About

I'm a backend-focused software engineer with over 20 years of experience designing and building production systems — from high-traffic multi-country platforms serving millions of users, to AI-augmented admin tools and real-time data pipelines.

My core stack is PHP / Laravel, Filament, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and Docker, and I have hands-on experience with message queues (RabbitMQ), observability (Grafana, Prometheus), and cloud infrastructure (AWS ECS, Kubernetes). I've collaborated closely with Vue.js and Nuxt.js frontend teams throughout my career.

Recently, I've been expanding into AI-powered product development — integrating LLMs for content generation, automated translation, and intelligent market reporting. I'm drawn to problems at the intersection of scalable architecture and intelligent automation.

I thrive in international, remote-friendly teams where quality, autonomy, and continuous learning are valued. I believe in clean, testable code, honest communication, and shipping things that actually matter.

Experiences

Sep 2025 – Jun 2026 · Ružomberok, SK

Senior PHP Developer · Famalo s.r.o.

Famalo is a multi-country real estate aggregation platform (HR, SK, CZ, ES and others) built on Laravel, with per-country backend instances and a Nuxt.js frontend.

  • Designed and maintained REST APIs and a Filament-based admin panel for real estate listings, categories, branches, and parameters
  • Integrated AI-powered tooling for automated multilingual content translation and intelligent market reports comparing property values against live market trends
  • Implemented asynchronous worker processes with RabbitMQ for XML feed processing, data imports, and event-driven workflows
  • Managed Apache reverse proxy routing on AWS ECS, directing traffic to correct country-specific backend services
  • Maintained relational data models in PostgreSQL 17, including cross-country multi-database setups
  • Worked with geospatial data in PostgreSQL using PostGIS — location-based property search and proximity queries
  • Handled localisation workflows across 5+ countries using Tolgee; integrated Thumbor for on-demand image processing

PHP 8.x · Laravel · Filament · PostgreSQL 17 · Redis · RabbitMQ · Thumbor · Tolgee · Apache · Docker · AWS ECS · Nuxt.js

Oct 2018 – Sep 2025 · Žilina, SK

Senior PHP Developer · Hyperia s.r.o.

Hyperia operates kimbino.sk and its counterparts in 50+ countries — a high-traffic leaflet discovery platform with millions of users globally.

  • Led backend development on a Yii2-based platform serving users across 50+ countries
  • Designed and maintained REST APIs consumed by Vue.js frontend teams
  • Built asynchronous microservices using RabbitMQ to automate the full leaflet lifecycle: downloading, conversion, preprocessing, and deployment
  • Integrated external APIs to deliver chain branch data worldwide, covering all major retail chains
  • Optimised SQL and MongoDB queries for high-volume, performance-critical workloads
  • Worked with geospatial data in MongoDB — store location indexing and proximity-based leaflet discovery queries
  • Practiced PHPUnit and Codeception testing; maintained internal technical documentation
  • Worked with GitLab CI/CD, Kubernetes, Grafana, Kibana, and Prometheus

PHP 8.2 · Yii2 · MariaDB/MySQL · MongoDB · Redis · RabbitMQ · Docker · GitLab CI/CD · Kubernetes · Grafana · Prometheus

Oct 2015 – Oct 2018 · Poprad, SK

Web Developer · Consumer Finance Holding s.r.o. (→ VÚB Bank)

Built and maintained a comprehensive credit card lifecycle management platform for 50,000+ account holders, later acquired by VÚB Bank (Intesa Sanpaolo Group).

  • Developed approval flows, contract lifecycle management, and a dedicated email dashboard sending 45,000+ emails/month
  • Implemented PDF generation, mail delivery, and archivation pipelines orchestrated via SQL Service Broker queues
  • Contributed to a mortgage loan management platform and a Vue.js-based internal infrastructure documentation system with dependency graphs

PHP · Laravel 5 · MSSQL · JavaScript/jQuery · Vue.js · Bitbucket · Jira

Jan 2004 – Jan 2015 · Liptovský Mikuláš, SK

System Administrator & Web Developer · GDM Slovakia s.r.o.

Long-term role at an international electronics company with sites in Belgium, Slovakia, and Romania.

  • Developed PHP web applications for internal quality management, order tracking, and helpdesk workflows
  • Administered Windows Server and Linux (Debian) infrastructure across three international sites
  • Managed Active Directory, in-house servers, and inter-site networking

PHP · MySQL · Debian Linux · Windows Server 2012

Projects

Personal project · 2024 – present

Laravel · Filament · PostgreSQL · Redis · Docker · Traefik · Dokploy · Resend · OpenAI API

A full-featured tutoring web platform built for my wife's English and mathematics teaching business, targeting adults and corporate clients in Slovakia.

  • Built from the ground up using Laravel + Filament, with a custom enrollment system, placement tests, and AI-generated course content
  • Implemented six interactive question types for placement tests with weighted CEFR scoring
  • Integrated GPT Image 2 for branded AI course thumbnail generation
  • Set up AI-powered course content generation with tailored system prompts
  • Deployed on a Linode VPS using Dokploy, Docker Compose, Traefik reverse proxy, and Let's Encrypt SSL
  • Integrated Resend (transactional email) and Slack notifications; implemented user impersonation for admin support workflows

Hyperia s.r.o. · PHP 8.2 · Yii2 · MongoDB · Redis · RabbitMQ · Kubernetes

A high-traffic leaflet and promotional catalogue discovery platform operating in 50+ countries. Users can browse current deals from major retail chains, filter by category, and find nearby store branches. I spent 7 years on its backend — building microservices, optimising geospatial queries, and automating the full leaflet processing pipeline.

Hyperia s.r.o. · PHP 8.2 · Yii2 · MongoDB · Redis

The Slovak localisation of the Kimbino platform — a leaflet aggregator built on the same backend infrastructure, adapted for Slovak retail chains and user preferences. Part of the same platform I helped build and maintain at Hyperia.

Consumer Finance Holding s.r.o. · PHP · Laravel 5 · MSSQL · Vue.js

Credit card and consumer finance platform for 50,000+ account holders in Slovakia, later acquired by VÚB Bank (Intesa Sanpaolo Group). I built the approval workflows, contract lifecycle management, and email delivery infrastructure — including a dashboard dispatching 45,000+ transactional emails per month.

Philosophy & My Road

Before AI

My path into software began the way most backend engineers of my generation found theirs — gradually, layer by layer. HTML and CSS first, then PHP, JavaScript, jQuery. Each technology added when the previous one was understood well enough to be trusted.

As modern frameworks matured, so did my stack. Laravel replaced raw PHP. Vue.js brought structure to the frontend. But the more I built, the more I noticed that the how of writing code mattered as much as the what. I started investing seriously in design patterns — Dependency Injection, MVC, Builder, Strategy, Facade, Factory — and in the SOLID principles that make large codebases survivable.

Production at scale brought the next layer of complexity: Docker for reproducible environments, Redis and RabbitMQ for asynchronous processing, GitLab CI/CD for reliable deployments, Kubernetes for scaling under pressure. And once systems were running, they needed to be observed — Grafana and Prometheus became part of the daily toolkit. Every technology earned its place by solving a real problem.

After AI

AI changed the game — not by replacing what I'd learned, but by amplifying it. Every principle accumulated over 20 years still applies. The difference is that I now have a consultant available at any hour, one I can discuss architecture with, challenge assumptions against, and use to push into areas where I previously depended on a specialist colleague.

I write skills and agents. I use AI where it genuinely makes sense — content generation, automated translation, intelligent reporting — and I don't use it where it doesn't. The temptation to move faster at the cost of quality is real, and I resist it deliberately. I work incrementally. I review what AI produces the same way I review any code.

The principle I hold onto most: a developer must never finish a month of work and find themselves unable to explain the codebase they just built. Velocity without comprehension is debt in disguise — and after 20 years, I've seen what that debt costs.