Experienced full-stack engineer specializing in front-end with over 10 years of leading teams delivering scalable and maintainable web applications.

Skills

General

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript
  • SQL
  • Microservices
  • Prototyping
  • CSS
  • HTML
  • PHP
  • Progressive Web App (PWA)
  • Single Page App (SPA)
  • Multi Page App (MPA)

Front-end

  • React.js
  • Next.js
  • Vue.js
  • Nuxt.js
  • Ember.js
  • Backbone.js
  • Marionette.js
  • Knockout.js

Back-end

  • Node.js
  • Express.js
  • Sails.js
  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • CodeIgniter

Styling & UI

  • Tailwind
  • SCSS
  • Material UI
  • Chakra UI
  • Ant Design
  • Bootstrap
  • ZURB Foundation

State Management

  • Zustand
  • Recoil
  • Context API
  • Redux
  • React Query
  • SWR
  • Vuex

Cloud & Databases

  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Supabase
  • Redis
  • MongoDB
  • Firebase
  • Cloudflare
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Testing & Observability

  • Jest
  • React Testing Library
  • Mocha
  • Chai
  • Postman
  • Sentry
  • Playwright
  • TestCafe
  • Selenium
  • DataDog
  • Grafana

DevOps & CI/CD

  • Jenkins
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Terraform
  • Webpack
  • Vite
  • Babel
  • Bitbucket Pipelines
  • CircleCI
  • Github Actions
  • Turborepo
  • Yarn workspaces

Work Experience (10)

Jan 2023 - Nov 2024
Senior Staff Software Engineer / Software Architect
Achieve
 Tempe, AZ (remote)
  • Led hands-on technical direction and mentorship across 4 teams (20+ members), increasing engineering velocity to 4x roadmap throughput, accelerating feature delivery and UI consistency across products.
  • Architected and implemented a scalable consumer lifecycle platform, including Auth0-based authentication, and end-to-end support for major company-wide rebranding, delivered 4 sprints early.
  • Drove cross-functional alignment by collaborating with engineering (tooling, platform, Salesforce), design, product, legal, and compliance to deliver high-impact prototypes and documentation, boosting feature delivery by 40%.
Dec 2020 - Dec 2022
Staff Software Engineer / Tech Lead
Achieve
 Tempe, AZ (remote)
  • Architected, developed from scratch, and launched Digital Enrollment Experience by turning a legacy manual business into a scalable digital platform, unlocking $100M+ in new revenue.
  • Orchestrated build-vs-buy analysis, vendor onboarding, and secure integration of 20+ apps to enable co-browsing, enhancing sales workflows, and boosting close rates by 30%.
  • Accelerated team velocity by 25% through streamlined workflows, elevated code review standards, and regular pairing sessions that reinforced a culture of continuous improvement.
Nov 2019 - Dec 2020
Lead Front-End Engineer
GPS Insight
 Scottsdale, AZ
  • Modernized a legacy project by implementing TypeScript/LESS linting, pre-commit hooks, unit tests for React components, CSS post-processing, and optimized asset bundling, resulting in improved code quality and faster build times.
  • Influenced and developed a declarative approach to forms and validation, simplifying development and improving maintainability.
  • Empowered the team towards open-source solutions, enabling them to focus on core domain problems and leading to the successful introduction of the BFF (Back-end For Front-end) pattern.
Jun 2019 - Nov 2019
Senior Software Engineer (L4)
Wayfair
 Boston, MA (remote)
  • Created reusable UI components and back-end infrastructure for unified authentication across all Wayfair brands.
Nov 2017 - Jun 2019
Lead Front-End Engineer
Penske Media (formerly SHE Media)
 Scottsdale, AZ
  • Promoted to a tech lead within 3 months.
  • Lead the development of Prion - CMS front-end client with server-side rendering (Nuxt.js - SSR Vue.js), serving 70M+ unique visitors/month.
  • Lead the front-end development of Kuru – CMS admin (Vue.js).
  • Developed Frisbee – a lightweight, cross-browser data collection library used on over 5000 sites.
  • Developed SK dynamic Swagger client for on-the-fly client generation for all microservices.
  • Developed Publisher Reporting Portal, a self-service platform for publishers to track monetization and ad settings (React, Node).
Apr 2017 - Oct 2017
Senior Node.js Developer
Smart Clinic
 Phoenix, AZ (remote)
  • Developed an integration server that provided a flexible and fast ETL solution for importing and transforming data from third-party clinics.
  • Contributed to MySQL Chassis (FOSS MySQL driver for Node.js).
  • Co-architected the company's mono-repo, improving code sharing and collaboration across teams.
Jun 2014 - Aug 2016
Front-end Team Lead
Direct Focus Online
 Vancouver, BC, CA
  • Developed a component-oriented e-commerce template in 5 days, resulting in a company’s record 14% conversion rate, later extended for use in over 100 projects.
  • Led the hiring and onboarding of 4 developers within one month, mentoring them to become productive in under one week.
  • Developed custom Grunt plugins for rapid and easily maintainable i18n/l10n process, deploying static assets to CDN on AWS, resulting in faster releases.
Jun 2012 - Apr 2016
FE/UI/UX Engineer
Toptal
 San Francisco, CA (remote)
  • Contributed to various projects, including fanattac.com (music social platform), presto-eng.com (semiconductor company), lawfirmmatrix.com (white-label legal software)
Oct 2011 - Feb 2012
SQL Engineer
Nacionalni centar za vanjsko vrednovanje obrazovanja (Croatian government)
 Zagreb, Croatia
  • Oversaw operations of existing database management systems and troubleshot errors
  • Developed new website infrastructure
  • Developed application for school coordination about national exams
Jan 2011 - Oct 2011
Web Developer
Dimedia internet tehnologije d.o.o.
 Zagreb, Croatia
  • Developed complete HTML+CSS+jQuery templates for various websites ranging from simple websites for small, private business to jQuery-heavy solutions such as application for real-estate management
  • Maintained existing websites
  • Estimated time given for the specific projects
  • Blogged for the company's blog
  • Optimized company's website for smartphones

Projects (4)

React Tag Filter Builder
 https://github.com/iamvanja/react-tag-filter-builder
React component to build queries (filters) inspired by GCP filter optimized for keyboard use.
Vee
Mac OS image viewer inspired by Xee written in Swift.
Silver Elite
White label dating app.
Binge Watch Time
 https://binge-watch-time.vercel.app
Movie and TV shows tracking app.

Education (2)

- Current
Master
 Information Technology (major in Architecture of Information Systems)
Polytechnic of Zagreb
- Current
Bachelor
 Information Technology (major in E-business)
Polytechnic of Zagreb

References

Vanja is not only a powerhouse of technical knowledge but also excels at organization and note-taking—his ability to structure and streamline information is unparalleled.
Shweta Shah - Staff Engineer at Achieve
His technical background, communication skills, and willingness to collaborate made him an ideal partner -- and gave each project higher odds of success.
Nathan Broslawsky - SVP, Product, Design, and Engineering at Achieve
In my four years of working together, Vanja has proven to be an exceptional engineer with unparalleled attention to detail and problem-solving skills.
Ahsan Imam - Staff Engineer at Achieve
He was able to blend pragmatism and a sense of urgency into the discussion without sacrificing our longer term aspirations. I was always impressed by his ability to really listen to a wide array of perspectives and quickly paraphrase what was said so people feel heard then proceed to synthesize all of the inputs into a solution that made sense.
Steve Harris - Senior Product Manager at Achieve
The point is Vanja is a wise and experienced leader who could effectively influence the design of a very complex consumer product, and also jump in as a high level individual contributor when necessary, especially in the role of support or mentoring others.
Mac Bubb - Senior Engineer at Achieve
I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t mention just how much FUN it was to work with Vanja. He always had an upbeat attitude and made me feel like no problem was too big or challenging that it couldn’t be solved. He’s a terrific person, collaborator and engineer.
Drew Edwards, Senior Engineer at Achieve