Michal Styczen · Cracow, Poland

Michal Styczen

Staff Engineer / Software Architect / Software Development Manager

I design and lead delivery of event-driven systems built for enterprise scale, and the teams that keep them running.

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15+ years in software delivery
4,300+ enterprise clients on platforms I've architected
330,000+ end users served
20 engineers led directly, at peak

Consulting

Alongside full-time engineering leadership roles, I take on short, focused consulting engagements — the kind where a team needs an outside read on their architecture, delivery process, or AI adoption plan, from someone who has run the thing they're being advised on.

Architecture & systems review

Event-driven architecture, service decomposition, and scale readiness — the same work behind a 4,300-client integration platform at BlackLine.

Agentic AI adoption

Rolling out Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and Gemini Agentic AI into an engineering org, and redesigning how work is delegated between people and agents.

DevOps & SDLC diagnostics

Metrics-driven assessment of release time, lead time to deployment, and release frequency — the model used across HSBC's CTO Office engagement.

Interim engineering leadership

Stepping in as engineering manager or team lead through a transition, a hiring push, or a delivery reset.

Discuss a consulting engagement

Experience

2010 — present
Nov 2025 — present

Manager, Software Engineering

BlackLine Inc., Cracow

  • Architected a cloud-native integration platform serving 4,300+ enterprise clients and 330,000+ users, reducing technical debt along the way.
  • Designed a decoupled, high-throughput ecosystem on Apache Kafka as the core message broker.
  • Introduced agentic AI tooling — Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Gemini Agentic AI — directly into the engineering workflow.
  • Built agentic GitHub Actions workflows that autonomously generate operational metrics across multiple engineering domains, replacing manual reporting with AI-agent-driven automation.
  • Stayed hands-on across Kubernetes and GitHub Actions while driving architecture decisions across a .NET, Java, React and PostgreSQL stack.
KafkaKubernetesGitHub Actions.NETJavaReactPostgreSQL
Jul 2025 — Nov 2025

Engineering Champion (External Consultant)

HSBC, Cracow

  • Partnered across engineering teams in the CTO Office to track and improve 15 DevOps and SDLC metrics.
  • Lifted delivery performance by working the levers behind average release time, lead time to deployment, and release frequency.
  • Standardized development processes across distributed teams, including public repository adoption.
DevOps metricsSDLCGovernance
Aug 2024 — Jul 2025

Team Leader / Engineering Manager

TripStack, Cracow

  • Led 3 cross-functional Scrum teams — 15 specialists across two time zones.
  • Set the architectural vision for scalability and performance, and ran the code reviews that kept it honest.
  • Stood up a 24/7 on-call rotation and an internal 360-degree feedback process.
ScrumArchitectureOn-call
Jul 2020 — Aug 2024

Software Development Manager

PCMI Corporation, Cracow

  • Led two cross-functional Scrum teams of 20 building SaaS for extended warranty management, serving TPAs and insurance companies.
  • Migrated an on-premises platform to Azure and moved business logic out of the database and into the application layer.
  • Introduced API versioning and RESTful APIs, and rebuilt the test suite around the testing pyramid.
AzureC#.NET CoreSQL ServerREST
Apr 2018 — Jun 2020

Team Leader

Sabre Corporation, Cracow

  • Led three Scrum teams of up to 15, shaping architecture and technical design for the Central Reservation System.
  • Introduced API versioning and led an AutoMapper upgrade across multiple projects.
API design.NET
Feb 2015 — Mar 2018

Senior Software Developer

Sabre Corporation, Cracow

  • Built a service-oriented Property Management System in C#, WCF and PostgreSQL.
  • Contributed to a client profiles web application in Java, JavaScript and TypeScript.
C#WCFPostgreSQLJavaTypeScript
Earlier career: Team Leader & .NET Developer, DPK System (2012–2015) · Software Engineer, IBM (2010–2012) · .NET Developer Intern, ABB (2009–2010) — building the foundation in systems architecture and technical leadership.

Skills & technologies

Leadership & delivery

Engineering managementSoftware architectureScrum / agile deliveryMentoring & coachingHiring & recruitmentDevOps & SDLC metricsChange management

Architecture & systems

Event-driven architectureApache KafkaRabbitMQMicroservicesAPI design & versioningClean Code / SOLID

Cloud & infrastructure

AzureKubernetesGitHub ActionsCI/CD

Languages & stacks

C#.NET / .NET CoreJavaTypeScript / JavaScriptReactSQL ServerPostgreSQLT-SQL

AI-assisted engineering

Claude CodeGitHub CopilotGemini Agentic AIAgentic workflow design

Credentials

Education

  • Applied Computer Science, MSc AGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow · 2006–2011

Certifications

  • ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
  • Management 3.0 Foundation Workshop
  • Lean IT Association Foundation

Languages

  • Polish Native — C2
  • English C1

Get in touch

Open to conversations about staff engineering, architecture, and engineering management roles — and to consulting engagements on architecture, delivery, and agentic AI adoption. Email is the fastest way to reach me.

michal@styczen.com.pl linkedin.com/in/michal-styczen-b80b1b53 github.com/michalstyczen