DF Damir Ferizovic
Resume
Portrait of Damir Ferizovic

Senior software engineer at Microsoft working on Azure Front Door, a hyperscale CDN and application delivery platform for global edge traffic. I focus on high-performance systems, request processing, large-scale infrastructure, and Web Application Firewall systems.

I also have a strong academic background in algorithms and theoretical computer science, including research recognition in parameterized algorithms, and medals from international programming competitions including IOI and ICPC.

Email Resume
Currently Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft
Based in New York City, New York, USA
Focus System design, algorithms, performance
Engineering Philosophy Creativity, elegance, aesthetics

Professional work

2023

Senior Software Engineer

Microsoft New York City, NY

Azure Front Door

AXE (Arbitrary eXecution Engine) - Tech Lead

  • Led the ground-up redesign and implementation of Azure Front Door’s WAF and Rules Engine.
  • Built a high-performance rule evaluation engine in C for low-latency request processing.
  • Coordinated cross-team integration and production rollout.

AXE as Library - Tech Lead

  • Extracted AXE into a shared internal library to unify WAF implementations across Microsoft.
  • Selected by Microsoft leadership as the standard WAF engine for multiple Microsoft products.

C10k Performance Initiative - Tech Lead

  • Led major performance and scalability improvements for Azure Front Door.
  • Built a benchmarking suite and implemented low-level architectural optimizations.
  • Developed a profiling system aggregating performance data from global production systems.
  • Identified and resolved multiple critical production issues.
  • Improved request throughput and processing efficiency.

Azure Networking Blog: Revolutionizing hyperscale application delivery and security

2022

Software Engineer II

Microsoft Redmond, WA

Azure Front Door

2019

Software Engineer I

Microsoft Redmond, WA

Azure Front Door, Windows OS
  • Contributed to Windows OS platform layering.
  • Improved cross-container communication.

2017

SWE Intern

Microsoft Redmond, WA

Windows Core component work related to text formatting
  • Implemented a C++ feature for Windows text-to-speech enabling formatting-aware speech output.
  • Extended the Windows text parsing and TTS pipeline; contribution shipped in Windows.

2016

SWE Intern

Microsoft Redmond, WA

Windows Core work on a novel touch gesture system
  • Redesigned and expanded a Windows touch interaction system.
  • Delivered design and C++ implementation; contribution shipped in Windows.

2015

Research Assistant

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany

CERN particle track reconstruction
  • Evaluated particle track reconstruction algorithms for the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.
  • Conducted experiments on detector data to improve assignment of hit points to particle trajectories.

2014

SWE Intern

Google Mountain View, CA

Search infrastructure integration tests
  • Implemented an algorithmic regression test validating the user–content relationship graph.
  • Processed large-scale data using MapReduce; implemented in C++.

2014

Visiting Researcher

Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA

Multithreaded bit-parallel landmark labeling
  • Designed and implemented multi-threaded indexing for shortest-path queries in unit-weight graphs.
  • Applied bit-parallel techniques; implemented in C++ (ICC/ICPC, C++11 threading).
  • Research supervised by Guy Blelloch.

2013

Working Student

SAP Walldorf, Germany

Parallel sorting algorithms for HANA

Implemented multi-threaded optimizations in SAP HANA.

Education

Master's degree

Computer Science

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Bachelor's degree

Computer Science

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Selected publications

2019

Engineering Kernelization for Maximum Cut

Maximum Cut kernelization work with new reductions and benchmarks.

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2019

A Practical Analysis of Kernelization Techniques for the Maximum Cut Problem

Master's thesis on practical kernelization results.

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2015

Parallel Pruned Landmark Labeling for Shortest Path Queries on Unit-Weight Networks

Bachelor's thesis on parallel shortest-path queries.

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Skills

Distributed systemsHigh-performance systemsLarge-scale infrastructureRequest processingWeb Application FirewallsCDN architectureCloud platformsPerformance engineeringAlgorithmsData structuresParameterized algorithmsGraph algorithmsCompetitive programmingSystems designTesting infrastructureProduct engineeringLeadershipCoaching

Achievements

2019
Young Talent Award
Award recipient

Awarded for master’s thesis work by SPP Big Data, funded by the German Research Foundation.

2019
Internal Microsoft Hackathon
1st place

Microsoft hackathon in Redmond, Washington.

2016
North Western European Programming Contest (NWERC)
Silver medal

Regional ICPC contest in Bath, England.

2015
German Collegiate Programming Contest (GCPC)
1st place

Contest hosted at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Show 23 more achievements Show fewer achievements 27 total
2015
North Western European Programming Contest (NWERC)
Silver medal

Regional ICPC contest in Linkoping, Sweden.

2015
Microsoft Code Competition at KIT
1st place

Code competition at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

2015
hacKAthon: Games and Gamification
1st place

Hackathon at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

2013
North Western European Programming Contest (NWERC)
Silver medal

Regional ICPC contest in Delft, Netherlands.

2012
Get Connected to ICPC (GCPC)
1st place

Programming contest at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

2011
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
Bronze medal

International olympiad in Pattaya, Thailand.

2011
Balkan Olympiad in Informatics (BOI)
Silver medal

Regional olympiad in Bistrita, Romania.

2011
National Olympiad (BHOI)
2nd place

National olympiad in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2011
Regional high school programming contest
1st place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2011
High School Programming League
1st place

Online marathon with 743 participants globally.

2010
International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI)
Bronze medal

International olympiad in Waterloo, Canada.

2010
Balkan Olympiad in Informatics (BOI)
Silver medal

Regional olympiad in Petrovac, Montenegro.

2010
National Olympiad (BHOI)
3rd place

National olympiad in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2010
Regional high school programming contest
1st place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2009
National Olympiad (BHOI)
2nd place

National olympiad in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2009
Regional high school programming contest
1st place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2008
Regional high school programming contest
3rd place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2007
Regional elementary school programming contest
2nd place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2011
Regional high school math contest
1st place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2009
Regional high school math contest
1st place

Regional contest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

2014
Deutschlandstipendium
Scholarship

Merit-based scholarship in Germany.

2013
Deutschlandstipendium
Scholarship

Merit-based scholarship in Germany.

2011
Karlsruhe Industry Scholarship (KIIS)
Scholarship

Industry scholarship at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Online profiles

GitHub LinkedIn Codeforces SPOJ Topcoder