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Available for freelance projects

Kristof Illes

Senior Full-Stack Engineer, Budapest.

I design and build fast, scalable web products, from database schema to pixel-perfect UI. Production systems built with TypeScript, React, Next.js, and Node.js.

View my workGet in touch

Currently

Senior Software Engineer

GoTo · 2024–Present

Based in
Budapest, Hungary
Experience
8 years
Focus
Full-stack web

Who I am

I'm a senior full-stack engineer who ships web products end to end, from designing database schemas and APIs to crafting accessible, high-performance user interfaces.

My core stack is TypeScript across the board: React and Next.js on the frontend, Node.js on the backend, with PostgreSQL and Redis underneath. I care deeply about performance, developer experience, and code that the next engineer can actually read.

Based in Budapest, I've built products across e-commerce, medical imaging, professional AV, and SaaS, from agency work to my current role at GoTo. Alongside that, I take on freelance work on the side.

I sweat the details nobody sees, the schema, the edge cases, and the code the next engineer inherits.

What I work with

Frontend

My home base, typed React and interfaces that hold up.

  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Next.js
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Playwright

Backend

APIs and data that stay fast under load.

  • Node.js
  • NestJS
  • PostgreSQL
  • GraphQL
  • Redis

Cloud & DevOps

Shipping to production and keeping it healthy.

  • AWS
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • GitHub Actions
  • Terraform

Practices

How I work with a team, not just a codebase.

  • System design
  • Microservices
  • Testing & TDD
  • Code review
  • Mentoring

Where I've worked

  1. 2024–Present

    Senior Software Engineer

    GoTo · Budapest (hybrid)

    • Senior engineer building TypeScript-based SaaS products for communication and IT management, used by businesses worldwide.
    • Contributing across the stack, frontend web applications, backend services, and the tooling around them.
    • TypeScript

  2. 2023–2024

    Full Stack Engineer

    Lightware Visual Engineering · Budapest

    • Built full-stack TypeScript applications supporting Lightware's professional audio-visual hardware.
    • Owned features end to end in a hardware-focused engineering organization.
    • TypeScript

  3. 2021–2023

    Developer

    Digital Thinkers · Budapest

    • Developed client products on a Node.js and React stack at a Budapest-based consultancy.
    • Built web-based medical imaging (DICOM) applications, working with TypeScript across the stack.
    • TypeScript
    • React
    • Node.js
    • DICOM

  4. 2019–2021

    Junior Developer

    VeryCreatives · Budapest

    • Delivered web applications for agency clients end to end in small product teams.
    • Grew from junior developer to an autonomous contributor across multiple client projects.

  5. 2018–2019

    Junior Developer

    Extreme Digital (eMAG) · Budapest

    • Frontend development on one of Hungary's largest e-commerce platforms, React applications and reusable components.
    • Backend tasks in Node.js on infrastructure running Kubernetes and Kafka.
    • React
    • Node.js
    • Kubernetes
    • Kafka

Selected work

Some of my work is public and you can try it right now. The rest lives behind company walls, so for those I can only show the shape of what I shipped, happy to walk through any of it in detail.

Ask me for a walkthrough

Let's build something together

I'm building products full-time at GoTo, and I take on select freelance projects on the side, front-end, back-end, or the whole thing. If you have something interesting, my inbox is always open, I usually reply within a day.

illeskristof1994@gmail.comLinkedIn