Tomislav is available for hire

Tomislav Capan

Verified Expert in Engineering

Cloud Solution Architect and Lead Developer

Location

Zagreb, Croatia

Toptal Member Since

February 20, 2013

Tomislav is a software engineer, technical consultant, and solution architect who began as a technical partner for an online media business, growing it from zero to over 100,000 monthly readers. After years in software engineering, he now provides technical leadership through consulting and architecting dynamic, reliable, and scalable cloud solutions to support business growth and optimize complex architectures gone wrong. As an infrastructure lead, Tomislav makes the cloud a friendly place.

Web Development Software Development Full-stack Data Modeling Cloud Amazon RDS Cloud Infrastructure AWS DevOps Cloud Architecture GitHub Agile Software Development Node.js JavaScript Continuous Delivery (CD)REST APIs Express.js Sinatra Backbone.js CTO

Portfolio

Octobit

Backbone.js, Marionette.js, AngularJS, Angular, React, Node.js, Express.js...

Private Growth Equity Firm

R&D, Technical Leadership, Technical Specs, Software Architecture...

Hospitality Digital GmbH - Main Hospitality Digital GmbH

Architecture, Microservices Architecture, Microservices, Cloud...

Experience

Technical Leadership - 20 years Software Architecture - 14 years Solution Architecture - 10 years Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 5 years AWS DevOps - 4 years Cloud Infrastructure - 4 years AWS Certified Solution Architect - 3 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Sublime Text, Linux, Git, Trello, Terraform, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The most amazing...

...back-end architecture and real-time data processing system I've built was for the financial platform Scout Finance, acquired in 2017 by Money.net.

Work Experience

Technical Consultant | Solution Architect

2013 - PRESENT

Octobit

Acted as a technical consultant and a software architect on multiple software solutions to deliver APIs, single-page applications, real-time web applications, and distributed applications for the cloud.
Served as a cloud solution architect, designing and provisioning AWS cloud infrastructures and optimizing costs by right-sizing and choosing the appropriate cloud technologies.
Performed R&D and concept development work, helping select appropriate technologies and platforms for future development.
Stepped into the role of an operations engineer and was in charge of running cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, logging and monitoring, and enabling development teams to focus on development.
Implemented several web applications in Node.js on the server side with Backbone.js, Marionette.js, AngularJS, Angular, or React on the client side.

Technologies: Backbone.js, Marionette.js, AngularJS, Angular, React, Node.js, Express.js, Hapi.js, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), CI/CD Pipelines, Software Architecture, Architecture, WebSockets, RabbitMQ, Less, CSS, Sass, HTML, AngularUI, Git, GitHub, MongoDB, Heroku, Amazon Web Services (AWS), JavaScript, Single-page Applications (SPA), CircleCI, R&D, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Terraform, Cloud Architecture, AWS Cloud Architecture, AWS Certified Developer, AWS Certified Solution Architect, REST APIs, Database Schema Design, Database Architecture, Relational Database Design, NGINX, Kanban, APIs, Agile Software Development, PostgreSQL, REST, Full-stack, Web Development, Consulting, Advisory, Technical Leadership, Software Development, Solution Architecture, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Remix, Docker, IT Infrastructure, .NET Core, Database Modeling, API Integration, Technical Consulting, Distributed Architecture, Technical Specs, Business Requirements, Kubernetes, Shell Scripting, Redis Cache

Software Architect

2023 - 2023

Private Growth Equity Firm

Took responsibility for designing and overseeing the overall structure and functionality of the internal portfolio tracking application.
Collaborated with the development team to translate business requirements into technical specifications and create architectural blueprints.
Ensured that the solution aligned with best practices, scalability, and security standards while considering system integration and performance optimization.
Anticipated reduction in operating costs of over 80% upon project completion, as evaluated by the project lead.

Technologies: R&D, Technical Leadership, Technical Specs, Software Architecture, Distributed Architecture, Distributed Systems, Consulting, Technical Consulting, Technical Requirements, Business Requirements, Content Management Systems (CMS), Remix, Data Modeling

Senior Enterprise Architect

2022 - 2023

Hospitality Digital GmbH - Main Hospitality Digital GmbH

Worked with the tech leadership on future architecture and technology planning.
Improved the performance of one of the systems by over 10,000% by identifying and resolving a bottleneck in a SQL stored procedure, which was severely impeding sales personnel from meeting their targets by drastically slowing down their workflows.
Collaborated with the company leadership to improve company culture and communication.
Advised development teams on architecture, tech choices, and identifying software issues.
Created a set of standardized guidelines for approaching software projects across teams.

Technologies: Architecture, Microservices Architecture, Microservices, Cloud, Cloud Architecture, AWS Cloud Architecture, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Performance, SQL Performance, Consulting, Technical Consulting, Distributed Architecture, Technical Specs, Business Requirements

Technical Solution Architect

2021 - 2021

Deliveroo

Supported the integration of enterprise partners with Deliveroo as a technical solution architect in the enterprise integrations team. Led the design and architecture of technical solutions for multimillion-worth integration projects.
Gathered relevant data points for integration, analyzed the partners' systems and data availability, and assessed the requirements for successful partners' integrations with Deliveroo.
Handled technical communication with the partners' commercial and technical teams during the project discovery phase, aligning the technical capabilities of both parties for successful integration.
Produced technical specification documents based on the analyses and discoveries made, describing the details of the integration implementations.
Collaborated with other internal teams in Deliveroo—commercial, integrations project managers, and engineers—to drive the projects to a successful rollout.
Produced RFC documents suggesting improvements and advancements in Deliveroo's integration systems and the core product's support for the integration work.

Technologies: Software Architecture, User Requirements, Technical Requirements, Functional Requirements, Distributed Systems, Solution Architecture, API Integration, Data Structures, Distributed Architecture, Technical Specs, Project Management, Data Modeling

Principal AWS Solution Architect (via Toptal)

2017 - 2021

LEVELS Cloud Infrastructure

Acted as the infrastructure lead during product development.
Designed and built an auto-scalable, fault-tolerant, and secure AWS cloud infrastructure.
Designed and set up automated CI/CD pipelines for all server-side and web-based services.
Assisted the development teams in optimally utilizing the AWS cloud for their use case.
Consulted with the client on distributed software architecture.
Developed on-demand background processing utility services with AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, and Amazon ECS.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), CircleCI, Linux, Docker, JavaScript, Terraform, DevOps, AWS DevOps, Infrastructure, Cloud Infrastructure, Security, Networking, Cloud, Amazon EC2, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), AWS Fargate, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Aurora, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), AWS Lambda, Lambda Functions, Amazon EBS, AWS ALB, Cost Management, AWS IAM, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline, System Architecture, AWS Certified Developer, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Cloud Platforms, GitHub, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD Pipelines, AWS Cloud Architecture, Amazon CloudWatch, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Cloud Architecture, NGINX, Kanban, Containers, AWS Deployment, Datadog, Automation, MySQL, Solution Architecture, Bash, Amazon RDS, Distributed Systems, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Technical Leadership, IT Infrastructure, Performance, SQL Performance, Query Optimization, Load Balancers, Elastic Load Balancers, API Integration, Technical Consulting, Distributed Architecture, Shell Scripting

Senior Software Architect

2014 - 2017

Scout Finance

Designed the system architecture for scalability and performance, supporting over 30,000 registered users at the time of acquisition.
Made the technology choices using Node.js, Hapi, React, and MobX.
Provided implementation of the REST APIs, web applications, and data imports.
Interfaced with external data providers like Thomson Reuters, Wall Street Horizon, and Xignite.
Designed and handled the AWS-based cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines.
Built the system from the ground up. It was acquired by Money.net about two and a half years later.

Technologies: CircleCI, Git, MobX, React, RabbitMQ, Redis, Hapi.js, Node.js, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Software Architecture, System Architecture, Cloud Platforms, GitHub, GitFlow, Architecture, CI/CD Pipelines, Infrastructure, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS DevOps, DevOps, APIs, REST APIs, MongoDB, Database Architecture, Mocha, Grunt, Agile Software Development, REST, Full-stack, Web Development, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon EC2, Fintech, Solution Architecture, Amazon RDS, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Technical Leadership, Software Development, IT Infrastructure, Database Modeling, API Integration, Data Structures, Redis Cache, Data Modeling

JavaScript Developer

2012 - 2013

iVendi, Ltd.

Developed a front-end Marionette.js application and a server-side Node.js RESTful API.
Implemented real-time WebSockets communication between the front and back end via RabbitMQ.
Implemented the front end using HTML5 and Less CSS while incorporating responsive web design techniques.
Involved in setting up automated build and deployment CI procedures for the web application and the API and handling basic Joyent SmartOS server administration.
Coached a junior JavaScript developer in Backbone.js, Marionette.js, and Git.
Introduced the company to remote work processes and Kanban agile practices.

Technologies: Git, CQRS, RabbitMQ, MongoDB, Express.js, Grunt, Marionette.js, Backbone.js, Node.js, JavaScript, Software Architecture, GitHub, CI/CD Pipelines, REST APIs, Kanban, CSS, Single-page Applications (SPA), Agile Software Development, Full-stack, Web Development, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Software Development, API Integration, Data Structures

Technical Director | Partner

2002 - 2013

Muzika.Hr Magazine

Ran the company as a technical co-founder, building it from the ground up to over 100,000 regular monthly readers.
Took part in defining content strategies and handled the technical aspect of cooperating with partners and advertising space offerings.
Managed a small engineering team for content management system (CMS) development.
Integrated 3rd-party solutions into the line-of-business stack, including an ad-serving platform, bulletin board, blogging platform, and photo gallery.
Founded and developed the photography section. Led a team of 12 photographers as an editor of photography, coordinating their assignments.
Implemented backup automation to the Amazon S3 cloud. Handled system administration and IT support.

Technologies: NHibernate, Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, C#, IIS, ASP.NET, CSS, HTML, Software Architecture, System Architecture, Git, Architecture, Relational Database Design, SQL, REST APIs, Database Architecture, Database Schema Design, CTO, REST, Full-stack, Web Development, Solution Architecture, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Technical Leadership, Software Development, IT Infrastructure, .NET, Performance, SQL Performance, Query Optimization, Database Modeling, API Integration, Data Structures, Technical Specs, Business Requirements, Content Management Systems (CMS), Shell Scripting, Data Modeling

JavaScript Developer

2011 - 2012

CANDDi

Developed a client-side Backbone.js single page application.
Restyled front-end implementations to comply with higher and more modern standards.
Prototyped and implemented Node.js and Socket.IO communication, enabling real-time application capabilities.

Technologies: Git, MongoDB, Socket.IO, Node.js, Backbone.js, CSS, Single-page Applications (SPA), Agile Software Development, REST, Full-stack, Web Development, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Software Development, API Integration, Data Structures

Software Engineer

2006 - 2008

TEB Informatika

Delivered C# and Java web applications using the underlying Oracle databases.
Developed Oracle PL/SQL scripts used for procedural on-demand data processing.
Contributed to GIS systems development on Intergraph's platform.
Introduced the company to using version control systems for managing the source code.
Introduced the company to using Wiki platforms for the documentation, resulting in the ISO certification requirement of having the full change history easily satisfied later.

Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, C#, Software Architecture, SQL, Database Schema Design, Database Architecture, Relational Database Design, REST, Full-stack, Web Development, PL/SQL, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Software Development, .NET, ASP.NET, Database Modeling, Data Structures, Data Modeling

Experience

WebCamp Zagreb Conference | Co-organizer, 2013-2018

http://webcampzg.org

As a community conference co-organizer, I have had multiple roles throughout the years. As a core team member during conference planning and preparation, my most significant contribution was acquiring and coordinating volunteers. I also served as a talk committee member, selecting the conference content and helping with conference workshops and general conference activities. It has been a tremendous experience organizing an event for over 900 people and positively changing the IT community in Zagreb, Croatia.

JavaScript Zagreb Meetup | Co-founder, 2013-2017

http://www.meetup.com/JavaScript-Zagreb/

I co-founded a JavaScript Zagreb meetup back in 2013, growing it from zero to over 550 members in three years before passing it on to younger generations. Regular monthly event organization tasks included finding speakers with interesting topics, promoting the events, and finding occasional sponsors for the after-meetup socializing portion. Occasionally, I gave some talks on JavaScript-related topics myself.

Muzika.hr | Partner, 2002-2013

http://www.muzika.hr/

My role in Muzika.hr was more than just technical. Besides the usual 'all things IT, a common single-person role for the early 2000s, I worked closely with the editor-in-chief on the strategy and content, assisted as an author, and started the concert photography section, gathering and coordinating a group of about a dozen collaborating photographers. As a result of almost ten years of that activity and an associated online photo gallery, I coordinated the organization of a physical exhibition of concert photographs for the 10th anniversary of the media, initially hosted in one of the most famous Zagreb art galleries. Later on, it traveled to several other cities around Croatia.

"Cutting Costs with AWS Lambda for Highly Scalable Image Processing" | Publication

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/cutting-costs-with-aws-lambda-for-highly-scalable-image-processing/

I wrote this article describing a horizontally scalable solution for a customer's image upload processing. This type of serverless solution can reduce the strain on API servers and eliminate the need for running separate servers to handle spikes without crashing.

A serverless computing model with AWS Lambda is a natural fit for utility classes of tasks, such as preparing and sending transactional emails and push notifications.

Technical Consultant and Project Manager

https://www.beautypass.app/

Served as a technical consultant and a project manager for a social network mobile application. I was hired to detect the reasons for the team's productivity issues in technical and organizational aspects, provide solutions, and get the team back on track. During this engagement, I helped the management think through critical decisions and make the right moves. I also introduced several work organization best practices in a remote team, helping bring them to the right path.

Technical Consultant and Trainer

Technical consultant on a supply chain analytics application hired to set up the client's team and lead them to release the first functional version. The engagement consisted of an architecture setup, technical leadership, and team training at the chosen technology stack, code management, and continuous delivery. The assembled team met their delivery target under my supervision and continued improving the application afterwards.

High-end Second-hand Designer Clothes Retailer

https://www.materialworld.co/

Four weeks before the official MVP launch date, the client's development efforts were behind schedule with unclear features and functionality boundaries. They hired me for last-minute help to determine what was feasible and what wasn't less than a month before the public launch. My role was to focus the client on doable areas: build the necessary functionalities required for the launch, trim the excess or unclearly defined features, and hit the release target. The final result of this intense, short-term effort was an improved existing codebase with some functionalities better scoped, bugs squashed, UI polished, and the implemented features correctly working for a successful MVP launch.

Web-based Phone Solution with Extra Functionalities

https://www.bettervoice.com/

This client needed verification of an experimental client-side JavaScript framework to develop their web and mobile solution. After a short R&D stint, that framework turned out to be a highly risky choice due to a series of unfulfilled promises by the vendor, so I advised against using it. The client settled on one of the proven client-side frameworks instead, in conjunction with Apache Cordova, for mobile deployment. I laid out the application architecture, built initial functionalities, and configured the deployment pipelines before handing it over to their in-house hire.

Employee-sourced Problem Solving and Idea Generation Application

https://getspeakup.com/

I joined this client to support their MVP release efforts by shaping up the required set of features while improving their existing codebase. I organized a process of CoffeeScript to JavaScript migration without affecting the ongoing development at a time when CoffeeScript was becoming obsolete and needed to be phased out. Additionally, I advised on the advantages of switching from Marionette.js to AngularJS as a good choice for their use case, a step the company took later.

Publication

Why the Hell Would I Use Node.js? A Case-by-case Tutorial

https://www.toptal.com/javascript/why-the-hell-would-i-use-node-js

Publication

Case Study: Why I Use AWS Cloud Infrastructure for My Products

https://www.toptal.com/aws/aws-cloud-infrastructure-benefits

Skills

Languages

JavaScript, Sass, HTML, Less, SQL, CSS, C#, Bash

Frameworks

Hapi.js, ASP.NET, Express.js, Remix, .NET, .NET Core, NHibernate, Angular, AngularJS

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, REST APIs, React, MobX, Backbone.js, Marionette.js, Socket.IO, AngularUI

Tools

Amazon CloudFront CDN, GitHub, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Terraform, CircleCI, AWS Deployment, AWS IAM, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), NGINX, Amazon ElastiCache, Git, RabbitMQ, Mocha, AWS Fargate, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Grunt, Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Amazon EBS, AWS CodeDeploy, Amazon CloudWatch

Paradigms

DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Kanban, Agile Software Development, Automation, CQRS, REST, Management, Microservices Architecture, Microservices

Platforms

Amazon EC2, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Windows Server, Heroku, Linux, AWS ALB, AWS Lambda, Oracle, Kubernetes

Storage

Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MongoDB, Amazon Aurora, Database Modeling, Redis Cache, PostgreSQL, Database Architecture, SQL Performance, Redis, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Datadog, PL/SQL

Other

APIs, Infrastructure, Cloud Infrastructure, Software Architecture, System Architecture, AWS Certified Developer, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Cloud Platforms, Architecture, AWS Cloud Architecture, Cloud Architecture, CTO, Full-stack, Web Development, Cloud, AWS DevOps, Technical Requirements, Functional Requirements, Solution Architecture, Consulting, Technical Leadership, Software Development, Technical Consulting, Amazon RDS, Load Balancers, Elastic Load Balancers, API Integration, Data Structures, Technical Specs, Distributed Architecture, Business Requirements, Data Modeling, Networking, CI/CD Pipelines, Relational Database Design, Containers, Database Schema Design, IT Infrastructure, Performance, Query Optimization, Shell Scripting, WebSockets, Serverless, Security, IIS, Lambda Functions, Cost Management, AWS CodePipeline, GitFlow, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Single-page Applications (SPA), Organization, People Management, Business, Business Planning, Media, R&D, Knowledge Transfer, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Web Application Firewall (WAF), Amazon API Gateway, User Requirements, Distributed Systems, Advisory, Fintech, Team Leadership, Training, Management Consulting, Content Management Systems (CMS), Software QA

Industry Expertise

Project Management, Photography

Education

2000 - 2006

Master's Degree in Computing

University of Zagreb - Zagreb, Croatia

Certifications

JANUARY 2024 - PRESENT

Kubernetes Certified Application Developer Course (in Progress)

Udemy

DECEMBER 2023 - PRESENT

Kubernetes for the Absolute Beginners – Hands-on

Udemy

DECEMBER 2017 - DECEMBER 2020

AWS Certified Developer Associate

AWS

NOVEMBER 2017 - NOVEMBER 2020

AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

AWS

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