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Zacaria Chtatar

API architecture, backend performance, and technical leadership.

Software engineer since 2013, with lead roles since 2018. I design and build APIs, improve production performance, and help teams make technical decisions. I remain hands-on while supporting engineers through documentation, onboarding, and mentoring.

France · Freelance / contract opportunities · One-month notice

Zacaria Chtatar
01 · Profile

At a glance

  1. ~10M → ~25M requests/dayProduction traffic

    Helped scale Club Med’s API to handle increased production traffic.

  2. ~15 minutesData updates available

    Replaced daily cache refreshes for Club Med’s API.

  3. ~5 minutesAPI slowdown diagnosis

    To pinpoint the component slowing API responses.

02 · Chronology

Work experience

Club Med

2020.09 ~ nowLead Developer

API platform with more than 300 endpoints, serving data from backend systems and content management tools to Club Med’s digital applications.

2020.09 ~ now

API contracts and endpoint design for Club Med’s digital applications.

  • Contributed to API architecture and contract design. Helped resolve design discussions during backlog refinement by grounding endpoint names in business behaviour and existing API conventions.
  • Supported technical onboarding and shared engineering practices through documentation, discussion, and teaching.
Technical strategyAPI contractsTeam enablementNode.js
2021.09 ~ now

Observability and targeted cache refresh for a high-volume API platform.

  • Helped scale the API platform as production traffic grew from approximately 10M to 25M requests per day. Used Kibana monitoring, load tests, and profiling to identify and fix performance bottlenecks.
  • Replaced daily API cache refreshes with an event-driven system built with Kafka and Rust. Changes in backend systems and content management tools became available through the API in around 15 minutes.
  • Helped replace hours of investigation with two dashboards that distinguish API processing delays from infrastructure bottlenecks and identify the component responsible. Finding the source of a slowdown takes approximately five minutes.
  • Built version-specific maps linking API routes to their backend calls, following an initial analysis of production logs in Kibana. Made dependencies traceable in both directions.
Node.jsKibanaKafkaRustRedis
2025.09 ~ now

MCP access to API documentation, documentation search and evaluation of an API-based AI agent.

  • Built and deployed an MCP server, now used internally by developers and coding assistants to implement frontend features. It provides API definitions and usage scenarios explaining which endpoints to call, when, and in what order.
  • Reused a vectorized documentation database built by another team, containing OpenAPI definitions and contributed usage scenarios.
  • Advised another team building an AI agent over the API on documentation search and repeatable evaluation. The team implemented the recommendations, including a reusable question set for automated testing.
  • Introduced a specification-led development workflow using OpenSpec during a hackathon.
OpenSpecCodexMCPSpec-Driven DevelopmentAI SDK

Figaro Classifieds

2018.09 ~ 2020.09Node.js Lead Developer

Property platforms within the Figaro media group

2018.09 ~ 2020.09

Modernized frontend, backend, delivery, and cloud foundations across two products.

  • Led the migration of property-platform interfaces from Backbone and JSP to Vue.js with server-side rendering.
  • Improved SEO and user experience while modernizing build and delivery practices.
  • Built Node.js and Go services and configured a GCP CDN with Terraform.
Node.jsVue.jsReactGoTerraformGCP

DirectSkills

2018.05 ~ 2018.08React Tech Lead

Software for temporary-employment management

2018.05 ~ 2018.08

A short engagement combining delivery and team enablement.

  • Led React frontend development for temporary-employment management software and trained teammates in the React ecosystem.
  • Modernized frontend practices and tooling.
ReactGraphQLApolloSassScrum / Kanban

Excilys (now Oxyl)

2016.06 ~ 2018.05React Developer

Consulting across private-banking and marketplace products

2017.02 ~ 2018.01

Marketplace SaaS platform

  • Established React and Redux practices, maintained a component library, and industrialized delivery with CircleCI and Lerna.
  • Trained Java developers transitioning to React.
ReactReduxStorybookCircleCILernaTeam enablement
2018.02 ~ 2018.05

Private-banking product

  • Built React components integrated with a GraphQL API and improved Apollo client performance.
  • Facilitated Scrum practices for the client team.
ReactApolloGraphQLSassScrum / Kanban

Earlier engineering experience

2013.06 ~ 2016.09Software Engineer & Web Developer

Keyveo, CESI, Excilys training, and early client work

2013.06 ~ 2016.09

Early work across documentation tooling, IoT, mobile, and web products.

  • Completed six weeks of intensive software-engineering training and earned Oracle OCA and OCP certifications.
  • Built TypeScript-to-Markdown tooling for the Babylon.js documentation.
  • Visualized IoT sensor data for the CESI CREST research project and delivered early web and mobile client products.
JavaNode.jsTypeScriptJavaScriptIoTMobile
03 · Scope

Technical skills & leadership

Technical leadership

  • Requirements clarification and technical decisions
  • API design and contracts
  • Architecture guided by production evidence
  • Knowledge sharing, onboarding & mentoring

Systems

  • Public APIs at scale
  • Performance and observability
  • Event-driven architecture
  • Distributed caching and data freshness

Delivery

  • Spec-Driven Development, TDD, and DDD
  • CI/CD and infrastructure as code
  • AI coding tools, documentation search, and agent evaluation

Languages & credentials

  • English — TOEIC 955
  • Hugging Face AI Agents Certification, 2024
  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, 2019
  • Oracle OCA and OCP

Selected technologies

Node.jsTypeScriptRustKafkaRedisReactKibanaDockerAWSTerraform
04 · Education

Education

CESI Exia

2011 ~ 2016Manager des systèmes d’information — French Bac+5

Five-year project-based programme completed at French Bac+5 level.

05 · Additional experience

Speaking & short programmes

2023.12.06 ~ 2023.12.08Speaker

English-language talk on building robust, fast, cost-efficient APIs with Rust.

Public speakingRustAPI architecture
2023.07 ~ 2023.08Technical lead — MyTurn

Three-week entrepreneurship programme in Porto; led technical and architecture decisions for the MyTurn product concept.

EntrepreneurshipCustomer discoveryPrototypingPublic speaking

Applied Quantum Computing

2022.07 ~ 2022.07Hogeschool van Amsterdam

Two-week intensive programme completed with a score of 10/10; implemented BB84 quantum key distribution and qubit teleportation with Qiskit.

Quantum computingPythonQiskit