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Nikola Topalovic, Software Developer in Belgrade, Serbia
Nikola Topalovic

Software Developer in Belgrade, Serbia

Member since March 6, 2014
Nikola is an experienced software engineer with a strong math and computer science background. His career spanned different domains and technologies and he can work within the whole spectrum of development, from architectural and programming requirements to deployment, testing, and technical writing.
Nikola is now available for hire
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Portfolio

Experience

  • Ruby, 5 years
  • Ruby on Rails (RoR), 4 years
  • JavaScript, 3 years
  • Objective-C, 3 years
  • Clojure, 1 year

Location

Belgrade, Serbia

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, Mac OS X, Emacs, Git, Zsh

The most amazing...

...project I've built is a virtual data room platform for collaborative work on highly confidential documents.

Employment

  • Senior Software Developer

    2012 - 2014
    InterVenture GmbH - DRS
    • Performed core technology development including analysis, design, coding, and testing.
    • Developed a service-oriented system for secure, high-speed document exchange.
    • Redesigned and refactored parts of the previous platform.
    • Built authentication libraries, hypermedia-aware APIs and clients, and other auxiliary tools.
    • Created and maintained a robust test suite by practicing TDD.
    • Produced specifications, documentation, and tutorials.
    • Provided guidance during the development of the iOS client.
    • Conducted technical interviews and code reviews, and provided mentorship to a team of developers.
    Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, AngularJS, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, RSpec, Git

  • Senior Software Developer

    2011 - 2012
    nSphere Inc.
    • Designed and implemented RESTful APIs for a mobile survey platform.
    • Developed and maintained a platform back-end for content creation and administration.
    • Integrated a platform with various cloud services and third party APIs, including Amazon S3, PayPal, New Relic, and Mongolab.
    • Built and maintained a test suite using RSpec and Cucumber.
    • Provided guidance during the development of the iOS survey app.
    • Conducted technical interviews.
    Technologies: Ruby on Rails, MongoDB, CoffeeScript, RSpec, Cucumber, Objective-C, Git, Heroku

  • Lead Software Developer

    2009 - 2011
    m2e Consulting Engineers - EuroICC
    • Led a small team to develop m2e's enterprise mobile applications and web services.
    • Developed advanced prototypes of iOS-based inspection software, both stand-alone and client/server.
    • Built iOS components for on-device report generation with multimedia and hand signature support.
    • Programmed an iOS app to simulate an advanced chronometer with tidal conditions and forecasting.
    • Created a web-based information system for an exclusive hotel and resort chain.
    • Designed and implemented a compiler front-end for Ladder Diagrams, and integrated it into an existing Java/SWT development tool.
    • Conducted technical interviews and code reviews, and provided mentorship to a team of developers.
    Technologies: Objective-C, Java SE, Ruby, PHP, MySQL, SQLite, Mercurial

  • Freelance Consultant

    2006 - 2009
    Nikola Topalovic
    • Managed my own clients, working on several smaller solo and team projects.
    • Developed and deployed web crawlers utilizing Ruby, Mechanize, Capybara, PhantomJS.
    • Built an eCommerce website using Magento, handling both back-end and front-end development.
    • Designed an API in Ruby/Grape and an accompanying test suite for a recruiting platform as a consultant developer.
    Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, PHP, PostgreSQL, MySQL

  • Lead Web Developer

    2007 - 2008
    NovaPoint - Mantacore Spearhead
    • Led a small team to develop a dating portal from conception to successful product deployment and post-launch maintenance.
    • Contributed to core back-end development, search optimization, testing, and deployment.
    Technologies: PHP, MySQL, Sphinx, jQuery, SVN

  • Developer and Technical Writer

    2003 - 2005
    mikroElektronika
    • Oversaw the company's online presence, including website implementation, content, design, maintenance, and integration with third party APIs.
    • Produced most of the company's technical documentation, including specs and manuals for compilers, breadboards, and programmers.
    • Provided testing, translation, and branding support for company's major software projects, including compilers and IDEs.
    • Translated several technical e-books on microcontrollers and electronics into English.
    • Introduced and maintained company's online forums and provided tech support.
    Technologies: C, Pascal, Delphi, Assembly, PHP, MySQL

Experience

  • DRS - Virtual Data Rooms platform (Development)

    A platform for collaborative work on confidential documents that with tight security and control.

  • Scuddle - Social Recruiting Platform (Development)

    Designed the first version of the platform API and a matching test suite as a consultant developer.

  • Ladder Logic Compiler (Development)

    Designed and implemented the compiler front-end for Ladder Logic used in building automation, with a comprehensive test suite; prototyped in Ruby, rewritten in Java for integration into larger Java/SWT environment.

  • iOS Inspection Software (Development)

    Developed full-featured iOS components for on-device report generation with template-based formatting and embedded multimedia with drawing, marking, and hand signature capabilities.

  • Toptal Mentor
    Nikola is a mentor in the Toptal Global Mentor’s Program. This program is a partnership between Toptal and General Assembly to provide high quality mentorship for students from minority and low income backgrounds who are looking to begin their careers as professional software engineers. Nikola shows commitment to diversity in tech by mentoring a General Assembly student every week for a year, covering everything from coding tips and tricks to advice on making it in the industry.

Skills

  • Languages

    Ruby, C++, Java, JavaScript, UML, Objective-C, C, SQL, Clojure, PHP, R, CSS, HTML

  • Frameworks

    Sinatra, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Grape, Capybara, AngularJS, Bootstrap

  • Libraries/APIs

    React, jQuery, Devise, AMQP, AngularUI

  • Tools

    RSpec, Git, Emacs, Nginx, Subversion (SVN), Xcode, Apache, Capistrano, ANTLR, Adobe Photoshop, Jenkins, Mercurial, IntelliJ IDEA, LibreOffice, Cucumber, Microsoft Office, LaTeX, JFlex

  • Paradigms

    Model View Controller (MVC), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), REST, Agile Software Development, Functional Programming, Test-driven Development (TDD)

  • Other

    Back-end, Front-end Development, Unix Shell Scripting, Cryptography

  • Platforms

    MacOS, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), iOS

  • Storage

    MySQL, PostgreSQL, Sphinx Search Engine, SQLite, Memcached, Redis, MongoDB

Education

  • Master's degree in Computer Engineering
    2013 - 2014
    School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade - Belgrade, Serbia

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