Josip Šaban, Developer in Vienna, Austria
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Josip Šaban

Verified Expert  in Engineering

BI Architect and Developer

Location
Vienna, Austria
Toptal Member Since
June 18, 2020

In his 17 years in IT, Josip went from developer, startup owner, DWH architect to manager. Mainly focusing on the financial industry, he was part of large reporting and decision support systems from initial design to production, leading development teams to deliver great products that are still in production today. He has advanced knowledge of project management (both waterfall and agile), the entire SQL Server stack, Oracle, Snowflake, dbt, Airlflow, Python, Tableau, and PowerBI.

Portfolio

Erste Group IT
Oracle PL/SQL, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI
Addiko Bank AG
Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Data Service (BODS), Microsoft SQL Server
Alfatec Group
Business Analysis, SQL, Oracle, SQL Server BI, SQL Server DBA

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

SQL Server Management Studio, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, RStudio, Snowflake, Data Build Tool (dbt), Python, Apache Airflow

The most amazing...

...thing I've done was to take over a team of senior data warehouse experts, formed a team of outstanding individuals, and managed to provide the results needed.

Work Experience

Lead BI Architect | Team Lead

2015 - 2021
Erste Group IT
  • Led a team responsible for creating a data framework, an abstraction layer for a semantic interface, and reporting using business terminology. Owned personal responsibility for the data reporting engine creation in PowerBI and Tableau.
  • Used PowerBI and Tableau to create reports and reported on architectures that allowed business users to effectively query DWH data without knowing implementation details.
  • Established data visualization best practices, depending on data type and business area. Also designed multiple template reports that show a unified approach to group reporting.
  • Led proof-of-concept activities for testing new technologies and development methodologies.
  • Held multiple education and demonstration events for internal IT and business users to show what can be done using these tools.
Technologies: Oracle PL/SQL, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI

Senior Business Intelligence Analyst

2013 - 2015
Addiko Bank AG
  • Analyzed and documented business requests, leading a team of internal and external consultants.
  • Developed the implementation strategy and BI architecture based on SQL Server technology stack.
  • Managed and executed IT projects and successfully led a team of consultants.
  • Conducted hands-on development of important and more complex database modules.
  • Held education sessions for internal company employees.
  • Deployed new features to production and effectively fulfilled the role of a release manager.
Technologies: Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Data Service (BODS), Microsoft SQL Server

Senior BI Consultant

2010 - 2013
Alfatec Group
  • Developed ETL and reporting solutions for Philip Morris, mostly focusing on data warehouse architecture design and reporting dataset optimizations.
  • Worked on the development of ETL and reporting solutions for Porsche Leasing, mostly focusing on data warehouse architecture design and reporting dataset optimizations.
  • Developed ETL and reporting solutions for Societe General bank, mostly focusing on data warehouse architecture design and reporting dataset optimizations.
Technologies: Business Analysis, SQL, Oracle, SQL Server BI, SQL Server DBA

Senior BI Consultant

2007 - 2010
Crmt
  • Developed ETL and reporting solutions for Slovenian telecom data warehouse.
  • Created ETL and reporting solutions for Slovenian telecom Netezza implementation, where I was designing a new module for call detail records analysis, as part of the biggest Netezza implementation in eastern Europe.
  • Worked on the development of ETL and reporting solutions for Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, reporting for EU funds allocation.
Technologies: Business Intelligence (BI), Netezza, Oracle, SQL Server BI

PowerBI and Data Architecture

https://www.gartner.com/en
Gartner is a company that delivers actionable, objective insights
to executives and their teams. I worked on the implementation of PowerBI dashboards for the Snowflake database, using Airflow and dbt. Additional responsibilities included architecting data consumption from various public data sources ( Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and creating proof-of-concept tests of different tools and methods.

SQL Server/Oracle Expert | Swiss Re Management (via Toptal)

https://www.pepsico.com/
PepsiCo is the global leader in the snacks and sodas industry. I worked there as a senior data transformation engineer and as part of their marketing team, designing transformations that retrieved data from various sources and combining them in the Snowflake model. This position required strong data engineering knowledge, combined with an understanding of data warehouses, data pipelines, and data quality concepts.

SQL Server/Oracle Expert | Swiss Re Management (via Toptal)

For this project, I performed the migration of an Oracle database to SQL Server, using best practices and the latest technology and design patterns. During this seven-month project, in daily communication with clients, the database was redesigned and upgraded with multiple new features, including partitioning, compression, data checks, and extensive logging. It was production-ready at the end of the contract. Besides a much easier and more robust use of the system, processing time was significantly decreased, with an extensive reporting layer that showed, in real-time, the state of each data load in the pipeline, bringing huge operational and data quality benefits to the client.

Development and Analysis | Johnson & Johnson

This project required knowledge of a wide technology stack (Excel/VBA, Access, SQL database, Salesforce, and Qlik) and analysis of the existing business process.

My role, as part of the reporting department, was to get myself up to date with the existing setup, propose improvements, and develop modules that would support new requirements of the marketing and sales departments. The work focused on updating the reporting/database solutions and to remove the use of Excel, as much as possible in daily business operations.

Schneider Electric

https://www.se.com/hr/hr/
This project required the creation of migration scripts from an existing SQL Server database to the installation of a new one. As users were not very familiar with this technology, the project included very detailed documentation to enable them to do some of the easier modifications on their own without any specialized support. I also created a proof-of-concept on using Azure PowerBI instead of Excel reporting.

Life Church (via Toptal)

https://www.life.church/
On this project, my role was as the data warehousing expert—working on the SQL Server and I was ultimately responsible for designing data warehouse tables. I also implemented the ETL processes using SSIS and SQL and optimized the existing data warehouse loading procedures.

Technical Writer for Project Management (via Toptal)

http://sterlingcapitalbrokers.com/
I wrote a software development lifecycle guide (SDLC) for a software company that needed to map its development processes in a formal document.

American Taekwondo Association (via Toptal)

http://www.ataonline.com/
For this project, I worked on the migration of an existing web application. My tasks were making sure that the Oracle database was properly migrated to a new SQL Server to support a newly purchased solution. I did everything from analysis, implementation, testing, and finally cutover procedures.

Briefing: The Data Warehouse

https://www.toptal.com/insights/future-of-work/briefing-the-data-warehouse
While often overlooked, the data warehouse enables companies to reveal valuable insights concealed within their vast data troves. In this article, as a domain expert, I share foundational principles and applications that are essential knowledge for all modern managers.

Blog: SQL Server 2016 Always Encrypted

https://www.toptal.com/sql-server/sql-server-2016-always-encrypted
Data is a key asset of any company, particularly transactional data which holds business secrets such as financial or health records. Data is most vulnerable in transit between the server that stores it and that client that requests it.

The standard approach to ensuring security is to encrypt data on the server and use the SSL-enabled HTTPS protocol to secure data in transport. However, what if we could increase the level of security even further, by using HTTPS and sending data in an encrypted format over the communication line, only to decrypt data on clients who have valid certificates? That approach would make a traditional man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack much more difficult.

Microsoft’s solution to this problem is Always Encrypted, a way to send encrypted data over the pipeline and decrypt it only by users with access to valid certificates. So, even if the attacker gets the data, without a proper certificate stored on the client machine, the data would be useless.
This article describes how to set up and use Always Encrypted, and it’s recommended reading for anyone who is sending important data over the public communication lines, even if they are secured with SSL.

Languages

SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), C#, Python, Snowflake, YAML, Excel VBA

Tools

Microsoft Project, Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, Toad, PyCharm, SQL Server BI, Apache Airflow

Paradigms

Agile, Waterfall Development, ETL, Business Intelligence (BI)

Storage

Oracle PL/SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Azure SQL, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server 2017, Database Modeling, Databases, SQL Server DBA, Netezza

Other

Data Modeling, Project Management Professional (PMP), Business Analysis, Team Leadership, Data Visualization, Data Engineering, SAP BusinessObjects Data Service (BODS), SAP BusinessObjects (BO), Data Architecture, Data, Client Management, Data Build Tool (dbt)

Frameworks

.NET

Platforms

Oracle, Azure, RStudio, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), QlikView

Industry Expertise

Project Management

2011 - 2012

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in General Management

COTRUGLI Business School - Zagreb, Croatia

1998 - 2004

Master of Science Degree in Computing

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

SEPTEMBER 2017 - PRESENT

Project Management Professional (PMP)

PMI Institute

JUNE 2014 - PRESENT

ITIL Foundation V3

Axelos

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