Nikola Todorovic

Belgrade, Serbia

Member since May 7, 2015

Nikola has more than nine years of experience in software development. He graduated from the best computer science faculty in Serbia, and since then, he's been working on a variety of technologies and companies on projects for the domestic and US markets. He even started his own startups and learned a lot about what is needed for a business to succeed. Currently, his passion is Ruby on Rails and startups.

Nikola is now available for hire

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Portfolio

Traveling Spoon (via Toptal)
Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Angular, Backbone
TintManager, LLC (via Toptal)
Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Handlebars
Phixio
Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, JavaScript

Experience

Ruby, 7 years
Ruby on Rails (RoR), 7 years
JavaScript, 5 years
Oracle PL/SQL, 4 years
Lean Startups, 4 years
PostgreSQL, 4 years
Angular, 2 years
React, 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Mac, Windows, Linux, Git, Sublime Text

The most amazing...

...algorithm I've built is a payroll algorithm with more than 10k lines of bug-free code that does payroll for thousands of people at healthcare places in Serbia.

Employment

Ruby on Rails Developer
2016 - PRESENT
Traveling Spoon (via Toptal)
- Worked in an Agile environment.
- Implemented many features using Ruby on Rails, Angular, and Backbone.
- Worked with Stripe, PayPal, Mailgun, and Google Maps.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Angular, Backbone
Ruby on Rails Developer
2016 - 2016
TintManager, LLC (via Toptal)
- Worked on multiple tasks to add new functionalities to the application.
- Made significant improvement in application performances.
- Implemented Handlebars using JSON in a Rails application.
- Implemented a multitenancy feature.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Handlebars
CEO
2015 - 2016
Phixio
- Developed Phix.io, a startup company, completely by myself.
- Worked on the back-end, front-end, and deployment.
- Set up payment processing with 2checkout.
- Utilized http://cloudinary.com for cloud image storage.
- Integrated DigitalOcean for the server hosting platform.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, JavaScript
CEO
2013 - 2016
Warrantly
- Scored a $10k investment and joined StartupYard, an accelerator in Prague, Czech Republic.
- Gained new communication skills, pitching for many VCs and angel investors in Prague, Amsterdam, Split, and Belgrade.
- Learned a lot about business development, customer development, and startup metrics. Having a great team is one of the key points for success and being able to communicate well within the team is a must. Building a product isn't an easy job, and every single part of it has its challenges.
- Discovered that UX is as important as any other part of building a product, maybe even more important.
- Developed the application itself into a complex solution (Warrant.ly) with v2 currently in progress. It has an API on the back-end using Rails, Angular on the front, authentication, authorization, and more.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, JavaScript
Software Developer
2012 - 2016
Innovation Center, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
- Worked on two projects, both for a thermal coal power station in Serbia (TE Kostolac).
- Wrote procedures in Oracle PL/SQL for the first application to calculate the average fuel consumption for excavators, bulldozers, and other vehicles on the open pit.
- Built the second using Ruby on Rails and Oracle. It keeps track of more than 7,000 types of spare parts for all kinds of vehicles and keeps track which vehicle can use which part.
- Led the entire development process, including talking to the end customers, building functionalities, testing, deployment, and more.
- Gained experience in handling a demanding freelance schedule and workload.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Oracle, Oracle PL/SQL
Software Developer
2012 - 2012
Deploy, Inc.
- Contributed to two projects, one of which was a complex Android app and the other of which was a Java application for Royal Caribbean International.
- Worked in a team with more than twenty developers, each with a specific assignment.
- Coordinated between the dev team in Serbia and HQ in NYC, working flexible hours to be available during US business hours.
- Learned to work under heavy pressure, despite it also being my first Android experience, since we had very tight deadline.
Technologies: Java, Spring, Hibernate, Android
Software Developer
2011 - 2012
Micro Business Solutions
- Worked with .NET projects, gaining valuable insight into those technologies.
- Met and negotiated with domestic clients.
- Worked on some legacy projects from the '90s and saw firsthand the importance of using new technologies to get the job done much faster and cleaner.
- Learned some valuable lessons about carefully choosing a working environment where things that I value, like quality and honesty, are valued by the company as well.
Technologies: C#, Microsoft SQL Server, .NET framework, Windows Mobile
Software Engineer
2009 - 2011
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
- Created a payroll algorithm with more than 10,000 lines of bug-free code which calculated payrolls for thousands of people at healthcare institutions in Serbia.
- Worked from day one on a project called Moneo (part of HELIANT system) for which the algorithm was developed.
- Worked on the core part of HELIANT system (www.heliant.rs), which represents Electronic Health Record systems (EHRs) designed in Java and is used for monitoring the work of doctors as well as keeping records of patients in these health care institutions.
Technologies: Java, Oracle, Oracle PL/SQL

Experience

Phixio (Development)
This was a startup founded by myself and developed using Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL. Worked on back-end, front-end, and deployment. Payments were processed with 2checkout, http://cloudinary.com was used as a cloud image storage, and DigitalOcean was used as a server hosting platform.
Warrantly (Development)
A startup founded by me and my friends. It was a service for consumers and businesses who wanted to store their warranties in one place so they won't lose them any more. They could track bought items through their warranty period, report problems, and more. Retailers and manufacturers could use this data to improve their products and gain new customers. We used Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL for the web application.
Member, Mensa International (Other amazing things)
http://www.mensa.org
Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. You have to score at or above the 98th percentile – the top 2% – on a standardized, professionally administered IQ test. This is typically a score of 130 or more. I have been a member since November 2008.
Ruby Metaprogramming Is Even Cooler Than It Sounds (Publication)
https://www.toptal.com/ruby/ruby-metaprogramming-cooler-than-it-sounds
Ruby metaprogramming, one of the most interesting aspects of Ruby, enables the programming language to achieve an extreme level of expressiveness. It is because of this very feature that many gems, such as RSpec and ActiveRecord, can work the way they do. In this article, Toptal engineer Nikola Todorovic demystifies Ruby metaprogramming using some examples that are relevant to everyday programming and aims to bring it closer to average Ruby developers.

Skills

Languages
Ruby, SCSS, HTML, CSS, SQL, JavaScript, PL/pgSQL, XML, Stored Procedure, HTML5, CoffeeScript, Java
Frameworks
Bootstrap 3, Bootstrap, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), ZURB Foundation, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Factory Girl, Angular
Libraries/APIs
Ruby on Rails API, jQuery, Devise, CarrierWave, React
Tools
JBuilder, RSpec, Sublime Text 3, Git, Microsoft Excel, Notepad++, Nginx, Apache, Subversion (SVN), TortoiseSVN, Redmine
Paradigms
Database Design, Unit Testing, Minimum Viable Product, Model View Controller (MVC), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Object-oriented Design (OOD), Test-driven Development (TDD), Metaprogramming, Agile Software Development, Scrum, Design Patterns, Software Testing
Platforms
Oracle, Linux, DigitalOcean
Storage
Oracle 11g, PostgreSQL, PL/SQL Developer, JSON, Oracle PL/SQL, SQLite
Other
APIs, Lean Startups, Lean Development, Hash, Software Architecture, AJAX, CanCan, Cloudinary, Product Development, Payment Gateways, Project Management

Education

Master's degree in Computer Engineering
2007 - 2009
School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade - Belgrade, Serbia
Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering
2003 - 2007
School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade - Belgrade, Serbia