Dani Vatkov
RnD Group Leader
Sofia
Summary
Accomplished leader with a proven track record at Yotpo, driving innovation and efficiency through agile methodologies and cross-functional collaboration. Expert in system architecture and team mentoring, enhancing scalability and performance. Successfully led teams to exceed project goals, fostering a quality-driven and impact-driven culture of continuous improvement.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
6
6
Certificates
Work History
RnD Group Lead | SMS&Email
Yotpo
Sofia
03.2025 - Current
- Drove efficiency in feature delivery for Yotpo SMS & Email platform through GenAI development practices across two core teams.
- Streamlined subscriber collection and management processes to enhance user engagement.
- Cultivated a culture of innovation, collaboration, and quality, enabling team success in complex environments.
Software Engineering Team Lead
Yotpo
Sofia
02.2024 - 03.2025
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define project requirements and scope.
- Implemented code review processes to ensure quality and consistency in deliverables.
- Designed system architectures that enhanced scalability and performance of applications.
- Conducted technical assessments to identify areas for improvement in existing systems.
- Facilitated team meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and solutions collaboratively.
- Collaborated with other teams such as QA, DevOps, UI and UX Designers to ensure smooth integration of features into production environment.
- Managed project timelines by tracking milestones, dependencies and risks associated with each project deliverable.
- Reviewed code changes from teammates for accuracy and quality assurance prior to deployment.
- Defined coding standards and best practices for the team's software development process.
Software Engineering Manager
VMware
Sofia
01.2023 - 02.2024
- Led multiple high-performing teams exceeding 15 members to develop and optimize a mission-critical go-to-market platform for VMware sales teams.
- Facilitated communication between engineering and product management, ensuring timely delivery of product roadmap milestones.
- Aligned engineering efforts with business goals, optimizing processes and adapting strategies to market trends.
- Took ownership of the platform's technical domain, driving continuous improvement through new technologies.
- Initiated enhancements to infrastructure and architecture, improving platform reliability and scalability.
- Mentored engineers, fostering a culture of innovation and professional development
- Enhanced product infrastructure, improving user experiences and increasing customer satisfaction.
- Led project deliveries ahead of schedule, consistently exceeding stakeholder expectations.
MTS 3
VMware
Sofia
11.2021 - 01.2023
- During my role as an MTS 3, I served as the Team Lead for a group of 8 developers. My primary responsibilities included defining and designing impactful features, collaborating with stakeholders and project managers to clarify requirements.
- In addition to my development work, I engaged in the following key activities:
- - Assisting in the onboarding and mentoring of junior developers.
- - Acting as the Scrum Master for a team of more than 10 individuals, including developers, quality assurance professionals, and product managers. This involved actively contributing to the improvement of developers' skills and leading various daily meetings such as stand-ups, retrospectives, reviews/demos, refinement, and planning sessions.
- - Assuming leadership and accountability for ensuring the timely completion of tasks and features.
- - Conducting insightful code reviews.
- - Creating system designs and integration documentation.
MTS 2
VMware
Sofia
10.2020 - 11.2021
- - Individually implemented numerous integration with the platform our team builds.
- - Expanded Front-end knowledge of Angular2+, HTML and CSS.
- - Deep dive into Hibernate and Spring.
- - Actively participated in code reviews and task estimations.
- - Worked both as a lead and solo in smaller features.
Member Of Technical Staff
VMware
Bulgaria
07.2018 - 11.2020
- Working on an internal project aimed to automate and boost VMware sales.
- Main technologies used: Angular, Typescript, Java, Spring, Spring boot with PostgreSQL Flyway, Hibernate, HTML, CSS.
- Others:
- Front-end unit testing with Jest, integration of analytics platforms such as Mixpanel and gathering useful quantitative statistics from users + Hotjar, Matomo for qualitative statistics.
- Also, introduced to E2E Protactor tests using Selenium.
- Development control: JIRA, Jenkins, Gitlab, Git.
Intern
Sales Academy
County Cork
07.2018 - 09.2018
- - Gained in-depth knowledge of VMware's products and hands on experience with some of the main ones (vSphere, vSAN and NSX).
- - Interpersonal communication and presentation skills.
Summer Intern
Bulgarian Science Academy
Sofia
06.2017 - 09.2017
Summer Intern
Bulgarian Science Academy
Sofia
06.2016 - 09.2016
Supervisor
Rudi-2010
06.2015 - 09.2015
Education
Bachelor's degree - Computer Science
The University of Manchester
01.2018
High School - Economics
First Private Mathematical Gymnasium
01.2015
Skills
- Culture Change
- Agile methodologies
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Team leadership
- Team Mentoring
- Full-Stack Development
- System architecture
- Project management
- Technical assessments
Certification
- Harvard Business School - Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management
- Harvard Business School - Leadership Principles
- Harvard Business School - Power and Influence for Positive Impact
- PwC - Mini MBA
- ScrumAlliance - Scrum Master *Certified
- IndustrialLogic - Technical Excellence
Languages
Bulgarian
First Language
English
Proficient (C2)
C2
Italian
Beginner (A1)
A1
Timeline
RnD Group Lead | SMS&Email
Yotpo
03.2025 - Current
Software Engineering Team Lead
Yotpo
02.2024 - 03.2025
Software Engineering Manager
VMware
01.2023 - 02.2024
MTS 3
VMware
11.2021 - 01.2023
MTS 2
VMware
10.2020 - 11.2021
Member Of Technical Staff
VMware
07.2018 - 11.2020
Intern
Sales Academy
07.2018 - 09.2018
Summer Intern
Bulgarian Science Academy
06.2017 - 09.2017
Summer Intern
Bulgarian Science Academy
06.2016 - 09.2016
Supervisor
Rudi-2010
06.2015 - 09.2015
Bachelor's degree - Computer Science
The University of Manchester
High School - Economics
First Private Mathematical Gymnasium
References
References available upon request.
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