Staff Engineer / Tech LeadSydney, AU

Elena
Khrustaleva

Staff-level engineer who leads ambiguous, high-impact initiatives end-to-end — from aligning cross-functional teams to shipping AI-powered products.

I specialise in scaling frontend platforms, design systems, and building systems that help teams move faster.

  • Frontend Architecture
  • Design Systems
  • AI-powered features
  • Technical Leadership
Elena Khrustaleva
"Clear understanding of technical aspects, high responsibility for project success and excellent communication skills."
— Principal Engineer · via LinkedIn
15%
user growthSEEK search API — millions of users
$30k
saved per yearinfra migration — team-wide impact
2×
user acquisitionQuadropoly — App Store · Play Store
11+
years deliveringSEEK → BILL → SafetyCulture
AA
WCAG 2.2BILL design system — 4 product teams

// career

Junior → Staff Engineer · 11 years

// work

selected projects
  • AI · SafetyCulture · 2025

    AI Assistant — Investigations & OSHA

    Took ownership before a feature lead was appointed — scoped the epic, aligned Product and Engineering, and led delivery to production. Drove 18% adoption increase across the Investigations platform.

    • Go
    • gRPC
    • TypeScript
    • React
    • Claude
  • Fintech · MFE · Remote

    BILL — accounts receivable UX

    Led design system uplift to WCAG 2.2 AA across micro-frontends, improving accessibility compliance and reducing UI inconsistencies across 4 product teams. Architected the hybrid host/MFE application enabling independent deployment.

    • React
    • GraphQL
    • MFE
    • Docker
    • AWS
  • EdTech · Data · AU Scale

    SEEK Course Directory

    Owned the internal search API (LMIS) expansion and built crawling bots to keep the Course Directory accurate at scale — driving 15% user growth across web and mobile for millions of job seekers.

    • React
    • GraphQL
    • AWS
    • Postgres
  • Shipped · App Store

    Quadropoly

    Co-founded and shipped a mobile property trading game to App Store and Google Play. Owned UX and visual identity end-to-end. 2× new user acquisition, 20% retention improvement.

    • UX
    • Figma
    • Unity
    • App Store
    App Store Google Play Website

// now

currently
ASK ME ANYTHINGlive · llama 3.3
What AI work is Elena doing at SafetyCulture?
I use Claude Code every day for architecture decisions and SDD documentation. I'm building an OpenAPI-anchored tool that gives LLMs better engineering context — grounded in actual API contracts, not loose descriptions. The goal: make AI assistants genuinely useful for senior engineering decisions, not just autocomplete.

BUILDING NOW

OpenAPI AI toolactive
LLM prompts anchored to API specs · SafetyCulture
Quadropolyactive
UX redesign · mobile property game

// about

Engineering that
moves teams faster.

I focus on making engineering teams more effective — through better systems, clearer architecture, and removing friction from delivery.

  • Led cross-team initiatives across multiple teams at SEEK and SafetyCulture
  • Took ownership of ambiguous projects before formal leadership existed
  • Mentored engineers and influenced technical direction
  • Drove adoption of design systems and accessibility standards
Frontend
React (10+ yrs) · Angular · TypeScript · Design Systems · Storybook · MFE · Performance
Backend & data
Node.js · Go · GraphQL · REST · gRPC · Kafka · Temporal · SQL · Postgres · AWS
Craft & quality
Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA) · Secure coding · Figma · CI/CD · Scalable architecture · Tech debt strategy
AI-powered development
Claude Code · Anthropic SDK · LLM product features · prompt engineering
Leadership & impact
Technical leadership · Stakeholder alignment · Mentorship · Delivery planning · Cross-team influence