Hey, I'm Ihor (Harry) 👋

I'm Ihor (Harry) Chyshkala, a Chief Technology Officer and Full Stack Developer with over 18 years of comprehensive technology experience spanning software development, technical leadership, digital strategy, and fintech innovation. Currently based in Manchester, UK, I serve as CTO at IC Studio, where I lead technical strategy, architecture decisions, and team growth while remaining deeply involved in hands-on development work. My unique journey from IT sales through various technical roles has given me a holistic perspective on technology's role in driving business success.

What distinguishes my approach is the combination of deep technical expertise with strong business acumen. Having started my career in IT sales and customer-facing roles, I learned early on that technology exists to solve real business problems and drive measurable results. This perspective shapes every technical decision I make – whether architecting a new system, choosing a technology stack, or optimizing existing infrastructure. I don't just build software; I build solutions that deliver ROI, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enable business growth.

Professional Journey & Career Evolution

My technology career began in 2006 at Ukrprombank, one of Ukraine's largest banking institutions serving over 2 million customers. I started as a Software Developer working on critical banking applications, but quickly demonstrated leadership abilities that led to promotion to Technical Lead. In this role, I managed a team of 8 developers, oversaw the architecture and development of mission-critical banking systems, and ensured these systems met the stringent security, reliability, and compliance requirements of the financial industry. This early exposure to fintech set the foundation for my continued specialization in financial technology.

From 2012 to 2015, I transitioned into digital marketing and SEO, serving as Chief Digital & SEO Strategist. While this might seem like a departure from pure development, it was actually an invaluable learning experience that taught me about user behavior, conversion optimization, data analytics, and digital business strategy. I achieved remarkable results including 45% organic traffic growth and 135% increase in advertising conversions for clients. This period taught me to think about technology from the user's perspective and understand how technical decisions impact business metrics like conversion rates, user engagement, and revenue.

Between 2015 and 2018, I worked as a freelance Digital Tech Storyteller on Upwork, achieving TOP-1 Premier Author status. This period exposed me to diverse projects across industries and geographies, working with clients from over 10 countries. Each project presented unique challenges and required adapting to different technologies, business contexts, and client expectations. This freelance experience taught me effective remote communication, project management, and the ability to quickly understand and solve complex problems independently – skills that remain invaluable in today's distributed work environment.

Since 2018, I've been with IC Studio, where my journey from Junior Software Engineer to Chief IT Innovation Orchestrator (CTO) demonstrates consistent growth and increasing responsibility. In my current role, I lead technical strategy for the entire organization, make key architecture and technology decisions, mentor and grow the engineering team, manage relationships with technical partners and vendors, and remain actively involved in development of critical features and systems. This hands-on CTO approach ensures I stay current with technology while providing strategic leadership.

Technical Expertise & Specializations

My primary technical expertise centers on full-stack JavaScript/TypeScript development with a focus on modern web technologies. On the frontend, I specialize in React and Next.js, building performant, SEO-friendly applications that deliver excellent user experiences. I'm well-versed in the latest Next.js features including Server Components, Server Actions, and the App Router, using these capabilities to build applications that are both developer-friendly and optimized for performance. My styling approach combines Tailwind CSS for rapid development with custom CSS when unique designs require it.

For backend development, I work extensively with Node.js and Express, building RESTful APIs and GraphQL endpoints that serve as the backbone of modern applications. Database expertise spans both SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis) solutions, with deep understanding of database design, optimization, indexing strategies, and query performance tuning. I architect databases to handle growth, optimize for common access patterns, and maintain data integrity even as applications scale.

My fintech specialization is a key differentiator, built on years of experience with financial systems, payment processing, regulatory compliance, and security-critical applications. I've integrated numerous payment providers including Stripe, PayPal, and cryptocurrency payment systems, understanding the nuances of payment flows, webhook handling, PCI compliance, and secure handling of financial data. This fintech expertise extends to building transaction systems, financial dashboards, reporting tools, and applications that must meet strict regulatory requirements.

DevOps, Cloud & Infrastructure

Beyond application development, I bring strong DevOps and infrastructure expertise. I work with major cloud platforms including AWS, Vercel, DigitalOcean, and Heroku, understanding the strengths and appropriate use cases for each. On AWS, I've worked with EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudFront, and other services to build scalable, cost-effective infrastructure. My approach to cloud architecture emphasizes right-sizing resources, implementing proper caching strategies, and using managed services where appropriate to reduce operational overhead.

I implement CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins, automating testing, building, and deployment processes to enable rapid, reliable releases. Containerization with Docker and Docker Compose allows consistent development environments and simplified deployment processes. Infrastructure as code using Terraform helps manage cloud resources declaratively, ensuring infrastructure is versioned, reviewable, and reproducible across environments. Monitoring and observability are key priorities – I implement error tracking with Sentry, logging with CloudWatch or similar services, and performance monitoring to proactively identify issues before they impact users.

Leadership Philosophy & Team Management

As CTO, my leadership philosophy centers on empowering engineers to do their best work while maintaining high standards for code quality, architecture, and delivery. I believe in hiring talented people and giving them autonomy while providing clear direction, removing obstacles, and supporting their professional growth. I've successfully led teams ranging from small startup groups to teams of 8+ developers on enterprise projects, adapting my leadership style to match team maturity and project needs.

Code quality is non-negotiable in teams I lead. We implement comprehensive testing strategies, conduct thorough code reviews, use linting and static analysis tools, and follow established coding standards. But quality isn't just about preventing bugs – it's about building maintainable systems that can evolve as business needs change. I advocate for regular refactoring, paying down technical debt before it becomes overwhelming, and making architectural improvements iteratively rather than through massive rewrites.

I'm committed to continuous learning both personally and for my teams. Technology evolves rapidly, and staying current requires deliberate effort. I encourage team members to experiment with new technologies in side projects, share knowledge through lunch-and-learn sessions, contribute to open source projects, and attend conferences or workshops. My own learning includes reading technical books and articles, following industry leaders, experimenting with emerging technologies, and maintaining an active technical blog where I write about interesting challenges and solutions.

Business-Driven Technology Decisions

One of my core principles is that every technology decision should ultimately drive business value. This might mean choosing established technologies over cutting-edge ones when stability and ecosystem maturity are more important than novelty. It means measuring what matters – tracking metrics like page load times, conversion rates, error rates, and infrastructure costs rather than purely technical metrics. It means prioritizing features based on business impact, not just technical interest or ease of implementation.

My experience with digital marketing and SEO complements this business-driven approach. I understand how technical decisions impact SEO performance – server-side rendering for better indexing, Core Web Vitals for ranking, structured data for rich results. I know how page load times affect conversion rates and why performance optimization isn't just about user experience but about revenue. This holistic view helps me make technology decisions that align with and actively support business objectives.

Beyond Technology - Broader Interests

My interests extend beyond pure technology into areas that inform and enrich my approach to building software. Psychology fascinates me, particularly cognitive biases, decision-making processes, and human-computer interaction. Understanding how people think and behave helps me design better user interfaces, anticipate user needs, and build systems that align with how people actually work rather than how we might imagine they work.

Philosophy, particularly epistemology and ethics, provides frameworks for thinking about difficult questions in technology – what should we build, how should data be used, what trade-offs are acceptable between functionality and privacy. As technology becomes more powerful and pervasive, these philosophical considerations become increasingly important for technology leaders.

A passion for science keeps me curious about discoveries across fields – whether that's advances in quantum computing, breakthroughs in materials science, or new understandings in neuroscience. Often, innovations in one field inspire solutions in software development. For example, understanding how biological systems handle failure and redundancy can inform how we architect resilient distributed systems.

Collaboration & Communication Style

Throughout my career, I've developed strong collaboration and communication skills essential for successful project delivery. I believe in transparent communication – providing regular updates, being honest about challenges and risks, and avoiding surprises. When working with non-technical stakeholders, I translate technical concepts into business language, focusing on outcomes rather than implementation details. When working with technical teams, I provide the context and reasoning behind decisions, encouraging discussion and feedback.

My approach to problem-solving is systematic: thoroughly understand the problem before jumping to solutions, consider multiple approaches and their trade-offs, prototype when there's uncertainty, and gather data to validate assumptions. I'm comfortable with ambiguity and excel in situations where the path forward isn't immediately clear, using iterative exploration to find solutions. This problem-solving approach has served me well across diverse projects and industries.

Whether you're looking for a CTO to lead your technical strategy, a full-stack developer to build your product, a fintech specialist for a complex financial application, or a technical consultant to optimize your existing systems, I bring the expertise, experience, and business acumen to deliver results. Explore my portfolio to see examples of my work, read my case studies for detailed project breakdowns with measurable outcomes, or get in touch to discuss how I can help with your specific needs.