Study price
Viktor Holodiaiev
Hi, I bring over 15 years of experience in IT, including 10+ years in iGaming, having grown from software engineer to CTO, COO, and CEO. Throughout my career, I’ve worked from hands-on development and system architecture to building teams, scaling platforms, and managing complex product and operational organizations of 200+ people. I’ve led IT departments of 50+ engineers, built processes from scratch, and made strategic decisions at the C-level where technology, product, marketing, analytics, and operations intersect. Having conducted 1000+ interviews, I deeply understand how careers actually grow - and where they break. I don’t work with isolated skills or abstract frameworks - I work with real situations: responsibility, decision-making, leadership pressure, and growth under uncertainty. My goal is simple: to help strong professionals turn experience into influence - and growth into a manageable process.
🤝 Can help with
- Helping Middle/Senior/Lead Engineers and EMs define their next career move, bridge skill gaps, and master interviews & offer negotiations.
- Transitioning from Individual Contributor (IC) to Leadership
- Deep dive into real-world scenarios: feature rollouts, team restructuring, R&D initiatives, and cross-functional collaboration.
- System Design for interviews and real-world applications: Architecture, Scalability, and High-load systems.
- OKRs & KPIs: Setting and aligning goals across Business, Product, and Engineering.
- People Management: Hiring top talent, driving promotions, and From and ethical offboarding.
💻 Work experience
November 2024 — October 2025
Mozenplay — CEO
June 2018 — October 2024
KC — CTO → COO
April 2017 — June 2018
April33 — CTO
January 2014 — April 2017
PrivateDev — Backend TeamLead → Tech Director
February 2013 — January 2014
CloneFish — PHP Developer / TeamLead
March 2010 — February 2013
Nutnet — PHP Developer
🤟 Projects
Building Scalable Product & Tech Operations in IGaming
In this project, I acted as both Lead Architect and Head of Engineering for a 40-person department. On the technical side, I architected a scalable infrastructure using GCP, Docker, and Kubernetes, ensuring stability during high-traffic product launches in new markets. Simultaneously, I streamlined operations by implementing an Incident Response system to improve SLAs, optimizing CI/CD pipelines, and driving key technical decisions across the business. I also prioritized engineering culture: aligning technical strategy with business goals, hiring top talent, and establishing a robust internal mentoring system.
Building a Startup product from Scratch
Successfully delivered the startup's flagship product to production, ensuring the seamless integration of all internal services into a unified ecosystem. Led a team of 20 engineers, taking full ownership of the technical strategy, architecture, and stack selection, while strictly aligning them with business objectives. Embraced the true startup spirit by handling a diverse range of responsibilities—from setting up office IT infrastructure to writing core code. Maintained a strong hands-on approach: leveraging PHP (Symfony), TypeScript, and Google Cloud (GKE) to design and scale microservices and build internal developer tools.
Driving Tech Strategy & Operational Growth
As CTO, I defined the company’s technology strategy, ensuring tight alignment with business objectives. I led an engineering department of 50+ specialists with a primary focus on system scalability and stability. I delivered measurable efficiency gains: implementing FinOps practices cut infrastructure costs by 10%, while overhauling release processes reduced deployment time by 40%, significantly accelerating feature delivery. I also enhanced security and manageability by enforcing strict tech stack standardization. Transitioning to the COO role, I took charge of company-wide operations (200+ employees) and strategic development. I managed a team of top executives and executed a complete restructuring to streamline cross-functional collaboration. My key focus was expansion: through R&D leadership, I launched products in three new territories, driving a 20% increase in total revenue. Additionally, I led the strategic launch of a proprietary in-house game provider, creating an independent revenue stream and significantly reducing third-party royalty costs.
Zero-to-One IGaming Product Launch
As CEO, I built the company from the ground up and successfully launched a product in a highly regulated market. My primary focus was rapid MVP delivery to validate the business model: I drove the entire lifecycle from initial concept and P&L modeling to the live market release. I assembled a cross-functional core team (Product, Legal, Marketing), ensuring rigorous regulatory compliance for both the product and operational processes.