Darko Štriga, Developer in Zagreb, Croatia
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Darko Štriga

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Zagreb, Croatia
Toptal Member Since
June 24, 2022

Darko is a product tech lead, senior software engineer, and back-end developer with 12 years of experience in research and development. He worked on data-intensive applications and services in the sports industry and led end-to-end engineering execution, including back end, iOS, and Android. He holds a PhD in computer science in social network analysis in data science.

Computer ScienceAlgorithmsAnalyticsPostmanSlackFacebook APISocial APIsNoSQLOAuth 2ElixirAmazon DynamoDBApache KafkaFunctional TestingAmazon S3 (AWS S3)Recommendation SystemsOpenZeppelinERC-20Social Networking

Portfolio

Sportening
Elixir, Apache Kafka, Fastly, Microservices Architecture, Cache, NoSQL...
University of Zagreb, FER, Social Networking and Computing Laboratory
Data Science, Java, R, Algorithms, NoSQL, Facebook API, OAuth 2, Social APIs...
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
Java, Facebook API, Social APIs, R, PHP, Weka, Recommendation Systems...

Experience

NoSQL - 5 yearsFacebook API - 5 yearsElixir - 4 yearsJava - 4 yearsMicroservices Architecture - 4 yearsMySQL - 4 yearsApache Kafka - 3 yearsFastly - 3 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Oh My Zsh, Postman, Slack, GitLab, GitHub, Docker, ITerm

The most amazing...

...startup I've worked for as a founding engineer is Sportening, a social network for sports fans. I primarily built microservice architecture and the back end.

Work Experience

Founding Engineer

2019 - PRESENT
Sportening
  • Set up microservice architecture, designed protocol for a chat app, designed and set up cache (Fastly), and developed APIs.
  • Oversaw end-to-end engineering execution, including back end, iOS, and Android. Ensured that engineering execution within a product team was continuously monitored, managed, and improved whenever possible.
  • Handled the team's velocity and managed tech debt by determining and communicating the right tradeoffs and identifying execution bottlenecks.
Technologies: Elixir, Apache Kafka, Fastly, Microservices Architecture, Cache, NoSQL, Push Notifications, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), Apple Push Notifications, Technical Leadership, Functional Programming, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), OAuth 2, Algorithms, Computer Science, Job Schedulers, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Streaming Data, Server Sent Events (SSE), Management, Cloud Storage, Optimization, Memory Optimization, Varnish, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS SDK, Object-relational Mapping (ORM), Agile Software Development, Erlang (OTP), REST APIs, Protocol Buffers, JSON, RESTful Services, RESTful Development, RESTful Microservices, PostgreSQL, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Storage as a Service (STaaS)

Social Data Analytic Group Lead

2015 - 2019
University of Zagreb, FER, Social Networking and Computing Laboratory
  • Served as the group leader. The aim was to address challenges by designing and implementing a mechanism and prototyping a platform that derives its smartness from combining telecommunication operators' user data and user-generated context-aware data.
  • Developed the SmartSocial platform. The SmartSocial platform algorithm fetched almost 150 GB of raw Facebook user data for 404,274 Facebook users based on a survey filled by 1,826 Facebook users. Used Facebook Graph API v1.0.
  • Used data science methods to propose the SmartSocial trust method, which can recommend a user's close friend with more than 80% precision.
Technologies: Data Science, Java, R, Algorithms, NoSQL, Facebook API, OAuth 2, Social APIs, Streaming Data, Data Structures, Computer Science, Social Network Analysis, Social Network Analytics, Social Networks, APIs, Statistical Methods, Statistics, Clustering, Platforms, Data Visualization, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Analysis, Analytics, JSON, Data Scraping

Research and Teaching Assistant

2011 - 2019
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
  • Served as a teaching assistant in charge of new learning materials and oversaw demonstrations of student exercises. Worked with object-oriented programming in Java, social networks (social data, NoSQL), and App Start Contest as a jury member.
  • Coordinated and mentored students at the student startup incubator SPOCK.
  • Acted as a data science research engineer and a software engineer (Java, MongoDB, and Bootstrap) on the project called A Platform for Context-Aware Social Networking of Mobile Users, conducted by SmartSocial and Ericsson Nikola Tesla.
  • Lectured students as a teaching assistant and acted as a web developer for WordPress websites and a project named ICT Competence Network for Innovative Services for Persons with Complex Communication Needs.
  • Developed content and collaboration-based algorithms for movie recommendations on Croatian Telecom's MAXtv Recommender project. Served as a software engineer using Java.
  • Acted as a research engineer and a software engineer on the Rasco-HEP project for vacuum road sweepers.
Technologies: Java, Facebook API, Social APIs, R, PHP, Weka, Recommendation Systems, Data Science, Algorithms, Bootstrap, Object-relational Mapping (ORM), JSON

Information Technology Consultant

2018 - 2018
Godbex
  • Gathered functional requirements for ERC-20 contract and Godbex platform.
  • Participated in pair programming and code reviews of the ERC-20 contract.
  • Tracked the development of the ERC-20 contract using the OpenZeppelin framework and Solidity.
Technologies: ERC-20, Ethereum, Code Review, IT Project Management, Solidity, OpenZeppelin, Frameworks, Blockchain, Smart Contracts

Software Engineer

2013 - 2015
Dzangol
  • Developed the front end of a ticketing management platform for the RFID cards in AngularJS.
  • Created the back end of a ticketing management platform for the RFID cards using PHP.
  • Gathered functional requirements for the Dzangol app's back end and front end.
Technologies: PHP, AngularJS, Bootstrap, jQuery, MySQL, Frameworks, Doctrine 2, RFID, Architecture, Model View Presenter (MVP), PDF, Object-relational Mapping (ORM), JSON, REST APIs, RESTful Services, RESTful Development, PostgreSQL, Full-stack

Sportening | The Social Network for The World's Sports Fans

Sportening is on a mission to give the world's sports fans a place to easily join a community of fellow minded fans. Sportening will be the one place where they get accurate info on the latest events, talks sports with other fans, and make meaningful connections.

I was the third employee, and today Sportening has around 60 people (50-60% engineers). As a product tech lead (software engineer/lead back-end developer), I worked on data-intensive applications/services in the sports industry field. I was responsible for end-to-end engineering execution, including back end, iOS, and Android.

Godbex | Secure and Scalable Next-generation Gold Bullion and Cryptocurrency Platform

Godbex revolutionizes existing trading markets by linking gold bullion, physical gold in the form of gold bars meeting the Good Delivery standards (London Bullion Market Association) with the current and future cryptocurrencies while maximizing customer’s profit by taking into account price changes of both financial assets.

I acted as an information technology consultant and was responsible for gathering functional requirements and tracking the development of the ERC-20 contract using the OpenZeppelin framework and Solidity.

SmartSocial | Platform for Context-aware Social Networking of Mobile Users

The project aims to address this challenge by designing and implementing a mechanism and prototyping a platform that derives its smartness from combining telecommunication operators' user data with the available user-generated context-aware data and third-party external data such as data from social networks. Ericsson will be able to integrate this platform into the network nodes and offer them as a supporting tool for telecommunication operators who want to provide innovative personalized services to their subscribers.

I developed the SmartSocial platform. Algorithms in the SmartSocial platform fetched almost 150GB of raw Facebook user data for 404,274 Facebook users based on a survey successfully filled by 1,826 Facebook users. I used data science methods to propose the SmartSocial trust method, which can recommend a user's close friend with more than 80% precision.

Dzangol | Ticketing Management Platform for RFID Cards

Dzangol was a ticket management platform for football clubs in Croatia. The main functions of the platform are user management, creating and selling RFID cards for journalists, sponsors, and football fans, and enabling entry to the football stadiums based on RFID cards.

I developed a ticketing management platform for RFID cards, including its front end and back end.
2012 - 2018

PhD in Computer Science

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing - Croatia, Zagreb

2010 - 2012

Master's Degree in Economics

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business - Croatia, Zagreb

2006 - 2011

Master's Degree in Computer Engineering

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing - Croatia, Zagreb

JUNE 2019 - PRESENT

Master the Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algorithms

Udemy

JUNE 2019 - PRESENT

JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass

Udemy

Libraries/APIs

Facebook API, Social APIs, jQuery, Doctrine, OpenZeppelin, Doctrine 2, REST APIs

Tools

Postman, Slack, Fastly, Oh My Zsh, GitLab, GitHub, ITerm, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), Apple Push Notifications, AWS SDK, Weka, Varnish

Frameworks

JSON Web Tokens (JWT), OAuth 2, Bootstrap, AngularJS

Languages

Elixir, Java, PHP, R, JavaScript, Solidity, Erlang (OTP)

Paradigms

Microservices Architecture, Functional Programming, Functional Testing, Data Science, Model View Presenter (MVP), Object-relational Mapping (ORM), Management, Agile Software Development, RESTful Development

Platforms

Apache Kafka, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Docker, Ethereum, Blockchain, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Storage

Amazon DynamoDB, Cache, NoSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, MongoDB, JSON, PostgreSQL, Storage as a Service (STaaS)

Other

Computer Science, Push Notifications, Technical Leadership, Data Structures, Algorithms, Server Sent Events (SSE), Functional Design, Social Network Analysis, Social Network Analytics, Social Networks, APIs, Analysis, Analytics, Architecture, Recommendation Systems, Code Review, Content Delivery Networks (CDN), Streaming Data, Cloud Storage, Optimization, Memory Optimization, Digital Marketing, Business Analysis, ERC-20, IT Project Management, Job Schedulers, IT Management, Full-stack Development, Statistical Methods, Statistics, Clustering, Platforms, Data Visualization, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Frameworks, RFID, PDF, Smart Contracts, Protocol Buffers, RESTful Services, RESTful Microservices, Data Scraping, Full-stack

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