BOGDAN ARDELEAN
Senior Software & Systems Engineer
Cluj-Napoca, Romania | hei@bogdan.foo
LinkedIn | GitHub | bogdan.foo
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Versatile Senior Engineer with 5+ years of experience bridging the gap between Hardware/Embedded Systems and Cloud Infrastructure. Expert in Rust, C++, and Python, with a proven track record of architecting scalable microservices (Kubernetes/Kafka) and optimizing hardware-level performance.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Languages: Rust, C++, C, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, SQL, Kotlin.
Cloud & Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Docker, Kafka, gRPC, Skaffold, AWS, Linux (CentOS/Debian).
Web: React, React Native, Node.js, WebSockets.
Data & ML: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Materialize, SQLite, Time-Series Analysis (ROCKET/InceptionTime).
Embedded & Hardware: FreeRTOS, PCB Design, FPGA (VHDL), RFID (UHF), GNSS/RTK, LiDAR, UART/I2C/SPI.
EDUCATION
BEng Computer Science | Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (2017)
Thesis: “FPWAM launch” - Hardware Prolog implementation on FPGA.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
SMART-SHELF launch | Founder & Lead Engineer (Independent R&D)
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Jun 2023 – Present
  • Engineered a sensor-fusion IoT inventory system combining UHF RFID, Load Cell weight data (HX711/C++), and Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensors to achieve >95% real-world accuracy.
  • Solved critical RFID multipath interference by collecting real-world datasets and training Time-Series Classification models (ROCKET, InceptionTime) on RSSI/Phase patterns.
  • Optimized system reliability by integrating ToF sensors to detect “hand-in/hand-out” event windows, eliminating false positives and boosting the ML F1 score to 99%.
  • Designed and manufactured custom PCBs for battery-powered active tags, managing the hardware lifecycle from schematic to assembly.
  • Built the full-stack infrastructure: a Rust REST/WebSocket API for real-time state synchronization and a React frontend.
SPROUTFI launch (YC S21) | Senior Software Engineer (Contract)
Remote · Jun 2022 – Dec 2022
  • Designed and implemented a decoupled, highly-available consumer services (Rust, Warp, CloudEvents) processing a high-volume, partitioned Kafka topic, leveraging Kafka's inherent parallelism to ensure horizontal scaling.
  • Achieved and maintained a 99.9% SLO success rate by implementing comprehensive observability (distributed tracing and error tracking) via Datadog.
  • Modernized the CI/CD and Local Development workflow using Skaffold and Kind, creating shared test resources that reduced integration test flakiness and onboarding time.
  • Built event-driven content pipelines with Contentful webhooks, real-time Watchlist notifications, and Elasticsearch ingestion for internal moderation tools.
  • Led technical risk assessment for the tax calculation engine (Velotax), identifying critical reconciliation gaps and defining the roadmap for the brokerage engineering team.
BOGDAN ARDELEAN
Senior Software & Systems Engineer
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (CONT.)
FORESEE launch | Co-Founder & R&D Lead
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Nov 2020 – Jul 2021
  • Secured €25,000 in grant funding (EUSPA MyGalileoSolution Finalist & BRD) to develop an autonomous precision forestry inventory system.
  • Engineered a custom portable LiDAR scanner to overcome GNSS multipath errors in dense canopies, integrating a Livox Mid-40 sensor with Raspberry Pi 4 and custom power management.
  • Implemented Real-Time SLAM by adapting LOAM algorithms, enabling centimeter-level robot localization and tree-level identification without GPS reliance.
  • Business Impact: Validated the technology with INGKA Investments (IKEA), presenting proofs-of-concept for software assisted selective cutting planning.
ICExchange (B2B) | Full Stack Engineer
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Jun 2020 – Oct 2020
  • Architected and shipped “ICExchange,” a real-time FX reservation platform digitizing a brick-and-mortar currency business during COVID-19 lockdowns.
  • Built the complete ecosystem: a Kotlin/Spring Boot backend, a consumer React Native app, and an Admin app for staff approvals via Firebase.
  • Ensured high availability by implementing CodePush for Over-The-Air (OTA) updates.
  • Impact: Onboarded 1,000+ local users, driving a 100% increase in organic search visibility and enabling business continuity during curfews.
TELENAV | Software Engineer (C++ / Maps & Navigation)
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Oct 2016 – May 2019
  • Optimized the Navigation Data Standard (NDS) engine, engineering a thread-safe Data Abstraction Layer and reducing inter-country routing time by 75% (8s to 2s) through profiling, caching, and tile pre-loading.
  • Led the critical network layer migration for the Scout SDK to enforce Apple ATS compliance across iOS, Android, and Backend teams.
  • Re-architected the networking stack using libcurl_multi and poll, improving concurrency and throughput for mobile clients.
  • Maintained a high-performance C++ map production pipeline on large-scale servers (512GB RAM), solving complex geometry rendering issues for outdoor navigation (e.g., tessellating massive water bodies).
  • Impact: The SDK was deployed globallylaunch to users via the Scout App, Clever Taxi, and TripAdvisor, serving as a core navigation provider.
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS | Software Engineer (LabVIEW FPGA)
Cluj-Napoca, Romania · Oct 2015 – Oct 2016
  • Implemented the “FIFO PEEK” operation node end-to-end, touching logic across the full stack: from VHDL on the FPGA and C++ simulation, up to the C# domain/UI layer.
  • Impact: The feature was part of LabVIEW NXG launch and it was used by customers worldwide.