Zoran Polic

About Zoran Polic

I am an Advisory Software Engineer at IBM with over a decade of experience building, securing, and operating software systems across cloud, DevOps, and platform engineering.Regardless of formal role, I naturally function as a technical leader and stabilizing presence within teams. I regularly support engineers, clients, and stakeholders with varying levels of experience by providing guidance, structure, and practical solutions that help teams operate effectively in modern development environments.In recent years, my primary focus has been on platform security and DevSecOps within IBM Software, supporting development teams by improving security posture, deployment practices, and operational discipline. This work has included hands-on contributions as well as significant coaching and enablement—helping teams set up and manage GitHub repositories, CI/CD workflows, development environments (local and remote), cloud and virtualized infrastructure, and day-to-day troubleshooting across the full development lifecycle.A large part of my impact comes from bridging gaps between tooling, process, and people: helping less-experienced engineers become productive more quickly, assisting experienced engineers in adapting to newer technologies, and translating complex systems into clear, actionable guidance for both technical and non-technical audiences.My background includes building distributed systems on AWS and Azure, working across Java-based back ends and modern JavaScript and Python front ends, and using both relational and non-relational databases.Academically, my master’s degree in Computer Science focused on Databases and Knowledge Discovery, an area that aligns closely with what is now commonly referred to as data science and applied AI.I value seeing the bigger picture, anticipating problems early, and helping teams succeed not just in theory, but in real production environments.

Experience

1. Advisory Software Engineer

   IBM

   Feb 2020 — Present · Durham, NC, US

   Supported development teams across IBM Software by strengthening platform security, DevSecOps practices, and operational reliability. Served as a go-to technical resource for engineers and clients, providing hands-on guidance across source control, CI/CD workflows, development environments, cloud infrastructure, and day-to-day engineering challenges. Enabled teams with varying levels of experience to work effectively by coaching on modern development practices, tooling usage, and professional execution. Owned and advanced security practices including vulnerability tracking, risk mitigation, reporting, and long-term remediation strategies. Architected and implemented IBM’s first CIS-hardened Ubuntu 18.04 container for the Hyper Protect Crypto Services product. Led the design and implementation of Ansible-based deployment automation for Red Hat Kubernetes Operators on IBM Cloud, integrated into CI/CD pipelines. Guided teams through IBM Container Software and Red Hat certification requirements, translating complex compliance standards into actionable engineering work. Integrated IBM Common Services (licensing and metering) into platform offerings. Contributed to QA automation using Node.js and Mocha in Docker-based development environments. Co-authored a defensive publication patent related to secure two-way communication using optical character recognition.

Education

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  Bachelor of Science, Electrical/Electronics Engineering

  2002 — 2003

• University of North Carolina at Charlotte

  Master of Science, Computer Science (Databases & Knowledge Discovery)

  2003 — 2005

Skills

• Qt
• Cvs
• C++
• Angularjs
• Perl
• Software Development
• Python
• Html
• Installshield
• Software Engineering
• Vb.net
• Dos
• C#
• Xml
• Databases
• Clearcase
• Java
• Sql
• Linux
• Asp.net
• Agile Methodologies
• Subversion
• Tcp/Ip
• Mysql
• Shell Scripting
• C
• Programming
• Unix
• Testing
• Unix Shell Scripting
• Web Services
• Tomcat
• Windows
• Eclipse
• Embedded Software
• Visual Studio