dispute forwarding integration or consumer-facing platforms. Alongside my enterprise work, I co-found AI-driven products like virtual try-on/virtual wardrobe solutions and develop mobile event and photo/video sharing platforms, keeping a practical eye on performance, unit economics, and secure engineering.

Available to hire

I’m a software architect and technical leader with 15+ years of fintech and scalable backend experience, focused on building reliable, high-availability systems with strong end-to-end ownership. I’ve architected real-time payment platforms that handle 150+ transactions per second, designed API and event-driven integrations, and led engineering teams as a cross-team SME while mentoring engineers and driving Agile delivery.

I’m also an AI- and product-minded founder—building and scaling ventures from data models through deployment, whether that’s a payments-compliant dispute forwarding integration or consumer-facing platforms. Alongside my enterprise work, I co-found AI-driven products like virtual try-on/virtual wardrobe solutions and develop mobile event and photo/video sharing platforms, keeping a practical eye on performance, unit economics, and secure engineering.

Skills

Experience Level

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Language

English

Advanced

Greek, Modern

Advanced

Work Experience

Co-Founder & Technical Architect at CiaoBelle — AI Virtual Try-On & Virtual Wardrobe Platform

January 1, 2025 - Present

Architecting a computer-vision-based virtual try-on application targeting the Cyprus fashion market for independent retailers operating via Instagram/WhatsApp. Re-engineered an open-source computer vision model into a modular multi-step inference pipeline for virtual try-on, building and self-hosting two model variants for inference on Google Cloud virtual machines. Evaluated inference cost for 24/7 self-hosting and assessed third-party dataset licensing options tied to a tiered Gemini API approach, pivoting to Gemini for near-term cost efficiency while keeping self-hosted as an in-house future path. Designed a near-zero marginal cost composing pipeline using pre-rendered per-garment transparency assets and a tiered AI model strategy to meet a strict unit-economics target (~€0.20 per generation). Architected a prepaid credit/quota system to gate AI generation costs ahead of consumption.

Founder & Technical Architect at LifeSnaps — Collaborative Event Photo & Video Albums

January 1, 2024 - Present

Built a QR-code-based, no-download photo/video sharing platform for event hosts and guests to contribute to shared albums in real time. Defined go-to-market architecture including organic/SEO growth, virality loops, and venue partnerships for pre-launch, zero marketing budget targeting the European market. Integrated Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay to support pay-per-event pricing.

Founder & Technical Architect at Dánzer — Latin Dance Events & Social Platform

January 1, 2024 - Present

Founded and architected a multi-sided mobile platform connecting dancers, DJs, dance schools, and event organizers via a freemium/subscription model. Designed core product architecture including QR/GPS-based event check-in, community recognition features, and a home/feed experience. Owned end-to-end technical decisions from data model through UI/UX navigation and contextual upgrade flows. Integrated Stripe, Google Pay, and Apple Pay to support subscription payments.

Technical Designer / Architect (Cross-scheme fraud dispute forwarding integration) at FIS (TSYS International)

January 1, 2020 - December 31, 2021

Delivered technical design for a Visa ↔ Mastercard compliance integration requiring automated forwarding of confirmed fraud dispute data between schemes per their data-sharing agreement. Designed the outbound Visa → Mastercard path using a Java host consuming Kafka dispute manager events, building outbound messages and forwarding via a Device Host Interface (DHI) into an internal card-processing engine; implemented cross-engine handoff and DHI connectivity for outbound routing. Designed the reverse Mastercard → Visa path using inbound staging table processing, daily batch reconciliation report generation, and forwarding to Visa. Supported high-volume platform processing (around 2 million authorizations per day).

Technical Architect (Architectural Ownership stepping into critical integration) at FIS (TSYS International)

January 1, 2020 - January 1, 2026

Owned architecture for a 6-year mission-critical third-party scoring integration after an incumbent architect departure. Diagnosed cascading authorization-timeout failures caused by OS-level connection timeout detection gaps and missing keep-alive behavior leading to socket exhaustion under load. Redesigned the integration to use persistent keep-alive connections and isolated timeout failures to single-digit occurrences. Identified and escalated a secondary high-risk failure mode involving hung request-handling processes and forced process restarts with cascading delays. Re-architected around Oracle queue-based decoupling to separate authorization processing from REST API worker processes and validated improvements via sustained load testing.

Technical Leader / Software Architect / Scrum Master at FIS (TSYS International)

January 1, 2020 - Present

Architected backend systems for real-time payment processing (150+ TPS), balancing throughput, consistency, and failover requirements. Served as technical SME across 6 engineering teams, setting direction on system design, API design, and Oracle database optimization. Maintained hands-on working knowledge of AWS EKS and container/pod-based deployments for production payment workloads, partnering with infrastructure teams. Mentored and technically directed teams of 6+ engineers, improving sprint predictability and supporting promotions to senior roles. Contributed to PCI DSS compliance activities including audit support and vulnerability remediation, and led technical hiring and interview design for engineering roles.

Software Analyst Lead / Production Service Desk Supervisor at Global Payments (TSYS International)

January 1, 2018 - December 31, 2019

Owned production system reliability and SLA compliance for high-availability payment platforms, coordinating cross-team incident response. Coordinated SDLC delivery across teams and implemented proactive monitoring and incident prevention processes.

Senior Software Analyst at TSYS International

January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2017

Designed and developed backend payment systems built on the ISO 8583 transaction processing standard. Led system integration and migration projects across multiple production payment platforms.

Software Analyst at TSYS International (Card Tech Ltd)

January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2010

Developed backend components and led requirements analysis for payment processing systems.

IT Associate at Oracoam

January 1, 2006 - January 1, 2007