Software Crafter

Ibrahim Šuta

Building for the web since 2005, when I was just starting high school, and shipping dependable .NET products since 2013. Also, yes, I am older than I look.

Most engineers want to either architect or code. I like doing both — sketching the system on a whiteboard, then building it until it's running in production. Somewhere along the way I also became the person who asks the uncomfortable scope questions nobody wants to answer.

Most of my work lives in ASP.NET Core, C#, Blazor, and modern cloud tooling. I especially love building fresh platforms with founders and product teams, while still enjoying the occasional legacy system untangle.

With AI agents, language choice can be more flexible than before, but I still prefer C# and .NET so I can validate, verify, and confirm the code is truly optimal.

Product engagements

12+ teams

I've been the go-to engineer for a dozen product teams.

Launches delivered

50+ releases

From first commit to production, across SaaS, marketplaces, and internal tools.

Launch velocity

6–10 weeks

From "okay, we know what we're building" to live.

View projects

About

I care about the code I ship

I help founders and engineering leaders turn ambitious .NET roadmaps into maintainable software. That means digging into the architecture, writing the critical code, and keeping releases predictable.

Snapshot

Twenty years of building software, and the lesson that stuck: move fast, but don't break what's already working. I've done greenfield builds, full platform rebuilds, and a few "this needs to ship yesterday" rescues across SaaS, marketplaces, finance, and field services.

I stay hands-on with architecture, code, and devops because handoff chains lose context. One person who understands the whole picture just works better.

Over the years I've built up a library of templates and starter packages that give new projects a real head start without cutting corners.

How I work with AI

I've been using AI tools daily for about four years now — ChatGPT, Codex, Claude, GitHub Copilot. I've been on paid tiers since the early Codex and Claude Code previews.

For production code, I review everything an AI generates before it gets anywhere near users. Architecture decisions, risk boundaries, and release quality stay under my own judgment.

For smaller tools and scripts, I still read the code properly. I test the important flows and cross-check with at least two different AI tools before calling it done.

How I work

I spend time upfront understanding what we're actually building and why — unclear scope is the most expensive kind of technical debt, and I've learned that the hard way.
I build in small, working increments with strong tests and observability from day one. No "we'll add monitoring later" — later never comes.
I own the full pipeline: CI/CD, infrastructure, production readiness. The goal is that launch day is uneventful — the boring kind.

Recent focus

Rebuilding a twenty-year-old maintenance platform with Blazor, .NET 9, CQRS, and event-driven scheduling.
Migrating enterprise workloads to Azure while keeping enterprise SLAs and audit compliance intact.
Coaching remote teams on delivery flow, code reviews, and production-first engineering culture.

Toolkit

Highlights of the stack I reach for daily

Backend & APIs

C# / .NET ASP.NET Core Blazor Server CQRS & DDD

Cloud & Data

Azure SQL Server Azure Storage Redis PostgreSQL MongoDB

Front-ends

Angular React Tailwind CSS Bootstrap Material TypeScript

Operations

GitHub Actions Docker Windows Server Mgmt Linux Server Mgmt Octopus Deploy TeamCity

Technical setup

Collapsed by default so only the curious need to peek under the hood.

Operating systems and shells

Daily driver: Omarchy Linux with Hyprland, Ghostty, and a tailored Zsh toolkit that keeps everything within reach.

Secondary: Windows 11 for deep Visual Studio sessions, system diagnostics, and cross-environment QA with a PowerShell + Oh My Posh workflow.

macOS (M-series) steps in whenever native builds, iOS checks, or polished media exports are in order.

Favorite tools and IDEs

Visual Studio and JetBrains Rider for the heavy lifting, VS Code for quick iterations, and Azure Data Studio alongside DataGrip for data spelunking.

Extras I reach for daily: wayscriber (400+ stars), PowerToys, Oh My Posh, and a collection of observability dashboards that keep releases boring.

Hardware and workspace

Primary workstation: high-end desktop with 128 GB RAM, NVMe storage, and calibrated dual 4K panels tuned for long delivery windows.

Mobile kit: M-series MacBook Pro plus a travel-ready Windows machine, all encrypted end-to-end with BitLocker and LUKS.

Dedicated studio with pro audio/video, ergonomic peripherals, and controlled lighting keeps workshops and client sessions crisp.

Connectivity and failover

Low-latency fiber handles the day-to-day, backed by automatic LTE failover so transatlantic calls stay smooth.

Mesh Wi-Fi and remote power control keep infrastructure reachable mid-travel or during outages.

Experience

Shipping web software since 2005; 12+ years leading full-stack delivery

A snapshot of the roles where I partnered with teams to design architecture, write the hard pieces, and take responsibility for production outcomes.

Software Architect & Consultant

Freelance

Dec 2015 – Present

Hands-on partner for 12+ MVPs and platform rebuilds across SaaS, marketplaces, and enterprise.

.NET Core ASP.NET Core Azure SignalR Entity Framework

12+ MVPs and large-scale rebuilds where I was the single accountable person for architecture and delivery.
Most of these went from "let's do this" to production in weeks — because I own scope, CI/CD, and infrastructure end-to-end.
Remote teams can drift without structure, so I run structured reviews, pairing sessions, and shared standards.
The tricky part of .NET 4.7 → .NET Core migrations isn't the code — it's keeping production users online while you swap the engine underneath.

Senior Software Engineer

Toptal

Mar 2018 – Present

Trusted by fintech, telecom, and SaaS clients to own high-impact releases through Toptal.

.NET Core ASP.NET Core API Integrations Enterprise delivery

Enterprise releases for Fortune 500 and hyper-growth startups — the expectations are different, but the discipline is the same.
Working across CET and US time zones means being deliberate about handoffs — I keep roadmaps moving despite the clock gap.
I sit between product, UX, and QA so nothing stalls — planning, estimating, and unblocking is half the actual work.
Clients keep coming back. That's the metric I care about most.

Senior Software Engineer

Insurance company

2020 – 2022

Owned the partner API layer powering policy onboarding and operations.

.NET Core Partner APIs Observability

Dozens of carrier integrations — each one with its own quirks, so resilient retry and monitoring weren't optional.
Took new partner integrations from initial discovery calls all the way to production sign-off.
Replaced brittle manual checks with automated validation harnesses — the kind of work that only pays off after you stop getting paged at 2 AM.
Cleaned up legacy code paths so policy onboarding actually made sense to the next person reading it.

Software Architect & Senior Engineer

T-Systems International · Deutsche Telekom

2019 – 2020

Led Deutsche Telekom’s migration from legacy .NET to modern cloud-native architecture.

Azure ASP.NET Core IdentityServer Angular

Migrated mission-critical systems from .NET 4.7 to .NET Core 2.2 → 3.1 with zero downtime.
Architected Azure environments, pipelines, and monitoring for every stage of delivery.
Implemented IdentityServer-based SSO wired into Angular front-ends and corporate identity providers.
Partnered with distributed teams to keep a global release plan aligned.

Software Engineer

Symphony.is

Sep 2016 – Dec 2017

Shipped SPAs and desktop tooling for venture-backed startups.

React AngularJS TypeScript Electron

Delivered configurable web applications and automation tooling end-to-end.
Introduced scalable TypeScript patterns to stabilise fast-moving interfaces.
Mentored engineers while implementing payment flows and CI/CD automation.
Built cross-platform Electron routines to replace manual QA processes.

Software Engineer

Maestral Solutions

May 2015 – Sep 2016

Led a six-person ASP.NET MVC team serving global clients.

ASP.NET MVC Web API Azure TeamCity Octopus Deploy

Delivered enterprise ASP.NET MVC platforms with a team of six engineers.
Supported hiring, onboarding, and mentoring to scale the team’s capabilities.
Implemented Azure-hosted CI/CD pipelines via TeamCity and Octopus Deploy.
Improved performance for multi-million record datasets while hardening production monitoring.

Earlier roles

2005 – 2015

Authority Partners, Various Clients, and self-directed ventures.

Authority Partners · Software Developer (2013 – 2015)

Delivered full-stack features for distributed loan-processing platforms.
Modernised AngularJS stacks with TypeScript and automated testing.
Coordinated integrations with 15+ banking and third-party services.

Independent consultant & administrator (2011 – 2015)

Delivered bespoke desktop and web software in C#, JavaScript, and PHP.
Maintained mission-critical gaming platforms, Linux infrastructure, and backups.
Provided 24/7 patching and incident response for hosted services.

Founder · Mobile web portal (2005 – 2008)

Bootstrapped a community portal reaching 100k+ monthly visits.
Implemented chat, forums, leaderboards, ads, referrals, and premium downloads.
Handled UX, engineering, hosting, and monetisation end-to-end.

Projects

Selected client work

Case studies that show how I approach architecture, delivery, and long-term stewardship. Expand any item to see the detail.

Published in the open

Wayscriber · 400+ stars · 30+ releases

Maintenance & Repair Services Platform

Architect & Solo Developer

Modernised a 20-year-old operations system into a cloud-first, multi-tenant product.

.NET 9 Blazor Server CQRS Multi-tenant

Replaced a legacy system with 500k+ lines of modern C# spanning scheduling, billing, and work-order domains.
Held sub-50ms core latency and 99.9% uptime while shipping new capability weekly.
Designed domain-driven modules with CQRS and event-driven automation, including thousands of recurring maintenance tasks.
Owned architecture, implementation, and production operations as the single accountable engineer.

Veridos Digital Identity

Senior Software Engineer

Rebuilt government identity issuance services onto a modern .NET + Camunda stack.

.NET Core Camunda BPM IdentityServer Angular

Reimplemented backend services from scratch with Camunda process orchestration.
Launched IdentityServer-based authentication for multi-tenant government workflows.
Delivered integration and performance test suites that guard every release.
Coordinated cross-functional teams to align process models, UI, and API contracts.

Deutsche Telekom Cloud Migration

Team Lead & Consultant

Migrated an enterprise platform to modern ASP.NET Core and Azure without downtime.

Azure ASP.NET Core IdentityServer DevOps

Eliminated legacy .NET 4.7 technical debt across the platform, achieving zero-downtime migration to .NET Core 3.1 and cutting CI build times by over 40%.
Delivered a fully automated Azure deployment pipeline that reduced release cycles from weeks to same-day, covering dev through production stages.
Unified authentication across five internal apps and corporate identity providers via IdentityServer, reducing login support tickets significantly.
Established cross-team quality gates and rollback playbooks that kept a multi-country release on schedule with zero production incidents.

Experience Tracker Product Line

Team Lead

Digital evidence management for police departments, complete with barcode tracking.

Evidence management Barcode tracking Team leadership

Built barcode tracking, evidence logs, and digital submission workflows end-to-end.
Led a six-person team through discovery, delivery, and multi-agency rollout.
Evolved a bespoke solution into a configurable product family adopted by additional departments.
Ran pairing, code reviews, and guild sessions to level up the wider engineering team.

Wayscriber

Creator & Maintainer

Open-source ZoomIt-style screen annotation for Linux Wayland compositors.

Rust Wayland Iced UI Hyprland AUR Ubuntu Fedora

Built a zero-latency drawing engine in Rust with GPU-accelerated overlays that stay synced across multi-monitor Wayland setups.
Expanded ZoomIt-style tooling with built-in zoom and callouts, undo/redo, shapes, text, highlight, and whiteboard/blackboard modes.
Shipped a TOML-powered config and native configurator with live hotkeys, session persistence, and tray/daemon controls.
Published Arch Linux AUR packages plus Ubuntu and Fedora builds, with systemd user services for one-command installs.

Visit wayscriber.com View on GitHub

LiveGames Real-Time Platform

Architect & Developer

SignalR-powered dueling, tournaments, and leaderboards for browser-based games.

SignalR Blazor Real-time gaming

Delivered low-latency gameplay with SignalR, handling matchmaking, scoring, and spectating.
Implemented tournaments, ranking ladders, and global/per-game leaderboards.
Added moderation tooling, anti-cheat checks, and live analytics dashboards.

More selected work

Side products & collaborations

A sampling of additional products shipped over the years.

Talk2Text

Architect & Developer

Offline speech-recognition suite for journalists across iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Delivered native apps sharing a common transcription engine and secure vocabulary sync.
Implemented multiple speech engines for high-accuracy dictation in noisy environments.
Provided offline workflows so sensitive interviews never leave the device.

LinguLite

Architect & Developer

Blazor-powered language-learning platform with a focus on Bosnian.

Built dual modes for structured learning and native-speaker validation.
Designed modular practice flows covering grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Shipped a responsive UI so lessons work equally well on desktop and mobile.

The Manager

Architect & Developer

Family productivity and grade-tracking hub built on ASP.NET Core.

Organised schedules, chores, and reminders for every member of the household.
Tracked academic performance with per-child grade dashboards.
Implemented responsive layouts and role-based access for parents and kids.

Discord Ops Bot

Architect & Developer

.NET Core automation that keeps large Discord communities on track.

Automated moderation commands for warnings, mutes, bans, and escalation logs.
Aggregated curated news feeds with deduping and per-channel routing.
Surfaced uptime and health insights so on-call moderators could react quickly.

VetManager

Architect & Developer

Practice management suite for veterinary clinics.

Centralised patient records, treatment history, and follow-up plans.
Handled appointment scheduling, billing, and payment reminders.
Tracked medication inventory with low-stock alerts and supplier insights.

Project archive

Legacy engagements & personal builds

Earlier platforms and experiments that shaped how I work today.

Mobile Web Portal

Owner & Developer

Chat Forum Mobile Web

Mobile community hub with chat, forums, leaderboards, and curated downloads.

Designed and shipped the portal from scratch, pairing social features with curated content.
Implemented referral, advertising, and download monetisation to sustain hosting costs.
Partnered with other regional portals to cross-promote releases and grow the audience.

Insurance Company

Senior Software Engineer

API Integrations Insurance Partner Ops

Strengthened and extended a busy partner API surface for a European insurer.

Delivered and maintained dozens of external integrations across carriers and brokers.
Refactored brittle code paths, adding observability and automated regression testing.
Raised integration reliability with resilient retry strategies and validation harnesses.

TentCraft Automation Suite

Architect & Developer

Automation Cross-platform Adobe workflows

Desktop toolkit that automates repetitive steps in the custom tent design workflow.

Automated multi-step Illustrator routines, cutting per-job prep time dramatically.
Shipped a cross-platform, self-updating desktop app with a background auto-updater.
Integrated directly with Adobe tooling to keep designers inside their familiar workflow.

CodingBlast Blog

Author & Developer

ASP.NET Core Blazor Angular React

Long-running engineering blog and demo codebase focussed on .NET and modern front-ends.

Published tutorials and architectural deep-dives at codingblast.com.
Demonstrated ASP.NET Core backends paired with Angular, React, and Blazor front-ends.
Used the platform to validate patterns before introducing them on client engagements.

MML · CloudVirga

Full-stack Developer

Mortgage Automation Analytics

Mortgage automation and analytics inside the CloudVirga ecosystem.

Built workflow automation that reduced manual loan processing steps.
Integrated third-party services for credit, income, and compliance checks.
Delivered dashboards surfacing production metrics for operations and leadership.

Cabin

Full-Stack Developer

Reservations Payments Hospitality

Night-bus hospitality platform with dynamic pricing, booking, and operations tooling.

Delivered booking, cancellation, refund, and payment flows ready for launch-day traffic.
Implemented coupon/discount logic and admin tooling for routes, fleets, pricing, and staff.
Shipped production readiness ahead of schedule, including monitoring and runbooks.

RepuGuard

Full-Stack Developer

Social monitoring White-label SaaS

Social reputation monitoring hub with configurable, white-label dashboards.

Unified multiple social feeds into a single command centre for marketing teams.
Delivered a white-label theming system so agencies could resell the platform.
Owned analysis, build, and long-term maintenance, including legacy migrations.

LSI in Fintech

Full-Stack Developer

Windows Forms WPF Fintech

Enterprise desktop software supporting regulated financial services workflows.

Built distributed Windows Forms and WPF applications backed by WCF services.
Handled full-stack delivery, from requirements and modelling to deployment.
Kept latency low and reliability high for traders and analysts working with live data.

Contact

Say hi

Brief projects, deep rebuilds, or a second opinion on your roadmap? Feel free to reach out. Email is fastest, but the form below goes straight to me as well.

Let's connect

ibro [_at_] ibro [_dot_] me

Location

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Availability

Accepting consulting engagements

Elsewhere

GitHub LinkedIn Twitter / X Toptal

Drop a note

Prefer a quick chat? Schedule a call.