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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 workStart a project

Currently

Senior Software Engineer

GoTo · 2024–Present

Availability
Available for freelance projects
Based in
Budapest, Hungary
Experience
8 years
Focus
Full-stack web
Fixed-price quotesReply within a day8 years senior experienceTypeScript · React · Next.jsBased in Budapest

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

TypeScript across the whole stack is my preference and my default. At GoTo that sits next to Java services on the backend and AI engineering work.

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
  • Java
  • 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
  • AI engineering
  • Microservices
  • Testing & TDD
  • Code review
  • Mentoring

Where I've worked

  1. 2024–Present

    Senior Software Engineer

    GoTo · Budapest (hybrid)

    • Senior engineer on SaaS products for communication and IT management, used by businesses worldwide: Java services on the backend, React and TypeScript on the frontend.
    • AI engineering alongside the product work, plus the internal tooling the team builds around both.
    • Java
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • AI engineering

  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.
    • Node.js
    • 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.
    • Ruby on Rails
    • React
    • Elixir
    • Vue.js

  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.

Email me

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