Who is Tom Smykowski, Your Remote Backend Engineer?
Tom Smykowski is a senior backend engineer with nearly two decades of experience in product delivery, combining engineering rigor with UX and product thinking. Based in Poland, he specializes in remote collaboration with teams across the EU, UK, and US, making him an ideal hire for organizations seeking a backend engineer who can take ownership from technical discovery through to production deployment. His career is defined by building and modernizing complex systems for clients like DeLaval, Croissant, Ordnance Survey, Printify, GE Healthcare, and Unilever, where backend architecture, API design, and system scalability are paramount.
Tom's approach is holistic. He doesn't just write code. He solves business problems through robust, maintainable backend systems. This product-minded perspective ensures that technical decisions align with user needs and business goals, whether he's working as a Staff Software Engineer at a platform like Croissant or leading backend architecture for a scaling SaaS product. For founders, CTOs, and executives, this means hiring an engineer who bridges the gap between technical depth and strategic product outcomes.
His remote work model is proven and effective. Operating from Poland, Tom seamlessly integrates with international teams, offering reliable overlap with EU, UK, and US East Coast time zones. This facilitates clear communication for stand-ups, planning sessions, and collaborative problem-solving, eliminating the friction often associated with distributed engineering work.
Deep Expertise in Backend Systems and Scalable Architecture
Tom's backend engineering expertise is rooted in a long history of building systems that must perform under real-world loads. At Croissant, as a Staff Software Engineer, his work involved critical backend components for compliance and collaboration features within a workplace platform. This required designing APIs and data models that were both secure and highly performant for a diverse user base.
His foundational work with industrial ERP systems at Insoft Serwis provided early, intensive experience with complex data processing, business logic, and integration challenges common in enterprise backend environments. This background is invaluable for projects involving legacy system modernization or building new industrial SaaS platforms, as demonstrated in his later role at Fream, where he led frontend efforts but necessarily engaged deeply with backend APIs and data architecture to deliver conversion-focused UX.
Perhaps most telling is his experience as the founder of Websoul, a marketing automation and fintech SaaS serving over 32,000 businesses. Here, Tom was architect, developer, and operator of the entire backend stack. This end-to-end responsibility for a product at scale, handling user data, payment processing, automation workflows, and analytics, provides a unique, founder-level understanding of what makes a backend system not just functional, but resilient, scalable, and maintainable over the long term.
Technical Stack and Modern Backend Practices
While proficient across the full stack, Tom's backend work leverages modern practices and technologies suitable for today's cloud-native applications. His technical writing background ensures his code is clean, well-documented, and his system architectures are clearly communicated to stakeholders and fellow engineers alike.
He has extensive experience with TypeScript across the stack, bringing strong typing to both server-side and client-side code for improved reliability and developer experience. His work often involves designing and consuming RESTful and real-time APIs, ensuring data flows efficiently between services, frontend clients, and third-party integrations. Database design and optimization, from relational to modern solutions like Supabase, are a key part of his toolkit for structuring persistent data effectively.
Beyond specific languages and frameworks, Tom brings a focus on foundational backend concerns: system architecture, data modeling, security, performance optimization, and scalability. He understands how to structure a codebase for growth, implement effective testing strategies, and establish CI/CD pipelines that ensure quality and enable rapid, safe deployment. This comprehensive view is critical for any backend engineer tasked with building systems that will evolve and scale with the product.
Collaborating with International Teams Remotely
Tom's primary mode of operation is remote collaboration with teams spread across Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America. This is not a secondary skill but a core competency developed over years of successful engagements. He is adept at asynchronous communication, clear written documentation, and making the most of synchronous meetings for alignment and complex discussions.
His location in Poland provides a strategic time-zone advantage. It allows for substantial daily overlap with Western European and UK teams, and a meaningful window for collaboration with colleagues on the US East Coast. This facilitates real-time interaction for daily stand-ups, pair programming sessions, and urgent troubleshooting without requiring unreasonable hours from any party.
Tom is also available for occasional on-site workshops, client visits, and team offsites, understanding that in-person collaboration can accelerate relationship-building and intensive planning phases. This flexibility makes him a strong fit for remote-first companies that value occasional face-to-face interaction, as well as fully distributed organizations. His communication style is tailored to cross-cultural teams, ensuring clarity and reducing the potential for misunderstanding in a remote setting.
Project Experience: From Enterprise Scale to Agile Startups
Tom's portfolio demonstrates versatility across industries and company stages, all relying on solid backend engineering. For enterprise clients like GE Healthcare, Unilever, and Bunge, the work involved integrating with large, existing systems, adhering to strict compliance and security standards, and ensuring high availability. These projects demand a backend engineer who understands enterprise architecture patterns and can navigate complex organizational and technical landscapes.
In the high-growth tech sector, his contributions to Printify involved backend systems supporting a platform used by millions of merchants. Scaling design systems and frontend infrastructure, as he did, requires close collaboration with backend teams to ensure APIs are designed for efficiency and that the data layer supports a seamless user experience at volume. Similarly, his work with Croissant focused on building a reliable, secure platform for workplace collaboration, a backend-intensive challenge involving real-time features and data privacy.
On the startup and SMB side, founding and scaling Websoul to serve tens of thousands of businesses is a testament to his ability to architect and grow a backend system from the ground up. This experience is directly applicable to founders seeking a backend engineer to build their MVP or to scale their existing product. He understands the trade-offs between speed and scalability, and how to build a foundation that can grow without requiring a complete rewrite.
Why Hire a Backend Engineer with Product and Leadership Skills?
Tom represents a tier of backend engineer who brings more than just coding ability. His nearly two decades of experience include significant technical leadership, product strategy, and direct collaboration with executives. This means he can contribute to architectural discussions with a business lens, advocate for technical investments that drive product value, and mentor other engineers on the team.
For a CTO or Head of Engineering, hiring Tom means adding a force multiplier. He can own a critical backend domain, improve development practices, and help align the engineering roadmap with business objectives. His experience in staff and senior roles means he is comfortable with ambiguity, can drive projects forward independently, and knows when to escalate or collaborate for the best outcome.
His background in technical writing and public speaking also enhances team knowledge sharing. He can clearly document complex systems, create internal training materials, and represent technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders. This reduces bus factor, improves onboarding, and fosters a culture of clarity and continuous learning within the engineering organization.
When This is a Good Fit
Hiring Tom as your remote backend engineer is an excellent fit if you are a founder, CTO, or engineering leader seeking a senior-level contributor who combines hands-on technical prowess with strategic product thinking. It is ideal for companies building or scaling SaaS products, modernizing legacy systems, or requiring robust API and data architecture. It is a strong match for remote-first or hybrid teams in the EU, UK, or US that value clear communication, deep ownership, and a collaborative approach to solving complex backend challenges.