Engineering Manager · Tech Lead

Build systems that people can trust.

I'm Filipp Sanachev — an Engineering Manager and Tech Lead with 10+ years building game commerce backends and monetization platforms, and leading distributed teams to ship reliable systems used by hundreds of partners.

GameTech & monetization Backend architecture Distributed team leadership Based in Malaysia
10+
years in engineering
Xsolla
game commerce platform
3
core platforms shipped
01

Experience

now
Engineering Manager & Tech Lead
Xsolla / game commerce

Architecture and delivery of game monetization backends — in-game and out-of-game stores for virtual items, currency, and bundles. Technical research, estimation, mentoring, and driving engineering standards across a distributed team.

ongoing
Building my own games
Independent / mrbot.games

Designing and shipping my own games — gameplay as engineered software systems, built end to end with the same discipline as production backends.

Certifications
SRE Foundation — GSDC Professional Scrum Developer I — Scrum.org SAFe 5 Practitioner — Scaled Agile SAFe 6 Practitioner — Scaled Agile
02

How I work

Optimize for long-term value. Avoid unnecessary complexity. Avoid solving hypothetical problems. Prefer solutions that are easy to understand years later.

  • Q1SimplicityFewer moving parts. Less to understand, less to break.
  • Q2ReliabilityBehaves correctly under load, failure, and time.
  • Q3MaintainabilityAnother engineer can understand and change it quickly.
  • Q4ObservabilityThe system tells you what it is doing — no assumptions.
  • Q5ScalabilityGrows without a rewrite when the requirements grow.
03

Domains

D1

Infrastructure

Cloud-native architecture, containers, automation, and reliability engineering. Infrastructure is a product, not just an operational necessity.

D2

Software Engineering

Backend services, APIs, distributed systems, and developer tools built with longevity in mind. Simple on the surface, ready to grow inside.

D3

Networking

Transport protocols, secure communication, privacy, and self-hosted infrastructure. Understanding systems rather than merely using them.

D4

Artificial Intelligence

AI that augments engineering rather than replaces it — automating repetitive work while human judgment owns architecture and final decisions.

D5

Game Development

Games as software systems. Gameplay emerges from interacting mechanics, engineered with the same discipline as production software.

04

Engineering principles

Compositionover inheritance
Explicitnessover magic
Simplicityover cleverness
Readabilityover brevity
Automationover manual work
Standardsover proprietary solutions
Observabilityover assumptions
Incremental improvementsover rewrites

Every abstraction should eliminate complexity, not hide it.

05

Decision framework

1Reliabilityhighest
2Simplicity
3Maintainability
4Observability
5Scalability
6Performance
7Development speedlowest

Performance optimization comes after correctness and maintainability — unless performance is the primary requirement.

06

What people say

“He doesn't just ship code — he builds scalable services aligned with product and monetization goals. As a Technical Lead, he guided a distributed team and partnered with Product to deliver reliable backend capabilities used by hundreds of partners. If you want a leader who elevates both systems and people, I strongly recommend Filipp.”
Dima Gusevsky — colleague at Xsolla
reliable understandable maintainable observable resilient enjoyable to use
Build systems that last. Everything else is secondary.