A 10-Year Journey of Turning ‘Impossible’ Into Impact at SoftInWay | Maksym Burlaka’s Story

Some engineers are drawn to the turbomachinery field by a single moment, but for Maksym Burlaka, it started with a deep curiosity about how physical systems actually work. He was fascinated by how force, heat, and motion influence real hardware, and that curiosity pointed him toward turbomachinery “It combines physics, math, fluid dynamics, materials, and very practical problem-solving,” he says. “It’s where theory meets real hardware meet, and it checked every box for me.

After studying turbines and rotodynamic machines in school and defending his Ph.D. dissertation, Maksym found himself looking for a place where that level of engineering expertise was not just valued but was the core of the company. SoftInWay turned out to be exactly that.

Figure 1. Maksym Burlaka in SoftInWay Headquarters

Joining SoftInWay Early On

When Maksym joined SoftInWay, the company was smaller and more tightly knit than it is today. It wasn’t the size that drew him in, but the culture. “It felt more like a group of engineers building something meaningful together,” he says. “That was very appealing to me, and it turned out to be the right call.”

It didn’t take long for him to sense that something larger was taking shape. Early on, he recognized that they were not just building the AxSTREAM platform or supporting isolated projects, but they were defining a methodology for how turbomachinery should be designed in the modern world.

He reflects, “The system-level thinking embedded in the software was ahead of where the market was at the time.”

That clarity of purpose stuck with him and still drives him today as SoftInWay’s Associate Director of Technology and Project Management.

Figure 2. Maksym Working at SoftInWay

Impactful Work During His Career

Over the years, Maksym has contributed to many projects and overcome a wide range of challenges, particularly on large, multidisciplinary efforts where aerodynamics, structural mechanics, thermodynamics, and system modeling all had to work together

The hardest part was usually not the physics, but making sure the models were consistent, scalable, and usable by real engineers working under real constraints, including time, data quality, and budget limitations. “Seeing those projects succeed, where customers were able to design, build, and validate real machines using our tools, has been incredibly rewarding,” he says.

When reflecting on which projects stand out the most, it’s not necessarily the most technically complex ones, but the projects where the team had to go beyond standard workflows and create better solutions.

Maksym’s System-Level Approach

If there’s one principle that has shaped Maksym’s approach more than any other, it’s been refusing to look at engineering problems or software features as isolated pieces. Instead, he approaches them from a broader, system-level perspective.

“Connecting the physics, the workflow, the user needs, and the long-term architecture rather than treating them as separate tracks,” he says. “This helped us avoid short-term fixes and instead build solutions that were cohesive, scalable, and genuinely useful across the entire design process.”

That mindset also meant pushing for ideas that weren’t always immediately welcomed.

“There were several directions where the initial reaction was, ‘that’s not possible,’ or ‘this will never work,'” he says. “But I’ve always believed that if something makes sense from first principles, it’s worth pursuing.”

He’d stay persistent. He’d push the team to explore unconventional solutions. He’d demonstrate value through prototypes and real examples. And more often than not, those once-doubted ideas turned into some of the company’s most impactful developments.

Figure 3. Maksym Innovating at Home

Reflecting on How Far SoftInWay Has Come

Looking back at how SoftInWay has evolved, Maksym says that the only visible transformation has been scale and scope. The company today operates globally, serves a wide range of industries, and takes on systems of far greater complexity than in the early days.

But something more important has stayed consistent.

“What hasn’t changed is the engineering culture,” he says. “We still care deeply about correctness, physical meaning, and not cutting corners. The challenges today are bigger, but the mindset of solving hard problems properly is still the same.”

This refusal to sacrifice rigor for speed is at the core of SoftInWay’s growth.

What Drives Maksym and Where Does He See This Going?

After everything Maksym has helped build, some might assume he’d be ready to slow down…but he doesn’t see it that way.

“We’re still not ‘done,'” he says simply.

Turbomachinery design is evolving quickly with digital engineering, AI-assisted design, tighter integration between simulation and testing. These aren’t distant possibilities, they’re already reshaping the industry. And Maksym sees SoftInWay as uniquely positioned to help shape what that future looks like.

“I’m excited about pushing further toward fully integrated digital workflows, smarter automation that actually understands physics, and tools that help engineers make better decisions faster, not just run more calculations.”

That last part matters to him: the goal isn’t more calculations, but genuinely helping engineers think more clearly, design more confidently, and build machines that work.

As long as that’s the mission, Maksym is all in.

Figure 4. Maksym Collaborating with His Teammates

Stories like Maksym’s are a reminder that great engineering culture isn’t built by accident. It’s the result of people who care deeply, think rigorously, and refuse to stop asking what’s possible.

At SoftInWay, legacy lives here.