# Alexander Sokolov Financial Data Engineer Remote · UTC+7 · Full-time or contract alsok@alsok.org · [Telegram](https://t.me/Alsok) · [GitHub](https://github.com/Alvsok) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alsok/) ---
- Double-entry ledger engine — built from scratch - AI agent with live production data access - Also shipping production PHP/Laravel
> Past a certain volume, bookkeeping becomes data engineering: I build systems where every cent of revenue, fees, cash and FX operations lands on the right account — by rule, traceably, and idempotently. --- ## Professional Profile Finance -> Engineering -> Fintech systems. The career has three stages: 1. **20 years in finance and management (through 2018).** Banking, investment companies, First Deputy CEO of a manufacturing and distribution holding, overseeing finance, marketing, and IT. Built managerial accounting from scratch, rolled out ERP, costed COGS for hundreds of SKUs, ran MLM finance. I know how a balance sheet, P&L, and cash flow statement work from the inside — I closed them by hand. 2. **Transition into modern backend engineering (2018-2024).** Building on a math foundation (Lomonosov Moscow State University), deliberately learned the modern development stack and moved from first Python services to production systems on Django and FastAPI. 5 years on commercial projects (weather data, education platforms, e-commerce), building engineering depth: API architecture, relational databases, async, Docker, CI/CD. 3. **Synthesis: Financial Data Engineering (2024 - present).** I build what neither bookkeeping nor classic development covers on its own: double-entry ledger engines, payout reconciliation, FX accounting, automated financial reporting — as code, not spreadsheets. Target roles: Financial Data Engineer, Financial Ledger Engineer, Accounting Systems Architect, Transaction Reconciliation Engineer. --- ## Key Competencies - Double-Entry Ledger Engine: built ledger cores (`Account`, `LedgerEntry`, `Operation`, `Period`), Single Source of Truth, chart of accounts, period close, preserved balance invariants. - Financial Reporting Engine: automated generation of the three core financial statements (Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Flow) by department and consolidated across the business. - FX & Cash Accounting: accounting for currency-exchange operations, Realized FX Gain/Loss calculation, rate fixing at transaction time, cash and acquiring operations. - Payout Reconciliation & Revenue Subledgers: automated reconciliation of payout batches from acquirers (`Shopify Payouts`, `Stripe`, `Amazon`) down to the cent, splitting gross revenue, fees, refunds, and holds. - Dynamic Account Mapping & ERP: journal entry automation, dynamic subaccount mapping into the General Ledger / ERP (`NetSuite`, `Odoo`, `QuickBooks`, `1C`). - Idempotency & Data Replayability: idempotent financial data pipelines designed for safe replay without duplicate postings. - Full-Stack Backend & AI: `Python` (`Django`, `FastAPI`, `DRF`, `Celery`), `PHP 8.2` (`Laravel 12`), `PostgreSQL`, `Redis`, `Docker`, `OpenAI API`, `MCP`. --- ## Experience | Period | Phase | Company | Role | |---|---|---|---| | Jun 2026 - present | Fintech Engineering | Yesim (contract) | Backend Laravel Developer | | Dec 2025 - present | Fintech Engineering | Fintech company (NDA) | Financial Data Engineer | | May 2025 - present | Fintech Engineering | VitalityNode | Full-Stack / Financial Data Engineer | | Aug 2024 - May 2025 | Backend Development | Brif | Backend FastAPI Developer | | Dec 2021 - Aug 2024 | Backend Development | InterPress IH | Backend Django Developer | | Feb 2021 - Dec 2021 | Backend Development | Auroville Earth Institute | Full-Stack Django Developer | | Jan 2019 - Dec 2020 | Backend Development | Mother's flowers | Python Developer | | 2010 - 2018 | Finance & Management | CIEL Trading House | First Deputy CEO (Finance, Marketing & IT) | | Before 2010 | Finance & Management | Banks, investment companies | Bank board chairman and senior management roles | --- ## Key Projects *Projects below are grouped by career stage: fintech engineering (2024 - present), backend development (2019-2024), financial management (through 2018).* ### Phase 1: Fintech Engineering (2024 - present) #### 1. Fintech company · Financial Data Engineer · Dec 2025 - present *High-load financial system. Company name withheld under NDA.* Designed and built a full double-entry ledger engine from scratch for a fintech platform (the engine serves thousands of client accounts and processes daily batches of currency-exchange and cash operations). - Double-entry architecture (`Python` / `Django` / `PostgreSQL`): - Designed the ledger model (`Account`, `LedgerEntry`, `Operation`, `Period`), guaranteeing debit/credit equality with automatic zeroing of clearing accounts. - Implemented automatic client account opening; system accounts via data migrations, operational accounts via the admin panel. - Split the `Person`, `User`, and `Client` entities — postings are strictly tied to `Client`, eliminating data discrepancies. - FX Accounting: - Implemented the full accounting cycle for conversion and currency-exchange operations. - Built the mechanism for rate fixing and automatic Realized FX Gain/Loss calculation. - Cash & Affiliate Subledgers: - Built the module for cash operations, balance inventory, and acquiring. - Set up the affiliate compensation subledger, fixing the accrual base at transaction time. - Financial Reporting Engine (automating three statements): - Aggregation algorithms for automatic generation of the Balance Sheet, P&L, and Cash Flow. - Reports exported by department and branch, and consolidated across the business. - Backend & AI Observability: - High-throughput REST API endpoints behind a gateway, `SSE` streams for support chats. - Production log-monitoring AI agent connected to `Grafana` via `MCP` to generate tickets for engineers. - MCP access to production databases (CRM and ledger) for diagnostics during development.
How the AI monitoring and DB access work - **Grafana agent:** connects via `mcp-grafana` (SSE, read-only). Of 65 available MCP tools, only 27 are exposed to the agent — a deliberate narrowing to safe read-only monitoring. 8 dedicated response compressors keep large metric/log/trace payloads from blowing the agent's context. A quick-reference file loaded into the system prompt saves tokens on discovery calls. Tracing on both sides: frontend via `Grafana Faro SDK`, backend via `OpenTelemetry` from `Django`. - **MCP database access for local development:** a separate tool, not an autonomous agent. While coding, I query the production DB directly for diagnostics via `crm_query`/`ledger_query`. Access is SSH to a read-only DB user, no public endpoint. SQL goes through stdin, not as an argument (keeps it out of `ps` and shell history), same time/row limits as the existing web consoles, every query is audit-logged.
#### 2. VitalityNode · Financial Data Engineer · May 2025 - present *E-commerce middleware, Shopify apps, and accounting tools.* - Pet Connector - Shopify App (Subscription & Billing Subledger): - Integrated the `Shopify Billing API`: freemium-conversion accounting, subscription plans, and platform fees. - Built 7 Smart Fields on customer profiles with an algorithm that auto-regenerates metafields if deleted. - Event-driven payout tracking with `Klaviyo` and GDPR webhooks. - E-commerce & Financial Data Middleware: - GMC Scanner (Risk Radar): risk analysis of the `Google Merchant Center` feed and automatic Google Product Taxonomy category matching. - AI Content & SKU Taxonomy: automatic product classification and image-based risk scoring via `OpenAI API` (published on the Shopify App Store). #### 3. Yesim contract (eSIM provider) · B2B2C Financial Data Integration · Jun 2026 - present *Stack: `PHP 8.2`, `Laravel 12`, `React 18`, Shopify Polaris, App Bridge v4, `MySQL`, `Redis`.* - Building the backend of a B2B2C app with margin accounting on the PHP/Laravel stack. - Financial logic: automatic merchant markup calculation (fixed and percentage), dynamic revenue split between the eSIM supplier and the seller. - Idempotent `orders/paid` webhook processing, mapping thousands of eSIM plans, bulk metafield uploads, activation QR-code generation. --- ### Phase 2: Backend Development — from first projects to production (2019-2024) *A period of deliberate immersion in backend engineering — from data-processing scripts to production systems on Django and FastAPI.* - **Brif (2024-2025):** high-load `FastAPI` backend for vectorized weather-data processing (`NetCDF`, `BUFR`) on `NumPy`, `Pandas`, `xarray`. Vectorized computation, REST API, monitoring. - **InterPress IH (2021-2024):** production `Django` system with a DRF REST API, third-party integrations, middleware, Swagger docs. - **Auroville Earth Institute (2021):** `Django` information system, migrating 30+ years of historical data from Excel to `PostgreSQL`. - **Mother's flowers (2019-2020):** first project — data collection, cleaning, and structuring on `Python`/`MySQL`. --- ### Phase 3: Financial and Operational Leadership (through 2018) #### CIEL Trading House · First Deputy CEO (Finance, Marketing & IT) · 2010-2018 *Manufacturing and MLM distribution of perfumes and cosmetics.* - Managerial accounting from scratch: built the full loop — Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Flow. - Production costing (COGS): costing model for hundreds of finished-goods SKUs and thousands of components under continuously rotating recipes. - ERP rollout: migrated the entire company to `1C:Trade Management` (production, warehouse, logistics, finance, HR). - MLM finance: referral and agent compensation network for several thousand consultants. #### Before 2010 Senior roles in banking and investment companies, including bank board chairman. FSFR license (2006, securities). --- ## Financial Competencies Accounting & reporting: Managerial accounting · Double-entry bookkeeping · Balance Sheet · P&L · Cash Flow · Consolidated reporting · Cash-flow management · Budgeting and variance analysis Financial engineering: Double-Entry Ledger Engine · Audit-Grade Financial Systems · Payout Reconciliation · Revenue Subledgers · FX Accounting (Realized FX) · Affiliate Subledgers · Idempotency · Data Lineage · Closed Periods Costing & MLM: COGS · Production costing · Referral and agent compensation calculation · Subscription models (SaaS Billing) · Margin analysis Financial software: `1C:Trade Management` · `1C:Accounting` · `Odoo` · `NetSuite` · `QuickBooks` · `Excel (Power Query, pivot tables)` · `Metabase` Markets & regulation: FSFR license (broker-dealer activity and securities management) · RAS (Russian Accounting Standards) · IFRS basics --- ## Technical Stack Backend: `Python` · `Django` · `DRF` · `Django-Ninja` · `FastAPI` · `Celery` · `django-rq` · `PHP 8.2` · `Laravel 12` Databases: `PostgreSQL` · `pgbouncer` · `pgvector` · `MySQL` · `SQLite` · `Redis` API & Protocols: `REST API` · `GraphQL` · `SSE` · `Webhooks` · `OAuth 2.0` · `JWT` · `Telegram Bot API` AI & Developer Tools: `Claude Code CLI` · `Antigravity CLI (agy)` · `OpenAI API / Codex` · `MCP` · `Crawl4AI` · `VS Code` · `Cursor` · `Git` E-commerce & Platforms: `Shopify Admin API` · `Shopify Billing API` · `Shopify Polaris` · `App Bridge v4` Infrastructure & Cloud: `Docker` · `Nginx` · `Gunicorn` · `Google Cloud` Languages: Russian (native) · English (technical reading and writing, async communication) --- ## Education & Certifications - Lomonosov Moscow State University, Mathematical Methods in Economics - "Financial Market Specialist" qualification certificate, FSFR Russia (2006) - Managerial Accounting Diploma, Institute of Certified Financial Managers (ICFM, UK, 2011, Reg. No. 341048) - "CFO: Financial Management of an Organization," Moscow Business School (2010)