Smals is the ICT partner of Belgian federal social-security and eHealth institutions. Working in the Vitalink team on the national platform that lets healthcare providers securely share patient data. Progressed from Java developer to Application Architect during tenure.

As Application Architect

• Design and implement software architecture in close collaboration with solution architects.
• Oversee software development and release cycles end-to-end.
• Lead investigation, preparation and migration to new technologies and infrastructure (e.g. OpenShift 3 → 4, high-availability cluster).
• Single point of contact for technical matters; align team output with customer goals.
• Hands-on Java development and code review alongside architectural responsibilities.
• Mentor and coach junior developers; conducted technical interviews for new hires.
• Substitute Scrum Master / team lead when required.
• Assist in estimations, story prioritization, sprint preparation and roadmap planning.

Key Project: Vitalink FHIR & KMEHR

• Introduced performance tracing with Zipkin across the service fleet.
• Led migration to a new high-availability infrastructure and OpenShift 3 → 4 migration across microservices.
• Refactored microservices and significant portions of the shared codebase.
• Led migrations: JBoss EAP 6 → 7, Spring → Spring Boot, monolith → microservices, Java 8 → 11.

Planned, designed, built and tested new software applications end-to-end for internal and customer-facing applications within the insurance branch.

• Sign Platform: the main application responsible for the signing process of all documents for Belfius Insurance and Bank.
• WebSocket framework: server + JavaScript client library for socket-based front-end integration.
• eID integration: background Belgian-eID card-reader application that pushes identity data to a message queue.
• QR Login: alternative login flow. Led the project end-to-end and built the back-end.
• Acted as application owner for multiple applications — responsible for technical state, roadmap, and stakeholder communication.

Delivering Java solutions to clients across Belgium and the Netherlands. Worked across multiple client engagements.

• Hollandsnieuwe / Vodafone: collaborated on a multi-brand customer provisioning platform. Wrote migration software, refactored payment processes.
• Simcard management: modified an existing simcard management web application, added Redis-backed HTTP session via Spring Boot.
• DCC: proof of concept of an Android app with a web-services back-end.

Full-time public-sector retraining programme following a career switch from laboratory science into software.

Pre-software career in industrial chemistry. Multidisciplinary background informs a systems-thinking approach to software problems today.

Specialization: application development. Pursued part-time alongside professional employment.

Internship at BIOMED, Biomedisch Onderzoeksinstituut, UHasselt.