Mihael

Backend & DevOps engineer in Stuttgart, Germany · open to work

Hi, I'm Mihael. I build backends, and then I stick around to run them.

Mostly Java, Quarkus and Spring Boot. I like the part after the code ships too: the pipelines, the containers, and the hour in Kibana figuring out why something fell over. Before software I spent five years in logistics, first dispatching trucks and later running a company with 30 people and 25 trucks. Message queues and freight have more in common than you'd think.

Write me an emailDownload CV (PDF)

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Portrait of Mihael Josifovski
that's me ☺

The route so far

trucks first, then code

  1. Bitola
  2. Blagoevgrad
  3. Bitola
  4. Maribor (remote)
  5. Stuttgart
  1. Sep 2026 – nowStuttgart · full-time

    IT & Administration Fahrschulring Stuttgart GmbH

    • I'm the IT person: workstations, user accounts, network, devices and day-to-day support.
    • Designed and built fahrschulring.de with React, Next.js and TypeScript.
    • Wrote and maintain the internal booking software the school uses to schedule lessons.
    • Also handle online marketing and some of the admin side of the business.
  2. Feb – Aug 2026Bitola → Stuttgart

    Moved to Germany plus independent projects

    • Packed up and moved to Stuttgart.
    • Used the time to build the driving school platform from the ground up (see Work).
  3. May 2023 – Jan 2026Remote · Maribor, Slovenia

    Software Engineer ibSoft.mk, on assignment at msg Plaut UAP

    • Java / Quarkus services for msg.UAP, an insurance administration system used by Swiss insurers.
    • Middleware team: service integration, message processing, deployments and keeping environments alive.
    • Message-driven workflows on IBM MQ (business messages) and ArtemisMQ (service state).
    • Jenkins pipelines and weekly releases to non-production. Docker, Portainer, S3, a bit of Terraform.
    • Helped take the insurer Assiguranz to production: deployment prep, environment checks, troubleshooting.
    • Lots of time in Kibana finding out why things broke. TDD-first, two-week sprints, plenty of code review.

    “He is pushing really hard, stays focused at the given tasks and is highly motivated to deliver on time and with quality. He has an excellent attitude!”

    Andrej Kline, Managing Director, msg Plaut UAP
  4. Sep 2022 – May 2023Bitola · hybrid

    Backend Developer Keitaro

    • Java and Spring Boot for telecom clients, in a modular monolith built on DDD.
    • Helped build and ship a new SIP module for iBasis.
    • REST APIs, integrations, Linux deployments and chasing down production issues.
  5. Dec 2021 – May 2022Bitola

    Career switch Java Developer Program, JAVEN

    • Went back to learning full-time. Built a Swing finance app with document upload and verification, and a Spring Boot web scraper with an API.
  6. 2017 – 2021Bulgaria · North Macedonia

    Logistics Ziko Sped LTD and F.A.N Transport

    • General Manager at Ziko Sped: a team of 30 and up to 25 trucks doing international transport for big European customers.
    • Before that, dispatcher for seven trucks at F.A.N Transport: routes, drivers, customers, phones ringing.
    • It taught me most of what I know about ownership. When a truck is stuck at a border, nobody cares whose fault it is.

Things I've built

2026 – now · independentProduction beta

Platform for German driving schools

Backend, web admin and a mobile app for driving schools, multi-tenant from day one. Real schools use it, so it has to work.

  • German e-invoicing (XRechnung / ZUGFeRD, EN 16931) and GoBD-compliant invoice cancellation. Flyway migrations for tax identity fields and configurable invoice-number patterns.
  • Reworked the mobile app: dependency injection, typed errors, Auth0 PKCE login, an offline mutation queue and TanStack Query.
  • Tracked recurring container outages on DigitalOcean down to unattended Docker daemon upgrades, then set up a proper GitHub Actions deploy pipeline.

Quarkus · Java 21 · PostgreSQL · Auth0 · React / TypeScript · React Native (Expo) · Docker · GitHub Actions · DigitalOcean

2026 · Fahrschulring StuttgartLive

fahrschulring.de + booking software

The school's public website and the internal tool the office uses to schedule lessons every day.

React · Next.js · TypeScript

fahrschulring.de
ongoingDaily use

AI-assisted engineering

I build the tooling around LLM coding agents: MCP servers, full-text knowledge retrieval so agents read less and find more, token budgets, and verification loops that make the agent check its own work.

Claude Code · MCP · prompt and skill design

side projectBackend

Polovni.mk

Designed the backend flow and built the backend for an online marketplace for used vehicles in North Macedonia.

Java · REST

Toolbox

the stuff I actually reach for

Backend
Java 21, Quarkus, Spring Boot, REST, microservices, modular monoliths, DDD, JPA / Hibernate
Messaging
IBM MQ, ArtemisMQ, ActiveMQ, Kafka, AMQP, async workflows
DevOps
Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Docker, Portainer, Linux, DigitalOcean, S3, Terraform (basic)
AI engineering
Agent orchestration (Claude Code), MCP servers, retrieval for agents, context and token budgeting, self-correction loops
Monitoring
Kibana / Elastic, log analysis, root-cause hunting
Databases
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Flyway
Security
Auth0 / OAuth 2.0 (PKCE), OWASP Top 10, TDD, code review
Frontend
React, Next.js, TypeScript, React Native (Expo)
Domains
Insurance, telecom, German e-invoicing (EN 16931, XRechnung, ZUGFeRD), GoBD

Languages I speak

  • Macedonian native
  • English full professional
  • Bulgarian professional
  • Serbian professional
  • German A2, getting there

Certificates

  • Ethical Hacking Noble Work Foundation, 2022
  • Introduction to Cybersecurity Cisco, 2022
  • Calling REST APIs with Java LinkedIn Learning, 2022

Things I've written

All of these are on LinkedIn.

Say hello.

If you're hiring for backend or platform work, or you just want to talk about Quarkus, message queues or German invoicing rules, I'm happy to hear from you. Email is quickest.

mihael.josifovski@outlook.com

or leave a note here