About

Melkon Hovhannisyan

Melkon Hovhannisyan is a tech entrepreneur and senior software engineer with 7+ years of experience building production-grade systems across fintech, cybersecurity, logistics, and e-commerce — working with companies from early-stage startups to some of the world's largest platforms.

A key engineer inside companies that collectively raised over $220M — including Bridgewise ($45M) and Datarails ($175M) — Melkon has shipped backend infrastructure, AI-powered automation, and agentic systems in production. Not someone who prototypes AI. Someone who ships it.

Forbes Technology Council member, WorldSkills International Champion in Web Technologies, and AWS Certified Solutions Architect — building at the intersection of AI and real-world impact.

7+
Years of experience
$220M+
Raised by portfolio companies
20+
Engineers built & led at Direlli
Forbes
Technology Council Member

The Journey

2016

Started career as a software engineer, shipping e-commerce and enterprise software for global brands including Vans and DHL.

2020

Selected for FAST Foundation's InVent programme - Armenia's leading deep tech startup accelerator. First hands-on experience building and pitching startups.

2020–2022

Key backend engineer at Bridgewise, an AI-powered financial intelligence platform that raised $45M. Built core infrastructure handling 10,000+ daily transactions, cutting infra costs by 75%.

2021–2024

Co-founded and served as CTO of Direlli, growing an engineering team to 20+ developers and building multiple owned products including an HR tech platform.

2022

Won the WorldSkills International Championship in Web Technologies at the Special Edition in South Korea - one of the most competitive global skills competitions.

2022–2023

Senior engineer at Zerocopter, Europe's first hacker-powered security marketplace. Built microservices, security infrastructure, and automated deployment pipelines.

2023

Appointed WorldSkills Champions Trust Representative for Asia (2023–2024), advocating for skills excellence across the region.

2023–2025

Senior backend & AI engineer at Reddit and Datarails ($175M raised). Shipped agentic workflows, LLM-powered automation, and AI-driven features in production.

2024

Invited to join the Forbes Technology Council - contributing thought leadership on AI, agentic systems, and the future of tech.

Now

Focused on applying AI to solve real-world problems at scale — combining deep technical execution with a founder's mindset.

Core Expertise

AI & LLM Engineering

Agentic workflows · LLM integration · RAG pipelines · AI automation · Prompt engineering

Backend & Architecture

Python · Django · FastAPI · Node.js · Microservices · REST APIs · GraphQL · Serverless

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS · Azure · Kubernetes · Terraform · Docker · CI/CD · Infrastructure as Code

Data

PostgreSQL · Redis · NoSQL · PySpark · Data Lakes · Big Data pipelines

Frontend

React · Next.js · TypeScript · HTML/CSS/JS

Security

Penetration testing · Encryption protocols · Vulnerability assessment

Let's Talk

Whether you're building something in AI, looking for a senior engineer, or just want to connect — Melkon is always open to interesting conversations.

Get in Touch