"It’s probably easier than you think!"

Building Strong Teams in Complex Times | Driving performance, scalability, and business impact through people & technology

Hi, I'm Ivan Milanov

Engineering leader (MSc) with 15+ years in software development and 5+ years in management, helping teams grow, scale, and succeed globally.

Aristotle

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work

My passion lies in combining Agile principles, Stoic philosophy, and Systems Thinking to guide teams through complexity, simplify processes, and deliver sustainable outcomes.I believe that clear thinking, simple processes, and empowered teams are the most effective way to create long-term value — in both software development and leadership.

Career Highlights

15+ years in software engineering, including 5+ years leading teams in high-growth environmentsScaled and managed globally distributed teams across EU, DACH, USA & ScandinaviaSpeaker on Agile Leadership, Stoic Resilience, and Digital TransformationImproved system performance by 60–70%, enhancing operational efficiency

What I’m Most Proud of

* Agile Delivery Excellence:
Established a sustainable agile cadence with regular releases, structured peer reviews, and effective cross-team feedback loops — increasing delivery speed and predictability by 40%+.* Massive Performance & Reliability Gains:
Introduced system-wide optimizations that reduced latency by 45% and cut incident rates by 60%. Boosted throughput and stability, saving significant operational costs.* Monitoring Redefined:
Implemented proactive monitoring that alerts before users are affected — covering mission-critical processes and enabling much faster troubleshooting and resolution.* Automation of Key Processes:
Replaced multiple manual triggers with automated workflows, freeing up valuable team time and reducing operational risk.* Smarter Use of Digital Tools:
Aligned digital tools (Jira, Confluence, monitoring dashboards) with real team needs — improving collaboration and reducing friction across projects.

Current Stack & New Horizons

I lead with a hands-on approach to Agile delivery, Lean practices, CI/CD, and TDD — building high-performing teams and fostering strong remote & async collaboration.Data & Performance: Database development and optimization, large-scale performance tuning, proactive monitoring, and reliability engineering.DevOps & Delivery: Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, containerization (Docker), and automation frameworks.ERP & Business Systems: Hands-on experience with Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Business Central (On-Prem & SaaS), system integrations, and enterprise reporting (Power BI, RDL/RDLC).Emerging Tech: Currently exploring Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, AI/ML, cloud-native architectures (AWS, Kubernetes), and real-time data streaming (Kafka) — shaping scalable, future-ready systems.

The mindset and framework I’ve developed to lead teams, improve performance, and deliver lasting business impact.

The 3S Approach – Scrum, Stoicism, and Systems Thinking

“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”

If you don’t know where to start, just start — action reveals the path.

From Firefighting to Flow.

Success Story

In a legacy ERP landscape stuck in 4 years of daily incidents—despite top-tier SQL expertise—I committed to solve it or step aside. Using Yellow Belt 3Cs and root-cause analysis, I identified five hidden blockers and isolated Power BI reporting load onto a separate server. Impact: incidents ~20/week → 3–4, resolution < 2h, and ~1,500 hours/year returned to the team. The org shifted from reactive firefighting to proactive delivery—with visibly more story points and better UX.