Denis Panov

Senior Backend Engineer | Distributed Systems & Web3 Infrastructure | High-Throughput

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

About

7 years building high-throughput backend systems for Web3 and DeFi. Most recently at Gelato working on multi-chain relay, bundler, and automation infrastructure across 40+ EVM networks and Solana/SVM. Before that, grew with Cake DeFi from early-stage to $1B+ AUM and 1M+ users, leading a backend team across lending, payments, deposits/withdrawals, and DEX integration. Node.js/TypeScript, Rust, Solidity, GCP/AWS, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Kafka, ERC-4337, Solana/SVM

Experience

  • Senior Backend Engineer at LI.FI
    Apr 2026 - Present · 3 mos

  • Senior Backend Engineer at Gelato
    Sep 2024 - Mar 2026 · 1 yr 7 mos

    Worked on Gelato Relay, a multi-chain transaction API serving 40+ EVM networks. Contributed to a full rewrite of the bundler and relayer infrastructure for improved latency and developer experience. Designed and built the platform's first non-EVM integration (Solana/SVM), enabling gasless transactions on a new chain type. Took full ownership of Web3Functions, Gelato's automation platform, driving operational stability and incident response across all supported networks.

  • Cake DeFi (Singapore · Remote)
    • Backend Lead
      Apr 2021 - Aug 2024 · 3 yrs 5 mos

      Scaled backend from early-stage to $1B+ AUM and 1M+ users. Led a team of 4-5 engineers across mentoring, code reviews, and hiring. Re-architected the interest payments pipeline, cutting processing time by 96% (4h to 10m). Delivered crypto lending, deposit/withdrawal, and DEX integration products end-to-end.

    • Software Engineer
      Jan 2020 - Apr 2021 · 1 yr 4 mos

      Early backend engineer, building core DeFi product infrastructure as a full-stack engineer during the company's growth phase.

  • Frontend Developer at videoboost
    Aug 2019 - Jan 2020 · 6 mos

    Developed user-facing features with React and JavaScript.

  • Software Engineer at Socionext Europe
    Aug 2018 - Aug 2019 · 1 yr 1 mo

    Built SoC thermal-test solutions with a C++ backend and Qt-based UI.