Ivan Prlić
Verified Expert in Engineering
AI expert, Solutions Architect and Developer
Zagreb, Croatia
Toptal member since January 16, 2018
Ivan is a solutions architect and fractional CTO with over 20 years of experience in building AWS data platforms and production AI systems. He specializes in data lakes, Claude-powered analytics dashboards, and natural language querying. Ivan provides senior technical leadership for enterprises scaling cloud and AI. He is an AWS Authorized Instructor with 14 certifications.
Portfolio
Experience
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 10 years
- Python - 7 years
- Cloud Architecture - 5 years
- CTO - 5 years
- Large Language Models (LLMs) - 3 years
- AI Agents - 3 years
- AI Agent Orchestration - 3 years
- Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) - 3 years
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Git, Zsh
The most amazing...
...system I've built is a Claude-powered analytics platform that centralized 40+ data sources, enabling business teams to query data in natural language.
Work Experience
Cloud Architect | AI Automation Engineer | DevOps Consultant
Prlić Consulting d.o.o.
- Implemented a healthcare system on the Open Telekom Cloud using Kubernetes and Helm.
- Designed a serverless cloud architecture for a healthcare startup on AWS, including a serverless framework, Amazon RDS, Amazon ElastiCache, API Gateway, and AWS Lambda.
- Designed a serverless cloud architecture for a loyalty card system using AWS SAM and Python.
- Performed as a technical advisor on educational VR platforms, working with .NET, Unity, and AWS.
- Served as a DevOps consultant on cloud migration and ISO 20071 and SOC 2 certification.
- Conducted various consulting and freelance work in software architecture and project management.
- Contributed to the IoT system architecture for electric car chargers.
- Built a RAG-based legal document search system on Amazon Bedrock, reducing search time from hours to seconds, fully private within the client's AWS environment.
- Delivered AI automation and agentic AI systems for enterprise clients across the fintech and legal sectors.
- Designed and deployed computer vision pipelines on AWS SageMaker for production workloads.
Senior Azure DevOps Engineer
Sema Technologies, Inc
- Developed Azure DevOps integration for a code analysis tool.
- Integrated with Azure DevOps using service hooks and Azure DevOps Python SDK.
- Used Django for the integration API necessary to communicate with Azure DevOps.
DevOps Architect
Berry Appleman & Leiden
- Led major refactoring of all IaC repositories, merging them into one, extracting reusable modules, etc.
- Introduced Terragrunt and Atlantis for easier deployment of IaC across multiple environments.
- Dockerized existing .NET apps and migrated them from EC2 instances to ECS clusters.
- Worked on setting up infrastructure for new apps and services.
- Improved on all existing pipelines, migrated from Azure DevOps Classic to YAML pipelines.
Automation Expert | Jira Consultant
Company in Communications Technology
- Led the end-to-end design and configuration of Jira Service Management for internal HR and IT teams, creating custom request types, SLAs, and approval workflows from scratch.
- Developed automation rules and form-based intake processes using Jira Automation and Assets to streamline onboarding, access requests, and incident resolution.
- Integrated Jira with internal HRIS, SSO, and Slack to improve cross-system visibility and reduce manual task handling.
- Managed large-scale Jira Cloud instance restructuring, including permission schemes, project templates, and scalable workflow standardization.
- Delivered detailed documentation and knowledge transfer sessions to internal teams, supporting digital transformation and adoption of ITIL-aligned processes.
Software Architect
Hospitality Digital GmbH - Main Hospitality Digital GmbH
- Worked with multiple development teams on improving and scaling microservices architecture.
- Collaborated with technical leadership in creating architecture and technology roadmap.
- Facilitated event-storming workshops to assess the health of an existing line of business and to discover the most effective areas for improvement.
- Collaborated with infrastructure teams on providing the best possible platform for development teams.
- Utilized domain‐driven design practices to make architecture more modular and scalable.
VP of DevOps
EPTI
- Built the company's 1st DevOps team. Oversaw the team and technology selection.
- Crafted cloud solutions in AWS and Microsoft Azure.
- Organized on-call duty and rotations and created an SLA. Worked on developing and improving team processes and procedures.
- Worked on a solution architecture for an IoT parking system.
Technical Consultant
Shake LLC
- Helped with the development of the product MVP using Python and Flask.
- Implemented the product infrastructure in AWS, including Auto Scaling groups, RDS, ElastiCache, and more.
- Advised on various technical challenges as the product grew.
Senior Back-end Engineer
Toptal
- Added new features and maintained the client-facing web app of Toptal, working with Ruby on Rails, GraphQL, Sidekiq, and PostgreSQL.
- Worked as Scrum Master, helping the team transition from Kanban to Scrum.
- Performed occasional work on legacy front end using Backbone.js and React.
CTO
Snowfall
- Led the team development of train operator booking and crew support systems that were composed of a web front end using AngularJS and hybrid mobile apps using Ionic. The back end was developed in PHP/Laravel with a MySQL database.
- Built a ferry booking system by reusing the train system we had.
- Steered the company towards microservices-based solutions using Python with the Flask framework with PostgreSQL. Implemented the basis for the rest of the company's codebase.
- Oversaw all the decisions regarding the development of all the company's projects.
- Handled the recruitment and evaluation of developers.
- Introduced code reviews, continuous integration, and TDD as the preferred practices within the company.
Team Leader and Scrum Master
Neoinfo d.o.o.
- Assisted in building the front end for a car insurance webshop in AngularJS.
- Integrated the entire codebase between a customer-facing webshop and the internal risk assessment and CRM insurance systems using WCF and the Entity Framework.
- Improved the car and home insurance risk assessment software based on .NET and MS SQL.
- Introduced Scrum and Agile practices to the company.
Team Leader and Scrum Master
Omega Software
- Maintained legacy ERP and ECM systems written in VB6.
- Led the team development of an ECM system for Croatian government bodies implementing the Scrum methodology and using .NET, ASP.NET MVC, and MS SQL.
- Worked as the first certified scrum master within the company. Helped introduce Scrum and trained colleagues in Agile practices.
- Developed both B2B and BC2 sales systems for the Croatian Standards Institute.
- Worked on data interchange between different Croatian government bodies, including the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture, City of Zagreb, and more.
Senior Software Developer
Soar d.o.o.
- Developed and maintained the online casino system using .NET, WCF, and MS SQL.
- Worked extensively on an integration with partner casino systems.
- Built a data analytics and reporting subsystem for the casino.
- Strove to understand the different regulatory requirements and made adjustments to the system accordingly.
- Wrote a lottery-draw algorithm for use within the casino system.
Team Leader
MCS Grupa d.o.o
- Managed the development team and the software development lifecycle.
- Developed and maintained a web-based healthcare system.
- Worked extensively on the digitalization and integrations required to achieve a total eHealth solution in Croatia.
- Rewrote old classic ASP-based interfaces to ASP.NET.
- Created a PDF-based reporting and analytics subsystem.
Senior Software Developer
Sailing Europe d.o.o
- Developed custom CRM software to manage relations with nautical charter companies.
- Built a fleet management and booking system for nautical agencies.
- Built a complex boat booking system and integrated it with Umbraco CMS.
Software Developer
Logit d.o.o
- Built a custom website using the Django framework with either MySQL or PostgreSQL.
- Developed real estate cataloging software using Delphi and Firebird.
- Created a custom CMS on top of the Django framework.
Software Developer
Ador d.o.o
- Built a custom website for various clients using Classic ASP and ASP.NET.
- Developed a custom ERP solution for a marketing agency using .NET, C#, and MS SQL.
- Created and maintained websites in various CMSs like Typo3, Umbraco, and Red Dot.
Experience
LLM-powered Legal Document Search
eCommerce Platform Migration to Kubernetes
Serverless Platform for a Healthcare Startup
MTRX Booking System and Crew Support Systems
Cloud Native Platform for a Global Travel Group
Certifications
Claude Certified Architect - Foundations
Anthropic
AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional
Amazon Web Services
AWS Authorized Instructor
AWS
AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
Amazon Web Services
Google Developer Expert
AWS Certified Security – Specialty
AWS
Toptal React Accelerator Graduate
Toptal, LLC
Stripe Certified Professional Developer
Stripe
Stripe Certified Professional Implementation Architect
Stripe
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Certified Kubernetes Administrator
The Linux Foundation
Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Microsoft
Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer
Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert
Microsoft
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional
AWS
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
Amazon Web Services
Professional Cloud Architect
Microsoft MCSD Certified Professional
Microsoft
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Stripe API, React, Stripe, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs, Claude API, jQuery, Beautiful Soup, Node.js, Backbone.js, Entity Framework, Sidekiq, Tika, Stripe Connect API, Stripe Connect, Terragrunt
Tools
Terraform, Git, Microsoft Visual Studio, Grafana, Amazon EKS, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Stripe Checkout, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS IAM, Mailchimp, Jira, Amazon Cognito, Amazon CloudFront CDN, NGINX, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, GitLab CI/CD, GitLab, GitHub, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), AWS Subnets, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), Amazon CloudWatch, ELK (Elastic Stack), AWS CloudFormation, Azure Web Application Firewall, Azure Application Insights, Azure Monitor, Docker Compose, BigQuery, Claude Code, Claude Agent SDK, Claude, Amazon SageMaker, Mercurial, PyCharm, PhpStorm, Ansible, Helm, Kibana, SendGrid, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodeBuild, Pytest, AWS Glue, AWS Fargate, Confluence, MQTT, Sentry, CircleCI, Jenkins, SonarQube, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C), Keycloak, Visual Studio, Amazon Athena, Zsh, Amazon ElastiCache, Bitbucket, Codacy, Apache Airflow
Languages
C#, JavaScript, Python, SQL, HTML, XML, CSS, Bash, Bash Script, Ruby, GraphQL, PHP, TypeScript, Visual Basic, VB.NET, Delphi, VBScript, Visual Basic 6 (VB6), Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET)
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), .NET, Django, Flask, ASP.NET Web API, ASP.NET, Selenium, Alembic, AngularJS, Serverless Framework, AWS Serverless Application Model (SAM), Angular, Laravel, .NET Core, Scrapy, Material UI, Next.js, Bootstrap, Windows PowerShell, Classic ASP, Kendo UI, Knockout (Knockout.js), PhalconPHP, React Native, Ionic, Express.js
Paradigms
REST, Microservices Architecture, DevOps, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Agile Project Management, Scrum, Kanban, Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile, Azure DevOps, Microservices, DevSecOps, Object-relational Mapping (ORM), Back-end Architecture, Lambda Architecture, Serverless Architecture, API Architecture, Automation, Event-driven Architecture, HIPAA Compliance, Mobile Development, Extreme Programming
Platforms
Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Linux, MacOS, Windows, Amazon EC2, Windows Server, Mandrill, Mobile, Ubuntu, Firebase, Web, AWS Lambda, DigitalOcean, Apache Kafka, AWS IoT Core, OpenStack, Twilio, Oracle, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), iOS, Android, Blockchain, Magento 2
Storage
Redis, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Databases, JSON, Redis Cache, Cloud Deployment, Google Cloud Storage, Database Security, Database Administration (DBA), Data Pipelines, Elasticsearch, Google Cloud, MariaDB, MySQL, Datadog, Azure SQL Databases, Amazon DynamoDB, Redshift, Amazon Aurora, MongoDB, Cloud Firestore, Firebird, Couchbase, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), Azure Cloud Services
Industry Expertise
Project Management, Healthcare
Other
SOAP, WCF Web Services, Prometheus, Orchestration, Cloud Architecture, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), CI/CD Pipelines, Cloud, IT Project Management, Architecture, CTO, Full-stack, Load Balancers, Autoscaling Groups, Web Scraping, API Integration, AWS Certified Solution Architect, Full-stack Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Amazon RDS, Technical Leadership, Software Architecture, APIs, Estimations, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, System Administration, Containerization, AWS Cloud Architecture, Containers, Cloud Computing, Monitoring, AWS DevOps, Front-end Development, Enterprise Architecture, Solution Architecture, Back-end Development, SaaS, RESTful Web Services, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Jira Administration, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Back-end, Cloud Migration, Cost Control, Web Development, Code Review, Cloud Infrastructure, Technical Architecture, Software as a Service (SaaS), SaaS Design, Leadership, Cloud Patterns, Architectural Patterns, Separation of Concerns (SoC), Release Management, Scalable Web Services, Web Scalability, Remote Desktop, Debugging, Team Leadership, GitHub Actions, Front-end, Google Cloud Functions, Security, AWS VPN, NAT, Startups, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Fractional CTO, Cloud Monitoring, AWS Auto Scaling, Azure Resource Manager (ARM), Azure Virtual Networks, SOC 2, Analytics, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Canary Deployment, Performance, Troubleshooting, Data Analytics, Payment Gateways, AWS Cloud Security, Consulting, Google BigQuery, Large Language Models (LLMs), Training, AI Agent Orchestration, AI Automation, AI Agents, Prompt Engineering, GitHub Workflows, Agentic AI, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), DNS, WebSockets, Domain-driven Design (DDD), Product Development, Data Warehousing, Cloudflare, Networking, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), eCommerce, Mobile Apps, EventBus, IT Security, Web Hosting, Software Packaging, Gaming, Machine Learning, SecOps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Engineering, Argo CD, GitOps, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Azure Data Factory (ADF), Data Architecture, AI Architecture, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), Gemini API, Gemini, Railway, LangChain, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Serverless, Tesseract, Ingress, Scheduling, Team Management, Amazon API Gateway, Lean, Stripe Payments, Stripe Subscriptions, Payment APIs, Online Payments, Stripe Marketplace, Stripe Managed Accounts, Web Security, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Azure Cloud Security, OpenAI, GoDaddy, Snyk, FastAPI, Atlantis, ECS, Looker Studio, Google, Knowledge Bases, RAG Architecture, AI System Design, Claude Code Configuration, Context Management, Multi-agent Orchestration, Production Reliability, Structured Output, Tool & MCP Design, Generative AI Architecture
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