Alex Soldin

Software engineer
Amsterdam, NL

About me

The Story

I am a software engineer who loves building systems that work — and keep working. My focus is on backend architecture, infrastructure and the kind of technical operations that help companies scale smoothly. However, I am up for any challenge that comes my way.

I believe the best engineering balances technical excellence with practical impact and I'm drawn to work that sits at the intersection of code, product and business.

Currently based in Amsterdam, I'm helping scale the engineering team and infrastructure at Coolset. I thrive in environments where I can build end-to-end solutions, collaborate across teams and solve problems that matter.

I started coding while at school in Johannesburg. Choosing information technology, and later electrical and computer engineering at university, were educated guesses that turned out to be the right ones. I've always enjoyed maths and puzzles, especially problems where patterns emerge and logic leads to elegant solutions. Engineering gave me a way to apply that way of thinking to real-world problems.

What drew me to software was the immediacy of building something useful. Seeing an idea turn into a working system is deeply satisfying, and that feeling only grows at scale. Automating repetitive work or designing systems that simply work saves real time and creates genuine value. The most rewarding part is turning frustration into solutions that feel clear, reliable, and easy to use.

Engineering isn't just about technology. Meaningful progress happens when people feel supported through change. I focus on empathy and clear communication, especially when working across disciplines or bridging technical and non-technical teams. By listening closely and understanding what teams actually need, I aim to design solutions that fit naturally into how they work. Trust, collaboration, and shared understanding are as critical to good systems as the code itself.

Being observant has become central to how I work. I pay close attention to how systems behave, where processes break down, and where small details create unnecessary friction. Over time, I've learned that consistent structure and care for those details are what separate systems that function from systems that last.

The Finer Details

2023 — Present

Amsterdam

Coolset

Software engineer

2021 — 2022

Johannesburg

Isazi Consulting

Data scientist turned software engineer

2017 — 2020

Cape Town

University of Cape Town

Electrical and computer engineering

1998 — 2016

Johannesburg

King David Linksfield

Schooling

Body
  • Pilates
  • Squash
  • Traveling
Craft
  • Cooking and baking
  • Gaming
  • Specialty coffee
Mind
  • Chess
  • Puzzles
  • Sudoku
Build
  • Python
  • Django
  • Celery
  • PostgreSQL
Ship
  • Terraform
  • Cloudflare
  • GitHub Actions
  • n8n
  • Zapier
Run
  • Google Cloud
  • Firebase
  • Sentry
Coordinate
  • Jira
  • Linear
  • Notion
  • Slack