Ivan Čuljak, Developer in Zagreb, Croatia
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Ivan Čuljak

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Distributed Systems Developer

Zagreb, Croatia

Toptal member since December 6, 2016

Bio

Ivan grew into a head of technology, then upskilled himself as a lead developer for a business intelligence company specializing in sports betting clients. In 2016, he founded his own company, grew the team to 15, then chose to move forward as a solo cloud expert. Ivan's passion lies in building cloud solutions with the least possible complexity and maintenance. His tools of choice are Azure and C#. Ivan is a community leader and international speaker and was a lecturer at three universities.

Portfolio

Celeste Maze, Inc.
Cloud Infrastructure, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), DevOps, Azure DevOps...
Tune IT d.o.o.
Azure, C#, API Architecture, Octopus Deploy, Xamarin.Forms, Azure DevOps

Experience

  • ASP.NET - 20 years
  • C# - 20 years
  • Distributed Systems - 16 years
  • Software Architecture - 14 years
  • DevOps - 12 years
  • Azure - 11 years
  • Solution Architecture - 8 years
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) - 6 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Pulumi, Octopus Deploy, Azure DevOps, Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Linode

The most amazing...

...multi-cloud system I've built spins up and down crawlers, executing tasks in an elegant, mostly serverless, and multi-tenant way.

Work Experience

Cloud Solution Architect | Software Engineer | Owner

2016 - PRESENT
Celeste Maze, Inc.
  • Salvaged a lot of projects which were wrecks and either continued developing new features or handed them back to the in-house development teams.
  • Designed more modern cloud solutions, some of which included hybrid and mobile services.
  • Consulted clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies on their cloud solutions and the state of their development.
  • Performed as a speaker in over 75 talks at regular international conferences, mostly about serverless and modern cloud solutions.
  • Taught at three universities for over four years as a regular guest lecturer.
Technologies: Cloud Infrastructure, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), DevOps, Azure DevOps, Pulumi, Octopus Deploy, Custom Solutions, Distributed Systems, Serverless, Azure, C#, Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, API Architecture, ASP.NET Core, GitHub Actions

C# Developer

2014 - 2016
Tune IT d.o.o.
  • Developed a system for the hospitality sector consisting of an easy-to-use but advanced mobile app for clients with social network integrations, a mobile app for waiters, a web app for back-office operations, etc.
  • Implemented a loyalty system into an existing system.
  • Developed a system that connected to a loyalty system and allowed our client to organize various campaigns, target specific users, and track their reactions.
  • Developed a few proof-of-concept web and mobile apps for the betting sector.
  • Consulted various companies regarding Xamarin development.
  • Taught topics at Algebra Zagreb as a Microsoft Certified Trainer.
Technologies: Azure, C#, API Architecture, Octopus Deploy, Xamarin.Forms, Azure DevOps

Head of Technology

2005 - 2014
Geoservis d.o.o.
  • Implemented the first GPS virtual reference stations network in the region.
  • Implemented various algorithms (and tweaked them up to some point) for processing GPS data.
  • Developed various tools to speed up the processing of point cloud acquired using terrestrial 3D laser scanners.
  • Developed various AutoCAD and Excel add-ons to speed up and automate data processing.
  • Organized and led internal education for over 100 employees.
Technologies: C#

Experience

Spectral Core

WORK DONE
• Supported the evolution of a desktop tool into a massively parallel cloud tool spanning across clusters.
• Established the right cybersecurity posture from the get-go.
• Architected the cloud part of a new solution.
• Worked closely with the development team.
• Worked with key customers to fully understand their needs and cloud environment limitations due to corporate-specific policies and architecting solutions for those.
• Handled the architecture and the integration of two solutions into Azure Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and AWS Marketplace.

Reinsurance Industry

WORK DONE
• Optimized existing cloud solutions for performance, cost gains, and cybersecurity.
• Architected various hybrid and cloud-native solutions for multiple teams.
• Salvaged multiple third-party cloud solutions.
• Architected and built a platform to enable actuaries to develop and run their models.
• Provided constant supervision of cloud development, advisory on improvements, and education on the reasons.

Lawn and Garden Care Service

Architected and built a service that made the complex process of picking the right products and offering upsells become simple, and thus allowed the client to implement their subscription business

B2C Insurance Claims Solution

Revamped the architecture of a B2C insurance claims solution with an emphasis on on-the-fly reconfiguration of workflows and cybersecurity.

Tobacco Industry

WORK DONE
• Audited a non-working cloud and field solution built by a huge consultancy company.
• Proposed a new architecture.
• Worked closely with decision-makers on how to best get to their desired outcome.

Card Processor

I architected their first hybrid public cloud solution for POS systems. I provided supervision and advisory from the inception until the production.

TDK

I assessed and refactored development and testing-related processes, as well as coding practices, and architected standardized development templates for the dev team allocated to the semiconductors R&D department in a semiconductors factory

Video Streaming Solution

I salvaged a low-level, highly technical solution for video streaming, leveraging some specific hardware.

Remote IT Worker Onboarding Solution

I architected a solution to enable the faster onboarding of remote IT workers, which impacted their cloud architecture and policies, resulting in a fast and (cyber)secure workflow.

Wine Importer

I salvaged a B2B2C solution for a wine distributor in Australia.

Fortune 500 Clothing Retailer

WORK DONE
• Revamped the cybersecurity posture of a risky solution targeting underage girls.
• Refactored all the processes, resulting in significant performance improvements and usability, which led to increased adoption.
• Architected and built various media solutions for automated inspection and streaming.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) Industry

I architected and built various templates to ensure proper cybersecurity using an Okta, .NET, and Azure combination.

Security Solution | Intellectual Property

I architected and built an overly (cyber)secure solution as both a SaaS and a single tenant deployment on the client's infra used by lawyers to prepare documentation for high-profile IP litigation cases and submissions.

German Public Radio and TV Broadcaster

WORK DONE
• Salvaged a solution for gathering user-generated content.
• Architected the "next version," which automatically validated and inspected the content like photos, videos, audio, and text.
• Built a search engine on top of the gathered data to fetch "intelligence" from gathered content.
• Upskilled a new internal team to take over.

Croatian National Radio and TV Network

I salvaged a solution for radio streaming.

Croatian Post

Revamped and partially developed a solution for same-day intra-city deliveries.

Large-scale Ticket Verification Solution

I architected and built a solution for large-scale ticket verification in "rough" environments, mostly for Ultra Europe.

FIFA

I architected and built a field solution for documents and media management.

Solution and Software Architecture for the Hospitality Sector

A solution and software architecture for a B2B2C BI solution that allows bars to know their customers and plan their business.

Fraud Detection | Sports Betting Industry

I conducted R&D for fraud detection for a sports betting company.

Certifications

APRIL 2019 - JULY 2022

Microsoft MVP for Azure

Microsoft

Skills

Tools

Azure App Service, Azure Logic Apps, GitHub, Jira, Alfresco

Languages

C#, SQL

Frameworks

.NET Core, ASP.NET, .NET, ASP.NET Core

Paradigms

DevOps, API Architecture, Azure DevOps, Automated Testing, Agile

Platforms

Azure, Azure Marketplace, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linode

Storage

Oracle Cloud

Other

Serverless, Distributed Systems, Custom Solutions, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cloud Infrastructure, Pulumi, Architecture, Task Automation, Data Scraping, Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture, Azure Durable Functions, Cloud Architecture, Software Architecture, GitHub Actions, Octopus Deploy, Web Scraping, Windows Services, Writing & Editing, Xamarin.Forms, Azure Databricks

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