About

Hi, I’m Owen (Evgenii) Orlov, and I’m Head of Engineering at Semrush, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I specialize in building and operating high-availability, low-latency distributed systems at scale. My work focuses on making complex systems reliable, observable, and cost-efficient - whether it’s handling 50k+ requests per second in anti-fraud pipelines or integrating RAG/LLM features into production.

What I Do #

Currently, I lead engineering strategy and reliability initiatives for high-traffic data and AI services at Semrush. My role involves:

• Defining and tracking SLOs across critical user-facing pipelines
• Partnering with ML teams to productionize AI features with proper observability
• Driving cost optimization across compute clusters (including GPU workloads)
• Leading incident response and post-mortem processes for continuous improvement

Technical Background #

My expertise spans several areas:

Languages & Tools: Golang (my primary language since 2015), C/C++, Python
Infrastructure: Kubernetes, Terraform, Docker, Ansible, ELK/Prometheus stacks
Specializations: Distributed systems design, kernel-level optimizations, AI/ML infrastructure (RAG pipelines, model monitoring)

My Journey #

I’ve been programming for a long time. My introduction to computers started when I was young with a Pentium 4 based computer that my brother built, but it was the rise of the internet in the 00’s that really caught my imagination. I started with PHP, HTML & CSS, made my first website, and then it snowballed from there.

Over the years, I’ve worked on everything from Linux kernel enhancements and VoIP infrastructure to modern cloud-native services. I discovered Go in 2015 and immediately felt at home - its simplicity and power for building concurrent systems perfectly matched my needs.

Beyond Code #

When I’m not architecting systems or debugging distributed failures, I enjoy sharing knowledge through this blog, where I write about Go, system design, performance optimization, and the occasional deep dive into Linux internals.

I hold a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, where I also served as Editor-in-Chief of the SCC Newsletter and President of The Innovation Society.

Feel free to reach out at [email protected] if you want to discuss distributed systems, Go, or anything tech-related!