Yaroslav Pankovych

$ whoami

Yaroslav Pankovych

Co-Founder & CTO at CarStream. Senior software engineer, mostly Python. Based in Ukraine.

# about

I build software end-to-end: hardware in the car, ingest pipelines on the server, and the apps people actually touch. I've been writing Python professionally since 2018, and lately a lot of my work involves LLMs: search engines, diagnostics, and developer tools built on Claude Code.

I care about boring, reliable systems: good tests, clear code, and things that keep working when the network doesn't.

# work

  1. 2026 — now

    Co-Founder & CTO @ CarStream

    Real-time car telemetry: custom in-car hardware (Raspberry Pi, OBD-II, GPS, LTE), an MQTT → FastAPI → TimescaleDB pipeline, and web + iOS/Android apps. Offline-first buffering, OTA updates with staged rollout, AI explanations for engine trouble codes, 1,400+ automated tests.

  2. 2024 — 2026

    Senior Software Engineer @ SoftServe

    LLM-powered search engine on pgvector.

  3. 2020 — 2024

    Senior Software Engineer @ Uvik Software

    Moved a large codebase from Python 2 to 3 (written up in Changing the Tires on a Moving Codebase), covered it with unit and integration tests, migrated reporting, built a custom SSO.

  4. 2021

    Senior Software Engineer @ Blackthorn Vision

    Testing framework and infra for an LLM-powered Kubernetes analysis app; moved it to a self-hosted LLM (LocalAI). CLI with a terminal UI.

  5. 2019 — 2020

    Junior → Middle Python Developer @ SoftServe

    Feature work, tests, technical notes and documentation, some architecture decisions.

  6. 2018 — 2019

    Freelance Engineer @ Upwork

    Telegram bots, scrapers, automation. Also taught Python at King Danylo University in 2019.

# recommendations

I interviewed and hired Yaroslav in 2019, and led the team that tackled a challenging year-long migration. I found he's a talented, diligent engineer always focused on doing the right thing, even when it meant pushing limits. He takes pride in his skills and work, and will do well for any team lucky enough to have him. Personally, I'm looking forward to working with him again someday.
Mahmoud Hashemi — founder at FinFam, ex-Stripe, ex-PayPal. Managed Yaroslav directly.
I rarely come across real talents who stand out like Yaroslav. I had the pleasure of working with Yaroslav for 1 year at the SoftServe, collaborating on the same project team. Yaroslav's ability to handle multiple tasks was unlike any I've seen before and made a dramatic increase in the productivity level of our project. No matter how tense a meeting, Yaroslav made sure everyone left with a smile. As a team member or a leader, Yaroslav earns my highest recommendation.
Andriy Smolyar — Python engineer at SoftServe. Worked on the same team.

→ on LinkedIn

# projects

carstreamproduct

Live GPS and engine telemetry for any car, streamed to your phone. Trips, refuels, and plain-language diagnostics.
clipwardswift

Private, native clipboard manager for macOS. Encrypted history, auto-clearing, every data type.
pankoffpython

Lightweight validation library for Python classes. Validate, mutate, serialize. No dependencies. ★ 21
nano-claudepython

Terminal IDE with Claude Code as a first-class panel next to the editor, file tree and shell.
c-clishell

Natural language to shell commands. c find big files and it runs.

→ all repositories on GitHub

# education

  1. 2018 — 2020

    Bachelor's, Computer Engineering

    Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas

  2. 2018 — 2019

    Database Camp @ Eleks

certifications

# community

# contact

Best way to reach me is LinkedIn.