Semih Ünaldı
Staff Software Engineer & Engineering Lead · Dubai, UAE
Profile
Engineering leader and Staff Software Engineer with over ten years of experience scaling teams and systems.
At Yomly, a GCC HR and payroll SaaS, I lead internal AI tooling and platform reliability, including the design and rollout of a company-wide AI agent adopted across six teams in its first fortnight. I have led engineering through several growth stages — from small founding teams to multi-squad organisations — with a track record of converting ambiguity into shipped product. My focus is on systems, people, and the discipline that connects the two.
Experience
Staff Software Engineer
Nov 2025 → Present
Yomly — GCC HR & Payroll SaaS · Dubai, UAE · ~200 clients · ~80k users
- Self-improving AI agent at Yomly — Claude-based engineering agent that audits its own work twice daily, ships fixes autonomously, with weekly drift governance and LLM-judge regression tests in CI.
- Built Yomly Agent to resolve production incidents end-to-end from a single Slack message; adopted across six teams in its first fortnight; config-driven harness lets non-engineers ship capabilities via markdown playbook; PDPL and ISO 27001 compliant.
- Led observability work on the customisation engine, surfacing previously silent failures in production pipelines.
- Cleaned up long-standing defects in the leave module, including allocation, rollover, and accrual edge cases.
Engineering Manager
Sep 2022 → Oct 2025
Talabat — Delivery Hero · Dubai, UAE
- Delivered a new rewards redemption flow directly from the menu, driving €2.5M in incremental revenue.
- Nearly 4x growth in Rewards users in 2024.
- Increased cashback and voucher utilisation by 7% through targeted A/B testing strategies.
- Implemented vendor reward indicators in search and vendor lists, leading to €440K in added engagement-driven revenue.
- Led reward vendor filtering in search, generating an additional €455K revenue.
- Achieved 30% adoption growth and 10% GMV increase for Talabat Rewards in H2 2023 while reducing liability costs by €500K.
- Reduced involuntary churn for Talabat Pro by 59% in Qatar and 40% in the UAE.
Head of Engineering
Sep 2021 → Sep 2022
Mindbehind · Izmir, Turkey
- Managed and coached four teams (15+ members) while spearheading technical initiatives.
- Optimised cloud costs, delivering 50% savings on QA and 25% on production environments.
- Introduced SonarQube, raising code coverage to 80% within a year.
- Developed WhatsApp Business API integration for distributed notifications.
- Led GDPR and KVKK accreditation compliance.
Enterprise Architect
Mar 2021 → Sep 2021
Allianz · Izmir, Turkey
- Led the Change Advisory Board, overseeing Solutions Architects responsible for technical solutions across Allianz Turkey.
- Owned the application portfolio and technology landscape organisation-wide.
- Introduced and implemented Camunda as the organisation's workflow engine.
Solutions Architect
May 2020 → Mar 2021
Allianz · Izmir, Turkey
- Led transformation of legacy projects in the Allianz Health domain.
- Implemented messaging solutions with RabbitMQ and led a cultural shift towards Test-Driven Development.
Lead Software Developer
Sep 2018 → May 2020
Allianz · Izmir, Turkey
- Modernised legacy PL/SQL systems to a Spring, Angular, and semi-microservices stack.
- Centralised all outbound SMS and email communications across Allianz Turkey.
Senior Software Developer
Sep 2017 → Sep 2018
Logo Business Solutions · Izmir, Turkey
- Built a payroll SaaS targeting global markets using Spring Cloud.
- Implemented scalable APIs and containerised infrastructure using Docker.
Software Developer
Sep 2014 → Aug 2017
Turkcell · Istanbul, Turkey
- Developed and maintained CRM and order management systems for Turkcell SuperOnline.
- Introduced Jenkins for continuous deployments and built internal tooling for operational teams.
Software Developer Intern
Jul 2014 → Sep 2014
Turkcell · Istanbul, Turkey
- Placed 3rd in Software Innovation Project Competition among 300+ interns.
- Built a Mobile Health app with GPS tracking to detect accidents and alert emergency services.
Software Developer (Part-Time)
Mar 2014 → Jun 2014
Dume-Tech · Istanbul, Turkey
- Developed an advertisement recognition algorithm in C++ and OpenCV to detect TV commercial breaks.
Skills
Programming
Java
Spring Boot
Spring Cloud
Node.js
TypeScript
React
Next.js
iOS
Android
Cloud
AWS
Google Cloud
Kubernetes
Docker
Tools
PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Redis
RabbitMQ
Kafka
Elasticsearch
MySQL
Jenkins
Projects
Wedding planning app — guests, invitations, seating and budgets in one place
iOS Application
Could Shakespeare have listened to Verdi?
Honours & Awards
3rd Place — Software Innovation Project Competition, Turkcell Technology R&D
Thesis Support — TUBITAK BIDEB 2441 Industry-Focused Undergraduate Programme
B.S. Electronics & Communications Engineering
Turkish
Native
English
Professional
Built a 3-metre sailboat in my garage
Tennis & table tennis
Kitesurfing