Meet the team: Sergey Fedorov Aurora Labs’ Head of Engineering

The Aurora Labs team is made up of exceptional individuals that left a mark in the industries they have been part of by innovating and building cutting edge technology. These top-tier professionals have unique stories to share about their journeys that deserve to be talked about as they can provide inspiration and guidance to new builders joining this ecosystem. With this series we aim to do just that by highlighting the work and experiences of a generation of pioneers in the Web3 world paying tribute to their valuable contributions and achievements.

Programming Championships and Early Career

Segey Fedorov was born and raised in Saratov, Russia, where he developed a strong interest in mathematics and programming from a very early age. His aptitude towards these subjects did not pass unnoticed by his parents and teachers who encouraged him to participate in mathematical competitions since middle school. Later on he would go on to participate in national and international coding competitions bringing home several gold medals.

While in high school, Sergey participated in multiple national individual and team competitions like the Top Coder for High School, and the International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI), just to name a few. While attending the Moscow State University he continued to attend twice the ACM ICPC World cup, the TopCoder Open, the AMC ICPC World finals and the Facebook Hacker Cup, reaching outstanding results and entering the competitive programming wall of fame.

As a young and talented programmer, Sergey was accepted for an internship at Facebook in California and later in London while still studying at the university. These experiences were “eye opening” according to Sergey, as they allowed him to recognize his passion for software engineering and pursue a career in this domain.

After graduating, Sergey went on to work for WorldQuant, first as quantitative researcher and later as portfolio manager. Then he joined Yandex’s Self Driving division as a senior software engineer and not long after started to build a team and take the lead on different engineering and research projects for which he earned two patents. And in 2022 he embarked on a new journey as head of engineering at Aurora Labs.

Sergey’s Work at Aurora Labs

When Sergey joined Aurora Labs he already had over 6 years of experience in software engineering and in managing engineering teams. But after having been part of the IT industry for years Sergey developed a craving for starting something new:

During my work at Yandex I focused on building prediction and motion planning for self-driving cars and delivery robots. My team spent a lot of time building modules to understand intentions behind predicted trajectories for other actors and making our high-level trajectory decisions based on that. I believe that the solution we built was one of the best in the world. That was the best project I ever worked on, but after four years I chose to move on and explore other innovative areas. That’s when I found Aurora.

Sergey first found out about Aurora through NEAR Protocol, the underlying technology powering Aurora and remained particularly impressed by its design. However, what ultimately led him to join the team was the opportunity to conduct research on the widely unexplored field of blockchain and work on new cutting edge technologies.

Currently, as head of engineering, Sergey dedicates himself to mentoring and managing four engineering teams, Bridge, Engine, Relayer, and Apps, as he describes,“Mentoring and trying to suggest new directions is a big part of my job. I suggest new approaches and help engineers reach their full potential.” But crucially, Sergey also helps maintain and facilitate communication within a fully remote organization acting as a bridge between different departments.

Vision and Objectives

As a curious and innovation driven individual, Sergey fit perfectly into the Aurora Labs’ team where, “everyone is open-minded and eager to learn”, and where “technology always comes first”. Even if sometimes it feels like Aurora focuses on technology perhaps too much, Sergey points out that, “what Aurora is building is not for a few people. Aurora is building a scalable high quality solution for the future”, and that requires having to prioritize quality over easy returns.

When asked about the future, Sergey provided a very clear and detailed answer:

Our goal is to represent the best option for companies to adopt blockchain in their businesses—from the fastest path to integration, to supporting their unique economic business models, to providing a friction-free experience for their users. And ultimately, benefitting from the network effects emerging from a vibrant and healthy ecosystem.

This future envisioned by Sergey is already taking place with the launch of Aurora Cloud, a platform and suite of services that allow any business to tap into Web3 with convenience. This is a first major step for Aurora, and the Aurora Labs team will keep on supporting and improving the underlying tech that allows Aurora Cloud to be a Web3 powerhouse.

About Aurora

Powered by its high-performance EVM, and fully trustless Rainbow Bridge, Aurora combines an Ethereum compatible experience with the modern blockchain performance of NEAR Protocol. Aurora provides an optimal environment for the creation of scalable, carbon-neutral, future-safe, and low-cost Web3 services, as well as the perfect tools to bring to life your Web3 initiatives. Try Aurora Cloud, our all-in-one blockchain solution for enterprises, and get your Web3 journey started!