Riga, Latvia · UTC+2 Senior Software Engineer

Kristaps Kohs

Senior software engineer with 14+ years of experience in payment systems and broadcast cloud platforms. Java at the core, with end-to-end ownership of architecture, Kubernetes and AWS infrastructure.

Download CV (PDF) kristapskohs@gmail.com

Career · 2011 – present

2011–2012
Point Transaction Systems
POS terminal management
2012–2015
Verifone Baltic
Payments · Nordic market
2015–PRESENT
Veset
Cloud playout · architecture & infrastructure

Experience

2015 — present

Veset

Senior Software Engineer · cloud playout / broadcast SaaS

  • Core engineer on a greenfield cloud playout platform — channel origination for linear TV, delivered as SaaS and running 24/7 for broadcasters — on the project since its start.
  • Own architecture and system design across the stack: Java / Spring Boot microservices, media pipelines (HLS), S3-backed segment delivery, CloudFront distribution.
  • Built and operate the Kubernetes platform end to end — GitOps with ArgoCD, Helm, Cilium networking, Prometheus / Grafana observability.
  • Run the AWS estate (EC2, S3, CloudFront, ElastiCache, SES, IAM, CloudTrail): capacity planning, incident response, security, and cost optimisation for broadcast-critical workloads.
2012 — 2015

Verifone Baltic

Software Engineer · payments

  • Payment terminal estate-management system for the Nordic market: certificate lifecycle (issue / revoke), remote software package distribution, terminal fleet monitoring.
  • E-commerce payment systems and payment service provider integrations.
  • Java backend development across the product line.
2011 — 2012

Point Transaction Systems

Software Developer · payments

  • POS terminal management software: fleet overview of issued terminals, certificate issuance and revocation, remote package installation.

Stack

Languages

Java (primary), Go, Python, TypeScript / JavaScript, SQL, Bash; some C / C++ — with the mainstream frameworks in each ecosystem.

Backend

Spring Boot & the Spring ecosystem, REST APIs, microservices, PostgreSQL, Redis, React.

Platform & DevOps

Kubernetes (managed & self-hosted, incl. k3s), Docker, Helm, ArgoCD / GitOps, Cilium, CI/CD pipelines, Linux.

Cloud

AWS in depth — EC2, S3, CloudFront, ElastiCache, SES, ELB, IAM, CloudTrail — plus hands-on experience across the other major providers.

Observability

Prometheus, Grafana, alerting and log pipelines for 24/7 production systems.

AI / LLMs

Production integration of LLM APIs (Anthropic, OpenAI and others); AI-assisted engineering workflows.

Domains

Broadcast & video delivery, payment systems, manufacturing / ERP.

Consulting — reliability & cost optimisation for SaaS teams on Kubernetes / AWS

I help SaaS teams make their platforms boring: fewer incidents, clear observability, and an AWS bill that matches what the product actually needs. The approach comes from a decade of running 24/7 broadcast-critical workloads, where downtime is visible to the second.

Typical engagements: Kubernetes platform reviews and hardening, GitOps rollout (ArgoCD), observability that catches problems before customers do (Prometheus / Grafana, alerting that people don't mute), and AWS cost work — right-sizing, storage and traffic architecture, removing the spend that nobody owns.

Engagements run through my Latvian company, remote-first from Riga (EET), short reviews or ongoing advisory.

Currently building

An ERP / MRP SaaS product for small manufacturing businesses — production planning, inventory and traceability — designed and built solo on the same stack I recommend to clients: Java / Spring, Kubernetes, self-managed cloud infrastructure.

Get in touch