Bostjan H.

I help businesses assess, improve and secure complex software systems. I'm a Senior Software Architect and Technical Consultant with 30+ years of experience in software engineering, enterprise architecture and technical leadership. I've worked across financial services, enterprise software and business-critical systems, combining deep engineering knowledge with architectural thinking and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. I help businesses understand their existing systems, identify technical and security risks, make better architectural decisions and develop practical improvement plans. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE & TECHNICAL CONSULTANCY - Independent software architecture and technical reviews - System design and architectural assessments - Independent technical assessments with written findings and prioritised recommendations - Technical risk assessment and technology recommendations - Technical debt and maintainability assessments - Engineering standards, technical direction and team guidance - Architecture improvement and modernisation roadmaps APPLICATION SECURITY & SECURE SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE My professional experience in financial-services environments includes: - Source-code security reviews and vulnerability identification - Security architecture and control reviews - Authentication, authorisation and identity management - Threat modelling and security risk assessment - Vulnerability remediation and secure development practices - Common web application vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, XSS and CSRF - Sensitive-data protection and financial-services security controls I've worked across the security review process, from source-code inspection and architectural assessment through to remediation planning and developer guidance. My wider enterprise experience also includes encryption, certificate and key management, secrets management, and infrastructure security, including work on public-sector systems. LEGACY MODERNISATION & SOFTWARE QUALITY - Legacy PHP and MySQL application assessments - Modernisation and migration planning - Code quality and maintainability reviews - Database design and performance considerations - Refactoring strategies and technical debt reduction - Practical recommendations for improving reliability and scalability PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE My career includes senior engineering and technical leadership positions at Raymond James Investment Services, WorldFirst, Elevate Credit International, DLabs and HERMES SoftLab. My experience spans financial-services platforms, enterprise software development, technical leadership and security-related engineering responsibilities. I also hold an NCFE Level 2 Certificate in Cyber Security, complementing my professional experience in software engineering and application security. TECHNOLOGIES PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Symfony, Python, C++, C#, .NET, Docker and related enterprise technologies. MY APPROACH I believe good technical consultancy should produce clarity and practical outcomes, not unnecessary complexity. I focus on understanding the underlying problem, explaining available options, identifying risks and recommending solutions that make sense technically and commercially. Have a complex technical problem, an ageing application or concerns about application security? Let's discuss your situation and identify a practical way forward.