Trucking Hub

In my role as a startup CTO, I'm focused on the following:

- Built a company development department from the ground up.
- Setting up a local office in Belgrade.
- Growing engineering team from 0 to 10+ exceptional talents.
- Owner of the technology vision and roadmap.
- Driving collaboration with external partners.
- Laying the foundations of scaling the technical platform and scaling the teams.
- Establishing and executing technology strategy for delivering the most possible outcome for our customers.
- Growing a healthy, collaborative engineering culture aligned with the company values.
- Driving engineering excellence and ensuring teams are delivering high-quality results.
- Delivering the flagship product according to expectations.
- Ensuring the product roadmap is well thought out and feasible for each team.
- Understanding the teams’ impediments and removing them.
- Defining clear career (progression) paths.
- Regular 1:1 meetings.
- Helping people grow and progress in their careers.
- Regular, constructive performance feedback.
- Conducting performance and salary reviews.
- Ensuring that individuals are energized and motivated by their work.
- Organizing training management.
- Solution architecture.
- Introduction of DevOps mindset.
- Implementation of .NET/Azure solutions / PoCs.
- Administration of Azure/Azure DevOps.
- Definition of QA procedures.

Chief Technology Officer

Tech World With Milan

I help engineers, managers, and architects build great careers, products, and teams.

My articles have been viewed 300M+ times with 400K+ followers on various platforms, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Substack, and Medium.

Join my free newsletter:

Author

First Principles Consultancy

I provide coaching services for engineering leaders and engineers, including interviewing, management, organizational structure, leading teams, and career development.

In particular:

- Architecture consulting: I help companies design robust, cloud-based solutions that grow efficiently. I do audits, design reviews, and on-demand troubleshooting.

- Leadership & management coaching: I guide new and seasoned tech leaders in building and managing high-performing teams. I also coach on delegation, feedback culture, conflict resolution, and more.

- Team mentorship & training: I provide customized training sessions on coding best practices, engineering standards, DevOps, and Agile methods and mentor teams on personal growth and collaboration.

- Organizational design & culture: I advise on setting up engineering structures, processes, and a culture that fosters openness, innovation, and continuous learning.

- Product strategy: I collaborate with product teams to clarify priorities, set achievable milestones, and align tech choices with business goals.

 - Workshops & Masterclasses: I host events on topics such as “Transitioning from Engineer to Leader,” “Cloud Architecture Fundamentals,” “Building a Resilient Engineering Culture”, and more.

Also, I serve as a fractional CTO or tech advisor for select companies.

📩 DM me for more details.

Engineering Leadership Coach

3MD Studio

We partner with businesses to transform their ideas into scalable, high-quality software solutions. Combining your industry expertise with our technical know-how, we build reliable, efficient products while you focus on growing your business. 

My role is:
- Recruiting and working with a talent network
- Line management of 10+ employees, stakeholder, and vendor management
- Overseeing product and service offerings
- Delivery leadership & project management of mission-critical projects
- Managing and maintaining relationships with C-Level Management
- Ensuring that the quality of delivery of projects stays on a high level
- Troubleshooting and problem management to ensure the desired outcome
- Cultivating a strong company and leadership culture
- Ensuring compliance with industry regulations
- Software Architecture, Cloud & Consulting topics

Interim CEO

Zühlke Group

Worked on different projects with various clients, from small startups to large international and Big Tech companies.

Accomplishments:

- Completed responsibilities as a thought leader with expertise in Software and solution architecture, .NET, Azure, and Cloud.
- Acquired a thorough understanding of the ecosystems and fundamental guiding principles of software development.
- Supported the Zühlke Community and promoted a productive workplace where team members inspire one another. shared use cases, frequently ran technical training, and generated materials to support ongoing professional development.
- Increased social media traffic and digital exposure by attending conferences and writing articles for LinkedIn, blogs, magazines, and portals.
- Offered customized mentoring for team members, sharing important industry insights to produce deeper comprehension and considerably increase overall skill efficiency while taking on projects.

Worked on customer projects as a Software/Solution Architect and team lead in distributed teams with Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the UK, and Singapore. My responsibilities include:

- Creating the IT architectures for cutting-edge, ground-breaking software solutions and giving all clients high-level strategic advice.
- Cloud architecture (Azure).
- DevOps.
- Requirements engineering.
- Code reviews.
- Different roles in internal organization.
- Coaching less experienced colleagues/mentoring.
- Conducting technical interviews.

Customer projects:

- Advanced speech recognition engine (FAANG company): Speech-to-text recognition engine in the Cloud. Tech stack: SAFe, .NET, Azure, Azure DevOps, WCF, SQL Server.

Principal Consultant

Accomplishments:

- Built and led a group-wide Azure and AWS teams (CoP) for the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Singapore with 170+ people, enabling regular meetings and knowledge exchange.

- Built and led a local Cloud topic group (CoP) for Serbia, Bulgaria, and Portugal with 150+ people, certified 20+ people for Azure and AWS, set it up from the ground up, and created group-wide Azure and AWS teams with 170+ people.

My responsibilities included:
- Defining group mission and goals.
- Defining collaboration and communication channels.
- Organizing topic group events and internal organization.
- Sharing knowledge internally and externally.
- Defining tools to be used for communication and knowledge sharing.
- Engaging in regular communication with team members and others.
- Driving Cloud topic towards capability.
- Maintain relations with other cloud capabilities on the group level.
- Job profile definition with HR.
- Searching for the right people.
- Conducting technical interviews.

Group Cloud Capability Lead

Accomplishments:

- Recieved an overall score of 3.6/4 from peers.
- Got good feedback overall.

People management:
- Helping people grow and progress in their careers;
- Regular 1:1 meetings;
- Coaching and mentoring;
- Performance appraisal and feedback;
- Regular, constructive performance feedback
- Evaluations, defining goals, OKR & SMART Objectives;
- Mediation and conflict resolution;
- Defining job profiles;

Team Lead / Engineering Manager

Accomplishments:
- Led a team of developers from the Belgrade side in a distributed setup with Switzerland colleagues.
- Enabled successful project distribution for a major client.
- Led Thought Leadership initiative for ZRS.
- Given multiple talks/workshops on different topics (architecture, cloud, testing, clean code, mentoring, goals, etc.).

Worked on customer projects as part of a distributed .NET DEV team with Switzerland and Singaporean colleagues. My responsibilities included:
- Team architect.
- Team lead (Beg).
- Requirement engineering.
- Code reviews.
- Coaching/mentoring.
- Software/solution architecture, design, testing and implementation.
- Conducting technical interviews.

Customer projects:
- Integrated investment advisory platform for relationship managers of a private bank. Tech stack: Javascript/TypeScript, C#/.NET, SQL Server, Entity Framework, Stored procedures, AngularX, RxJS, ngrx, Log4net, Jobbr. The biggest account and project in Zuhlke Group: 50+ people, 1mil+ LOC.

Lead Software Architect

Worked on customer projects as part of a distributed .NET DEV team with Switzerland and Singaporean colleagues. My responsibilities included:
- Software architecture, design, testing, and implementation.
- Preparing bids for projects from the technical side.
- Conducting technical interviews.

Customer projects:
- Insurance Portal for Corporate Customers. Tech stack: C#, ASP.NET MVC/Core/Web-API, Entity Framework, IdentityServer3, SQL Server Integration Services, RavenDB, Kendo UI, TypeScript, LESS, TFS. (November 2017.-June 2018.). 600k+ LOC.
- GUI for Media Processing System. Tech stack: WPF, MVVM, C#, Feature-Based, FluentAPI, MVVMLight, ReFit, Aspose, SourceAFIS. (June 2018. - September 2018.)

Expert Software Engineer

I operated as an independent software development expert, architect, mentor, trainer, and programmer. 

As I have done in previous roles, I’m assisting my international clients in modernizing their software development. I am at my best working with projects and teams that need a boost in collaboration, performance, and technology. 

Some examples of my work include:

- As an agile coach, I turn around organizations from traditional ways of working to Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and continuous delivery. 
- As a career coach, I guide engineers, engineering managers, tech leads, etc.
- As a Fractional CTO, I implement new technologies in organizations, such as software architectures, modern modeling tooling, RESTful services, APIs, C#/.NET, functional programming, and Cloud technologies, such as Azure and Azure DevOps.
- As an architecture coach, I help organizations restructure unmaintainable legacy code bases to new, flexible, and tested software architectures.
- As a software architect, I create front-end and back-end frameworks and code using HTML5/CCS3, Bootstrap, Angular, C#, .NET, ASP.NET MVC, Xamarin, and WPF.
- As a mentor and teacher, I present seminars and (in-house) training courses on a variety of topics such as  Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Software Development, Software Architecture, Microservices, Continuous Delivery, Design Patterns, Domain-Driven Design, Modeling and UML, Clean Code, .NET, and Testing.

Independent Consultant, Owner

Electric Power Industry of Serbia

Accomplishments:

I led an organization of 40+ people who worked on the development of different software solutions by using Microsoft and Java-based, as well as some legacy tech stacks. Some of the applications we implemented are:

• Vehicle maintenance management system (Web - 100+ users).
• Procurement solution includes elements of the plan to implement procurement, contracts, etc. (Web - 500+ users).
• Project management team member for SAP ERP implementation, acting as an internal auditor (June 2014.  - December 2015.).
• Oracle UCM - document management system (support lead).

I was responsible for:
• Leading main software implementation projects.
• People management of 40+ people.
• Helping people grow and progress in their careers 
• Regular, constructive performance feedback
• Harmonising engineering processes, driving consistent standards and approaches throughout the team.
• Product development.
• Keeping the team updated with the latest software development technologies and methodologies.
• Coaching the team on agile software development best practices. 
• Developing short and long-term strategies for the team to meet the company's goals and objectives. Planning and monitoring the successful implementation of this strategy.
• Teaching and training software developers, organizing courses, etc.
• Overseeing internal product development.
• Supervising other software projects.
• Defining implementation times and deadlines (for development and support).
• Leading technical support.
• Defining new internal organizational structure.
• Internal staff recruiting.
• Planning and tracking procurements for a department.
• Management of the commission for the company's inventory of concessions, intellectual property, and software.
• I administered and configured the SQL Server 2008/2014 (backup, migrations, maintenance), Team Foundation Server, and Application Server (IIS).
• Management of company's internal portal and website.

Head of Engineering

Built and led a department from the ground up, hiring people, setting up processes, technology, etc.

Software architect and a team leader for software engineers developing ERP-based applications using .NET stack and also:

• Built a team of developers and business analysts from 0 to 10+ people.
• Defined standards, tools and processes that were used for solution development within company.
• Line management.
• Teaching and training software developers, organizing courses, etc.
• Design of the solutions architecture.
• Framework design.
• Product development management.
• Defining new internal organizational structure.
• Internal staff recruiting.
• Scrum Master.

Implemented projects by using .NET technology stack: 
• Materials management (Web - 400+ users)
• Asset management (Web - 300+ users)
• Invoicing (Web - 10+ users)

Head of Software Development Department

Senior software engineer and a team leader for following implemented projects (.NET stack):
• Storehouse calculation distributed application (Desktop), architecture and implementation (ASP.NET + C# + TFS + MS SQL Server).
• SQL Server Integration Services-based data migration from legacy system.
•  Administration and configuration of SQL Server 2008 (backup, migrations, maintenance), Team Foundation Server and IIS.
• Creation of procedures for data backup, programming style, user requirements form, etc.

Senior Software Engineer and Team Leader

Software developer for following projects (Java stack):
• Invoicing (Eclipse + EJB3 + Hibernate + Spring framework + Acegi Security + Struts 2 + JUnit 4 + JMock + JFreeChart + JasperReports + SVN + JIRA + Patterns).
• ArchiDoc Web Document Management System (Netbeans + EJB2 + Struts + JSP + JUnit 3 + Patterns).
• Other projects ( CMS for Web portal & CD presentation, E-commerce Web site implementation in PHP/MySQL,...) .
 • Teaching and training software developers, organizing courses, etc. Held Java course for 40 software developers (Basic, Advanced, Web, J2EE). Duration: one year.
 • Consultant for various Java projects.

Software Engineer

GOOD OLD AI Research Network

- I worked as a researcher during post-graduate studies in modeling and metamodeling, model transformations, rule languages, and business models. 

- Published 20+ papers in international conferences and journals and received awards for best papers. 

- Involved in international conferences and journals as an editorial board member, program chair, reviewer, and program committee member. 

- Cited 450+ times.

- Google Scholar h-index: 11.

- Member of ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, and GOAI Research group.

Researcher

Abell Soft

Implemented projects:
• E-Store application for on-line selling of books in PHP/MySQL. 
 • Complete code and design of a business packages FinanceBusiness for small and medium companies in Microsoft Visual C++, using MFC, Win32, PHP and MS Access (DAO, ODBC). 
 • Coded, designed and managed multiple web sites using HTML, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, visual editors like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft FrontPage so as other graphical tools. 
 • Active IT System consulting for large number of companies.

Junior Software Developer

Municipality of Lajkovac

System Administrator

Chief Roadblock Remover and Learning Enabler | Software Development Expert | Leadership & Career Coach | Speaker | Author | Building great products, building great teams!

🎯 I'm a result-driven 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁, 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵, 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 with 20 years of professional experience in different domains, including the 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆, 𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿, 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼. 

🚀 My mission is to provide 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 focused on architecture, the best agile practices, passionately 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 to deliver innovative, 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀, working closely with customers and developing software products on different platforms.

🎓 As a 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿, I published 20+ papers and book chapters in international conferences and journals (having more than 440+ citations and h-index 11 on Google Scholar), obtaining 𝗣𝗵.𝗗. 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀. Also, I have been involved as a 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿—member of ACM, the IEEE Computer Society, and GOAI Research group. 

🧑‍💼 I work as a professional 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 for people in engineering leadership positions.

✍🏻 Additionally, I am a 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿, who helps more than 400,000 engineers, managers, and architects to build great careers, products, and teams through various platforms and channels.

𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲:

📌 Leadership
📌 Team building
📌 Making things efficient
📌 Creating self-contained systems
📌 Be highly organized and make others too
📌 Focus on strategy/goals
📌 Make things happen
📌 Career Coaching
📌 Mentoring
📌 Line management
📌 Effective client communication
📌 Software Architecture
📌 DevOps mindset
📌 Cloud (Azure)
📌 .NET/C# (ASP.NET/WPF)
📌 SQL Server/NoSQL
📌 Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe)
📌 Product/project management

📲 Feel free to contact me here via LinkedIn (DM)!

Dr Milan Milanović

LinkedIn today - everyone is a 25-year-old senior software architect

We have people with 0-1 year of experience who write about software engineering, architecture, and more.

They have yet to see or work with most of this stuff.

I started writing with 20 years of experience in roles ranging from software engineer to architect and consultant, 30+ projects, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Still, I was unsure if my writing would be valuable enough for readers.

When you start following someone, check their credibility outside LinkedIn and other social networks first. Do they have the credibility to talk about this? 

I know this because many people copied my work, style, and topics. The latter is harder to catch, but it is wrong. This is not the right address to follow if someone doesn't talk from their own experience.

LinkedIn is not real life! It is an abstraction, and it can be very elusive.

Chief Roadblock Remover and Learning Enabler | Helping 400K+ engineers and leaders grow through better software, teams & careers | Author | Speaker | Leadership & Career Coach

Don't worry. There will be a place for everyone.

Learn AI and use it as your leverage to improve your work.

𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱.

You can learn from experts by working with them or by reading their work. Books scale better.

Here are 30 books organized by what they'll help you master.

𝟭. 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹:
🔹 The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt
🔹 Modern Software Engineering by David Farley
🔹 Code Complete by Steve McConnell
🔹 Grokking Simplicity by Eric Normand
🔹 Software Engineering at Google by Titus Winters

𝟮. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗺𝘀:
🔹 Grokking Algorithms by Aditya Bhargava
🔹 Algorithms by Sanjoy Dasgupta
🔹 The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth
🔹 Data Structures and Algorithms Made Easy by Narasimha Karumanchi
🔹 Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein

𝟯. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀:
🔹 Designing Distributed Systems by Brendan Burns
🔹 Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppmann
🔹 Distributed Systems by Maarten van Steen and Andrew Tanenbaum
🔹 Distributed Algorithms by Nancy Lynch

𝟰. 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀:
🔹 Clean Code by Robert C. Martin
🔹 Design Patterns by Gang of Four
🔹 Refactoring by Martin Fowler
🔹 The Effective Engineer by Edmond Lau
🔹 The Pragmatic Programmer by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt

𝟱. 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮:
🔹 Data Modeling Essentials by Graeme Simsion
🔹 Learning SQL by Alan Beaulieu
🔹 Fundamentals of Data Engineering by Joe Reis and Matt Housley

𝟲. 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗢𝗽𝘀:
🔹 The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim
🔹 Continuous Delivery by Jez Humble and David Farley
🔹 Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren
🔹 Effective DevOps by Jennifer Davis and Ryn Daniels

𝟳. 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴:
🔹 Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman and Nat Pryce
🔹 Unit Testing by Vladimir Khorikov
🔹 Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns by Vladimir Khorikov
🔹 Test Driven Development by Kent Beck
🔹 Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers

𝟴. 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲:
🔹 Software Architecture Patterns by Mark Richards
🔹 Clean Architecture by Robert C. Martin
🔹 Software Architecture: The Hard Parts by Neal Ford and Mark Richards
🔹 Building Microservices by Sam Newman
🔹 Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans

𝟵. 𝗠𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗜:
🔹 The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book by Andriy Burkov
🔹 Designing Machine Learning Systems by Chip Huyen
🔹 AI Engineering by Chip Huyen

𝟭𝟬. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽:
🔹 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
🔹 Drive by Daniel Pink
🔹 The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo
🔹 Radical Candor by Kim Scott

𝟭𝟭. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:
🔹 How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
🔹 Deep Work by Cal Newport
🔹 The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

👉 Subscribe to my newslettter to get curated 100+ Books That Changed My Life mini-book: https://lnkd.in/dnmKdmRp

Having access to smarter people is a blessing, not a threat

Early in my career, I used to feel uncomfortable when surrounded by people who knew more than me.

I worried it exposed my gaps.

But over the years, I’ve learned the opposite is true:
Being surrounded by smarter people is the fastest way to grow.

Here’s why:

𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗿.

You see new standards of thinking, execution, and leadership.

𝟮. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿.

A single conversation can save you weeks of trial and error.

𝟯. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗳𝘀.

When you watch someone solve problems you thought were “impossible,” your own ceiling shifts.

𝟰. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆.

Growth requires admitting what you don’t know—and being willing to learn.

The real threat isn’t being the least experienced person in the room.
The real threat is staying in rooms where you’re the smartest.

So don’t shy away from people who outshine you.
Seek them out.
Learn from them.
And then, pass that knowledge on.

 👉 Who’s someone smarter than you who shaped your growth?

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿

We've all heard the saying, "Practice makes perfect." But when it comes to software engineering, the real growth happens outside of the 9-to-5 grind. 

You can become a good software engineer through daily work assignments and on-the-job experience. 

However, the path to true greatness lies in what you do after work hours.

The harsh reality is that workplace projects often involve constraints, deadlines, and compromises (read Scrum and Jira :). 

You may only sometimes have the luxury to explore cutting-edge technologies, experiment with novel approaches, or dive deep into complex problem-solving. 

This is where your projects and self-driven learning come into play.

After work, you can stretch your skills, explore new territories, and tackle challenges that challenge your curiosity. 

It's an opportunity to learn at your own pace, make mistakes without consequences, and push the boundaries.

So, if you aspire to become a great software engineer, don't limit your growth to the office walls. 

Dedicating time after work to personal projects, contributing to open-source initiatives, attending meetups or conferences, or playing with new languages or libraries is crucial.

Do you agree?

Amazon

Director, Software Development

Senior Software Development Manager

Software Development Manager - SCOT

Sr. Technical Program Manager - GIPA

Amazon Payment Services

As the leader of the global technology function at Amazon Payment Services, I am both passionate about and dedicated to re-imagining digital payments for customers and merchants throughout the Middle East and Africa region. 

My responsibilities encompass tech pre-sales and solutioning, merchant integration, software development (for new and existing products), infrastructure management, technical operations, information security, and data engineering. Additionally, I oversee the technology function responsible for delivering seamless payment products and experiences for Amazon shoppers throughout MEA stores (UAE, KSA, EGY, TR and ZA). 

Together, our aim is to provide simple, affordable, and trusted payment experiences for merchants and customers across the MEA region.

Head of Technology

Direct Energy

Promoted to build and lead 5-member team in designing, developing, and managing decision-support application and tools for front-office trading group, integrating with trading/supply, operations, risk management, pricing/structuring, settlements organizations.

IT Manager - Decision Support Tools, Supply

Extended inward-focused IT capabilities to external customers. Developed capabilities that underpin key business processes within the industry lifecycle including trading, scheduling, asset management and optimization, demand-side response, and settlements. 

* Challenged with building team, processes, and systems to support organic business growth into new market space with demand response management product (multi-million dollar project). 

* Leveraged technology to empower several key, new revenue streams for the business unit.

* Handpicked by senior leadership to course-correct and manage delinquent security appliances workstream of major datacenter migration that had put entire project at significant risk of missing deadlines. 

* Invited to join M&A (and other structured deal) due diligence teams after demonstrating thought leadership in both technology and operations to commercial stakeholders. 

* Updated business continuity program to eliminate operational risk from disruption to business-critical systems.

IT Manager - Digital Marketing, Upstream and Trading

Managed IS development and support function for variety of business-enabling systems across US power markets. Built and directed team of 6 IT professionals.

* Functions Supported include:

   a) ISO Settlements (NEPOOL, NYISO, PJM, CAISO, MISO and ERCOT) / nMarket Allocation  Manager and custom SSRS reports
   b) Scheduling and ISO Trading / nMarket Power
   c) Upstream Power / OSIsoft PI System and various other systems
   d) ERCOT Asset Optimization and 24 Hour Real-Time Trading Desk / nMarket Power
   e) ERCOT Asset Dispatching / OSI Monarch GMS

* Major Initiatives Lead:

- Texas Nodal Market Transition (Go-Live and Post Go-Live Support)
- Generation Management System (GMS) Implementation (Inception to Operations)

* Managed Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery plans for Direct Energy Upstream & Trading

IS Manager - Power Asset Optimization, 24-Hour Real-Time Trading Desk, and Upstream Power

* Developed a 3 year architectural - enterprise message bus centered - vision  for our Upstream and Trading business unit

* Developed a Data Integrity business case for our Upstream and Trading business unit

* Developed an interface for gas pipeline data with Bentek Energy

* Managed a Market Data Service initiative to consolidate Market Data into a single repository

* Managed environments to support our Proprietary Trading applications

* Managed testing environments for the Texas Nodal Initiative and various other initiatives

* Supported Proprietary Trading applications

Senior Analyst - Architecture and Proprietary Trading IS

* Lead the design, implementation and testing of the Trade Capture migration from a Java based API to a FIX based system with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)

* Developed various solution components in Java and TIBCO

* Supported DealCapture and E-Confirm applications

* Developed Retail Credit Risk BI solution to support B2B business better evaluate/assess credit exposure

Senior Analyst - Wholesale/Retail Interface IS

* Provided technical leadership over design, implementation and testing of the SAP HR implementation project, to replace existing PeopleSoft implementation

* Actively participated in the business blueprinting of to-be HR processes, and translating the processes into system functional requirements

* Provided technical leadership over design, implementation and testing of the Canadian Benefits outsourcing project as well as coordinating the Payroll Outsourcing Project 

* Initiated SAP ECC 6.0 upgrade recommendation and laying project foundation

* Lead the testing and training for the Scanning Solution of the Procure-to-Pay project

Senior Analyst - Corporate IS

British Gas

* Led a project to develop an absence management system and managed its deliverables

* Collected the requirements, designed and implemented system using an agile customer centric development methodology

* Successfully sold the system to different areas of the business which is now being rolled out across British Gas Residential IS as well as British Gas Business IS

* Supported and administered the system in production for 100 users, with about 1,000 users being targeted for the short term

*Delivered project benefits estimated to save 0.5 FTE in each of the areas that it is rolled out to

Senior Analyst

* Collected the requirements, designed and implemented a deal capture system to automate energy trade entry from ICE and NGX into the company’s risk management system

* Supported the system in production, providing second level support

* Developed a front end application to the system to make it self-administrative

* Delivered project benefits estimated at: saving 2 FTE, reducing the error entry rate to 0.5% and the Value at risk by $2.5 Million

* Researched Natural Gas storage fundamentals in North America and investigated potential of its use within the Wholesale’s group portfolio

Senior Analyst - IS EMG

Integrated Voice Communications

* Managed the installation of new equipment and periodic updates (both software and hardware)

* Marketed and sold new VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) routes to various international destinations around the globe

* Programmed Cisco Routers and CPM (Computer Protocol Malaysia) voice gateways

* Maintained a set of Windows NT servers and Cisco gateways

* Managed 24/7 customer support (both technical and sales) by email/phone/fax

* Maintained excellent written and verbal communication skills as well as rigorous documentation

* Coordinated with team members in different countries to ensure quality voice service

Founder and Managing Partner

Tech Director at Amazon Payment Services | Follow for posts about Leadership Development and Career Growth | Leadership & Career Mentor | Author Of Leadership in 60 Seconds

I ​am a global technology executive with over 20 years of experience. I am currently Director of Software Engineering at Amazon, leading the Technology function for Payments across the Middle East and Africa. In this role, my aim is to make the payment experience of our merchants (Amazon Payment Services) and customers (Stores) the most simple, affordable, and trusted.

Over my career, I'm honored to have delivered award-winning transformational initiatives that have created competitive advantage, enabled business growth, and exceeded customer expectations.

Known as a forward-thinking problem-solver ― skilled in both business and technology strategy ― I adapt and plan for evolving market needs, delivering initiatives with speed and agility. I am also deeply passionate about building, developing, managing, and leading high-performance teams. A strong communicator and relationship builder, I partner effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and am a trusted advisor within the company.

Ever since I stepped into my first managerial role, more than a decade ago, I quickly realized the profound impact strong leadership has on individuals, teams, and organizations. From that moment, I made it my mission to empower others in their leadership journeys, guiding them to reach new heights in their careers.

In support of this mission, I have developed a community on LinkedIn of over 70K+ like-minded professionals with whom I actively support, engage, and share daily content on leadership, management, and career. I have been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice (Blue Badge) and ranked #1 LinkedIn Arab World Creator in Management and Leadership. 

Outside of work, I am passionate about everything automotive, especially F1 racing (Forza Ferrari!). I enjoy sports in general, both playing and watching. I also have a keen interest in collecting fragrances, working out with a focus on strength training, and all things food—from learning about it and exploring new cuisines to preparing dishes and hosting gatherings. However, my favorite pastime is spending quality time with my family. 

Languages: English 🇺🇸 Arabic 🇱🇧 French 🇫🇷

Omar Halabieh

"My door is always open" is the laziest leadership advice ever.

You think it makes you accessible.
You think it builds trust.
You think people will come to you when they need help.

They won't.

Here's why your open door isn't working:

• People still worry about "interrupting" you
• They don't want to seem needy or incapable
• They can't tell if you're genuinely available or just being polite
• They assume you're too busy for their "small" concerns

The result? Hidden problems. Silent struggles. Missed connection.

Leadership isn’t about waiting for people to walk through your door — it’s about pulling them in.

Here's what actually works:

1. Practice Active Promotion
→ Publicly recognize when someone brings up issues
→ Share how their feedback led to improvements
→ Thank people for trusting you with their concerns

2. Remove Status Barriers
→ Join team events
→ Spend time sitting with the team
→ Show up early to meetings for casual chat

3. Make Personal Connection Explicit
→ "Tell me about your weekend" isn't small talk—it's leadership
→ "How are you handling the workload?" shows you see them as people
→ Share your own struggles to model vulnerability

4. Follow Up Consistently
→ Remember what people tell you
→ Check back on issues they mentioned
→ Take action to show their concerns matter

5. Build Multiple Listening Channels
→ Walk the floor 
→ Collect anonymous questions/feedback
→ Travel for site visits
→ Schedule "skip-level" meetings

If people aren't coming to you, it's not because they don't need help.
It's because you haven't made it safe enough to ask.

Your job isn’t to be passively open. 
It’s to be actively available.

Pick ONE from this list. 
Try it this week. 
Reply and tell me which one.

Tech Director @ Amazon | I help professionals lead with impact and fast-track their careers through the power of mentorship

Being yourself is good advice,
Until it limits your growth.

I learned this when my public speaking coach challenged me to explore vocal variety.

"This feels fake. Not the real me," I told her.

But what is the "real me" anyway?

Your voice has always had range you haven't explored. 
Your leadership has dimensions you haven't accessed. 
Your impact has levels you've never reached.

The uncomfortable truth? 
• Your "authentic self" is partly just habit 
• Your comfort zone masquerades as your identity 
• Your resistance to change wears "authenticity" as a disguise

The most effective leaders I know? 
They're constantly reinventing how they lead — and who they are. 
They treat "authenticity" as a compass, not an anchor.

Because leadership authenticity isn't static. 
It evolves. 
It grows. 
It transforms.

The question isn't:
"Is this authentically me?" 
It's: 
"Is this the leader I want to become?"

What kind of growth are you resisting in the name of authenticity?

Want more executive presence?
Start by answering questions like this.

The way you respond in high-stakes meetings shapes how people perceive your leadership.

If your answers are vague, defensive, or rambling, your presence evaporates — no matter how sharp you are.

Give me 2 minutes, and I'll teach you how to listen and respond with power:

• Lead with direct answers first 
→ "Yes." "No." "March 15th." 
→ Give people what they asked for upfront 

• Provide just enough context 
→ One supporting sentence, not a dissertation 
→ Context should clarify, not overwhelm 

• Skip the weasel words 
→ "I think maybe possibly" sounds uncertain 
→ Own your position clearly 

• Clarify when needed 
→ "Could you rephrase that question?" 
→ Better to understand first than answer wrong 

• Be honest about gaps 
→ "I don't know, but I’ll circle back with an answer by Friday." 
→ Integrity beats improvisation every time 

• Stay curious
→ Don't get defensive when challenged 
→ "Help me understand your concern" 

• Read between the lines 
→ Listen for the concern behind the question 
→ Pay attention to tone and context

• Move further discussions offline 
→ "I will schedule 15 minutes with you to dive deeper." 
→ Respect everyone's time 

• Own your answers  
→ No blame-shifting or excuse-making
→ Say what 𝘺𝘰𝘶 did — not what 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥

Bonus tip: In your next few meetings, observe how others answer questions. Learn what builds presence — and what breaks it.

Pick one meeting this week. 
How will you show up differently?

---
Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for Leadership and Career posts

Perspective leads to better outcomes than advice.
But most people still chase answers over insight.

You think good mentors give you the "right" answer.
You think they should solve your dilemma.
You think their job is to tell you what to do.

But here's what actually happens:

The mentor who says "Take the startup job" gives you their map.
The mentor who asks "What does career risk actually mean to you?" gives you a compass.

One solves today's problem.
The other builds your decision-making muscle forever.

The best mentorship conversations?
They're not always comfortable.
They're not meant to be.

Watch what great perspective does:

Advice: "You should negotiate harder."
Perspective: "You mentioned feeling uncomfortable twice. What's that about? How do you usually handle conflict?"

Result? You realize you’ve been avoiding conflict for years — not because of the job, but because of a past experience.

The best mentors don’t give answers. 
They help you find better questions.

𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀. 
𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀.

What’s one decision you’re stuck on — and what better question could you ask yourself?

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dr Milan Milanović's LinkedIn Performance

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