yulian.meSay hello

Yulian Karapetkov / Software Engineer

Hi, I’m Yulian.

I’m a software engineer and full-stack developer based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Over the past 12+ years, I’ve worked across front-end, backend, and architecture, and led small engineering teams.

My workAbout me

My work

2020 — Present

01

CouchTalk

Personal project

A platform I’m building in my spare time for finding mental health practitioners. I hope it grows into something that makes therapy more accessible.

  • Building practitioner profiles and search around approach, price, location, and session format, so people can explore without creating an account.
  • The longer-term goal is to help therapists find and manage clients more easily.

No public link yet. I’ll share it soon.

CouchTalk’s homepage with therapist search and practitioner profiles

Mental health/2026 — Present

02

Peterson Academy (opens in a new tab)

Lead Software Engineer

An online learning platform. I led architecture and development across the frontend, backend, and database, guiding the engineering team through alpha and beta releases.

  • Built course discovery, enrolment, and account features, plus reusable components for a full product redesign.
  • Led a database migration and architectural overhaul, including REST API development and coordinated backend and frontend migrations.
  • Improved database and API performance, and set up automated releases, end-to-end tests, and monitoring.
Visit website
Peterson Academy’s public homepage

Education/2023 — 2026

03

PlayPilot (opens in a new tab)

Senior Frontend Developer

A streaming discovery service. I built the complete frontend for its content curation admin and developed features across the web and mobile apps.

  • Built tools for the content team to select, reorder, and publish homepage titles.
  • Developed authentication, profiles, favourites, trailers, and search across films and series.
  • Improved keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen-reader support in search and content interfaces.
Visit website
PlayPilot’s public website with films and series to watch

Streaming/2020 — 2022

Experience

Where I’ve worked.

2013 → 2026

Selected for the Toptal Talent Network in 2019. You can request my CV for the full work history.

  1. 01

    Finance & insurance

    2013 — 2017

    BankSoft · Klear Lending

    Contributed to loan repayment and insurance tools at BankSoft. At Klear Lending, developed much of the investor frontend and built a full-stack budgeting tool.

  2. 02

    Education & logistics

    2017 — 2019

    GameLeap · Pikkop

    Built course and video lesson features at GameLeap. At Pikkop, built a shipping platform from scratch, led its architecture, and mentored another developer.

  3. 03

    Streaming & gaming

    2020 — 2023

    PlayPilot · Stim

    Built PlayPilot’s content curation frontend and developed web and mobile features. At Stim, led the wallet team, frontend architecture, and a major frontend migration.

  4. 04

    Online education

    2023 — 2026

    Peterson Academy

    Promoted to lead engineer in 2024. Led frontend, backend, and data architecture, guided the development team, and continued building features and backend services.

Request CV

How I work

Understanding the work

I start by understanding the users, the existing system, and the constraints. That gives us something concrete to base technical decisions on and helps surface the trade-offs early.

Keeping code readable

I work across frontend, backend, and data, with an emphasis on clear boundaries and readable code. Tests around important flows and repeatable releases make changes easier to review and maintain.

Working with the team

I’ve led small teams and mentored developers through planning, code reviews, and pairing. I aim to share enough context for people to make decisions and work independently.

Outside work

I study psychotherapy.
I make music, too.

Family and friends matter a lot to me. I like travelling, playing padel, and going to the gym. The music is a mix of singing, rapping, and producing.

Family & friends

Time together

Travel

Visiting new places

Psychotherapy

Currently studying

Music

Singing, rapping, producing

Gym

Away from the desk

Contact

You can reach
me here.

Email me