From Freelance to Fintech

15+ Years of Building the Web

I am a web developer from Serbia, currently living in Sofia, Bulgaria. I have spent my entire career in IT, but web development has always been my main focus. I enjoy the process of building things from scratch and solving technical challenges.

The Early Years: Freelancing & CMS

I started my career as a freelancer. My early work involved building custom websites and themes from the ground up. I spent a lot of time developing specific components and modules for the Joomla CMS, which gave me a strong foundation in how content management systems work under the hood.

Agency Work: Scaling Up

Later, I joined an agency based in the Netherlands. During this time, I focused heavily on PHP and started working with ProcessWire. I wasn’t just building simple sites anymore; I was developing large-scale portals, including classifieds and directory-type platforms that required more complex data structures.

Custom Business Applications

I eventually returned to freelancing, expanding my toolkit to include WordPress and WooCommerce. My work also shifted toward business logic—I built custom CRM and ERP-style applications tailored to specific business needs. This period was about more than just “web design”; it was about building tools that helped businesses run their operations.

Current Role: Fintech & Leadership

Today, I am the Websites Team Lead at a fintech company. My day-to-day involves:

• Leading a team of developers to build and maintain custom websites.
• Building modern web architectures using Headless WordPress, Astro, React, and Tailwind CSS, or sticking to Vanilla JavaScript when performance is the priority.
• Managing Headless CMS infrastructure. Azure DevOps and Docker deployments with CI/CD pipelines to ensure stable, predictable code releases.
• Bridging the gap with Marketing by handling deep integrations for GTM, Tracking and Analytics, ensuring our data and tracking are as solid as our code.
• Maintaining technical foundations, which includes managing legacy scripts and building custom JavaScript SDKs to power our landing pages.

I’ve seen the web evolve from basic CMS themes to modern, decoupled architectures. Whether I’m writing raw PHP or managing a deployment pipeline, my goal remains the same: building fast, reliable, and functional software.