NIK AFIQ

Tokyo, Japan nik@nik4nao.com | github.com/nikafiq | nik4nao.com

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Backend engineer with 3 years of professional experience building and operating Go-based distributed backend systems on GCP and AWS. Strong ownership mindset with end-to-end responsibility across architecture, implementation, deployment, production reliability, and continuous improvement. Known for mechanism-driven problem solving, clear technical documentation, and open knowledge sharing across teams. Hands-on production experience with high-throughput event-driven microservices, Kafka-based pipelines, Kubernetes, and cloud-native data platforms. Experienced in designing systems with strict reliability, ordering, idempotency, retry safety, security, and production-safe migration requirements. Applies AI/LLM tools with deliberate guardrails in daily workflows. Trilingual in English, Japanese (JLPT N1), and Malay.

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

• Designed and operated a Kafka + GKE + Cloud Spanner backend pipeline for correctness-sensitive, high-throughput user data synchronization with per-account_id ordering, at-least-once delivery, and durable retry handling.

• Architected event-driven backend services under constraints including 100–120 TPS steady load, 600 TPS burst, 1500 TPS downstream cap, and 1500 TPS sustained Spanner read traffic across two production services.

• Achieved ~30% fewer duplicate downstream calls via singleflight coalescing; separately refactored a 1500 TPS Spanner read service (hashed phone number lookup, removed non-indexed searches), cutting CPU by ~30%.

• Built cloud-native platforms across GCP, AWS, and Azure using Kubernetes, ECS/Fargate, Lambda, Aurora, DynamoDB, and Kafka.

• Trilingual engineer (English/Japanese/Malay) with daily cross-functional communication across Japanese and overseas teams.

WORK EXPERIENCE

株式会社ホープス (Hopes Co., Ltd.) — Tokyo

Backend Engineer | Aug 2025 – Present

Dispatched to a major domestic telecommunications carrier as part of a next-generation carrier messaging platform initiative. Designing and operating a distributed GCP/GKE backend pipeline bridging high-volume upstream message delivery with a downstream consent fulfillment API.

• Designed system architecture and selected Kafka as the messaging backbone based on ordering, reliability, and scalability requirements under a 1500 TPS downstream global cap
• Designed request coalescing with singleflight, reliable offset commit ordering (offsets committed only after durable Spanner writes), graceful shutdown, and a cronjob-based retry pipeline — achieving at-least-once delivery with no data loss on crash
• Proposed and implemented hashed phone number lookup in Spanner to avoid access hotspots, eliminate non-indexed searches, and improve CPU efficiency under sustained load
• Improved team development efficiency by optimizing GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows, scoping full test runs to pull requests, improving build cache usage, and reducing unnecessary image builds to shorten feedback cycles
• Designed observability for distributed services using OpenTelemetry, Datadog, and tracing to improve production visibility and incident response
• Authored architecture and design documents, including Kafka adoption rationale and request coalescing design, to align teams through clear written mechanisms
• Strengthened security and compliance posture by designing logs to mask PII, implementing secure service-to-service authentication with Workload Identity, and enforcing least-privilege access controls
• Applied AI tools (Copilot, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT) in daily workflows with deliberate guardrails: output validated through testing and review, AI excluded from security-sensitive logic

株式会社ニッポンダイナミックシステムズ — Tokyo

Full Stack Engineer, IT Solutions — Pharma Market Team | Apr 2023 – Jul 2025

Backend, cloud infrastructure, data platforms, and internal application development for enterprise clients, primarily on AWS with some Azure-based delivery.

• Built a scalable analytical DWH on Amazon Aurora for a pharmaceutical client, integrating Salesforce and multiple external sources via ECS/Fargate and Lambda ETL pipelines; designed for HA with Multi-AZ failover
• Constructed a SaaS data lake using AWS CDK, Glue, TypeScript, and Python, automating ETL ingestion across heterogeneous data sources
• Built a license authentication service using Node.js, Docker, Azure Web Apps, and Azure AD B2C; owned requirements definition through client delivery
• Automated monthly maintenance operations (AMI updates, patching, regression testing, blue/green deployments) via AWS CodePipeline and Azure Pipelines
• Mentored junior engineers on cloud architecture; functioned as bilingual (EN/JA) liaison between domestic and overseas engineering teams

SKILLS

CERTIFICATIONS

In progress: Applied Information Technology Engineer (AP)

EDUCATION

Tokai University — Bachelor of Engineering Major: Electrical and Electronic Engineering Minor: Information Technology Graduated: March 2023

ADDITIONAL

• Languages: English (business), Japanese (business, JLPT N1), Malay (native)
• Homelab: Self-hosted k3s cluster, Gitea, Ansible/IaC, ArgoCD — gitea.nik4nao.com
• Dev blog / personal site: nik4nao.com