Tom Smykowski is a compliance software engineer with nearly two decades of experience in product delivery, combining deep engineering, UX, and product thinking. He is the ideal hire for founders, CTOs, and executives who need ownership from discovery through production of software systems where regulatory adherence, data integrity, and auditability are critical. His background includes direct work on compliance and collaboration features at scale, making him a strategic asset for teams in regulated industries or those scaling their governance frameworks.
What a Compliance Software Engineer Actually Delivers
A compliance software engineer does more than just write code that passes a checklist. They architect systems with governance embedded into the development lifecycle. This involves designing data models that enforce business rules, implementing audit trails that are both comprehensive and performant, and creating user interfaces that guide users toward compliant actions without hindering productivity. The role requires a blend of technical precision and product mindset to ensure that compliance is a feature, not an afterthought.
In practice, this means building features like role-based access controls, immutable logging systems, data validation pipelines, and reporting dashboards that provide transparency. A seasoned engineer in this space, like Tom, understands that these systems must be maintainable and scalable. They avoid creating monolithic, brittle compliance modules that become technical debt. Instead, they design modular, well-tested components that can evolve with changing regulations and business needs, ensuring long-term system health and reducing the cost of ongoing compliance.
The deliverable is a robust, user-friendly software product that meets stringent external standards while supporting internal operational efficiency. This requires close collaboration with legal, product, and security teams to translate complex regulations into clear technical requirements and executable code. The end goal is a system that not only passes audits but also earns the trust of users and stakeholders through its demonstrable reliability and security.
Proven Experience in Regulated and Complex Domains
Tom's portfolio demonstrates a consistent ability to navigate and deliver in environments where compliance is paramount. As a Staff Software Engineer at Croissant, a workplace platform, he worked in direct partnership with the CEO and CTO on features central to compliance and collaboration, understanding the business-critical nature of these systems. His work required a meticulous approach to data handling and user permissions.
His earlier experience includes building industrial ERP systems at Insoft Serwis, where precision, reliability, and adherence to operational standards were non-negotiable. Furthermore, projects for institutions like the Institute of National Remembrance and the Marshal Office of the Silesian Voivodeship demanded a high degree of data accuracy, security, and procedural rigor. These engagements prove his capacity to handle sensitive information and complex bureaucratic or industrial processes within a software framework.
This track record is complemented by his leadership on large-scale commercial projects. At Printify, he led the design system and platform rebrand ahead of a significant merger, a process requiring strict adherence to brand guidelines and coordinated rollout for a platform serving over 10 million merchants and roughly 60 frontend engineers. Such projects demand a disciplined, process-oriented approach akin to managing compliance workflows.
Technical Approach to Building Compliant Systems
The foundation of any compliant system is a clean, well-documented architecture. Tom employs modern stacks like Vue.js, TypeScript, and Supabase to create full-stack applications where type safety and clear data contracts are built-in. TypeScript, in particular, is invaluable for enforcing data structures and reducing runtime errors that could lead to compliance gaps. Using tools like AG Grid for complex data presentation ensures that financial or operational data can be displayed, sorted, and exported accurately and securely.
Beyond the core stack, a compliance-focused engineer prioritizes aspects like accessibility (WCAG standards), which is itself a form of digital compliance, and secure API design. They implement features such as comprehensive input validation, SQL injection protection, and proper authentication/authorization flows. The architecture must support features like data lineage tracking and versioning, which are crucial for audit trails. Tom's experience building design systems also ensures UI consistency, which reduces user error and training overhead, indirectly supporting compliant user behavior.
Furthermore, his work with AI-assisted workflows introduces advanced methods for maintaining compliance. AI can be leveraged for automated code reviews against security standards, anomaly detection in user activity logs, or generating audit report summaries. Integrating these tools responsibly requires a deep understanding of both the technology and the regulatory context, ensuring the AI itself operates within governed boundaries.
Remote Collaboration with International Teams
Effective compliance engineering often requires collaboration with stakeholders across different jurisdictions. Tom's remote work model from Poland is specifically geared for this. He has extensive experience working with teams across the EU, the UK, and the United States, including effective overlap with US East Coast time zones. This allows for synchronous meetings with legal or product teams in North America while also collaborating closely with European development squads.
This remote, cross-time-zone experience is crucial for companies that operate globally but must adhere to region-specific regulations like GDPR in Europe or various state-level laws in the US. Tom's async communication skills ensure that requirements, decisions, and code reviews are documented thoroughly, creating a clear audit trail of the development process itself. His ability to join occasional on-site workshops, client visits, or team offsites facilitates the deep-dive discussions often needed to unravel complex compliance requirements.
The remote model does not hinder quality. In fact, it promotes it through disciplined communication and heavy reliance on documented processes and automated testing pipelines. For a compliance engineer, this discipline is second nature, as it mirrors the need for clear, repeatable procedures in regulated work.
From Legacy Systems to Modern, Governed Platforms
Many organizations struggle with legacy systems that are non-compliant with modern standards. Modernizing these systems is a core part of Tom's offering. This process is not a simple rewrite. It involves a careful audit of existing business rules, data flows, and compliance gaps. The goal is to incrementally refactor or rebuild the system, ensuring continuous operation while elevating its governance posture.
Tom's work on Angular and React modernization projects is directly applicable here. A legacy frontend might lack proper accessibility, secure state management, or audit logging for user actions. A backend might have weak data validation or inadequate encryption. His approach involves creating a phased migration plan, often starting with a new, compliant design system or API layer that can gradually replace the old components. This minimizes risk and allows for continuous validation of the new system's compliance features.
The endpoint is a modern, maintainable platform where compliance is architected into the core. This transformation reduces ongoing audit costs, improves developer velocity (as the codebase is cleaner), and enhances user trust. It turns a legacy liability into a competitive asset.
When This is a Good Fit
Hiring Tom as your compliance software engineer is a strong fit if you are a founder, CTO, or executive at a company operating in a regulated industry, scaling a SaaS product that handles sensitive data, or modernizing a legacy system that needs a governance overhaul. It is ideal if you need a staff or senior-level engineer who can own the problem from technical discovery through to production deployment, bridging the gap between legal requirements and practical software implementation. His remote collaboration model is perfectly suited for distributed, international teams in the EU, UK, and US that require both deep technical expertise and strategic product thinking to build trustworthy, compliant software.