IBM i (AS/400) & Java Software Engineer
Building and modernizing core insurance systems for 25+ years · Istanbul, Türkiye
I'm a software engineer who has spent most of his career where legacy and modern meet: writing RPG on IBM i in the morning and Spring services in the afternoon, then making the two talk to each other.
- 🏢 25+ years across non-life, life and pension insurance — underwriting, policy issuance, claims, reinsurance, collections, regulatory tariff and premium calculations
- 🔌 I enjoy the unglamorous but valuable work: connecting AS/400 applications to modern Java and web services, so decades-old business logic keeps earning its keep
- 🧮 Background in Mathematics (B.Sc., Mimar Sinan University) and Statistics coursework — which is why actuarial-flavoured calculation logic never scared me
- 🌱 Still learning in public — currently deep in Java 21 and Spring Boot 4.x, and writing it all down at LearnForgeX
🚀 Current focus — LearnForgeX
A content-driven education platform teaching Java, Spring Boot, React, PostgreSQL, Docker, Git and AI in Turkish and English — free and open source.
- Stack: Java 21 · Spring Boot 4.1 · Thymeleaf · Bootstrap · PostgreSQL + Flyway
- Approach: the database holds only metadata — lesson content lives as Markdown files and compilable
.javaexamples in the repo, so every lesson is reviewable through a pull request and every snippet actually runs - Features: full TR/EN i18n with per-language publishing, breadcrumb and prev/next navigation, auto-generated "on this page" table of contents, difficulty levels and reading-time estimates, plus interactive quizzes
Courses published so far — 8 tracks, 160+ lessons:
| Track | Covers |
|---|---|
| ☕ Java | Basics, Control Flow, Collections, OOP, Exceptions, Generics, Concurrency, Functional Interfaces & Streams |
| 🌱 Spring Boot | Spring Core, Spring MVC, Spring Data JPA, Advanced Spring, Microservices (Eureka, API Gateway, Resilience4j, Kafka, observability, deployment) |
| ⚛️ React | Fundamentals, Components & Props, State & Events, Hooks, Forms, Routing, Data Fetching, State Management, Performance, Testing, Deployment |
| 🤖 Artificial Intelligence | AI & ML fundamentals, Large Language Models, Tools & MCP (including building an MCP server), AI Agents, AI-assisted development |
| 🐘 PostgreSQL | Relational model, SQL, joins & aggregation, JSONB/UUID/arrays, CTEs & window functions, indexes and EXPLAIN, transactions |
| 🌿 Git & GitHub | Commits, branches, merging, pull requests, rebase & squash, conflicts, stash, practical workflow |
| 🐳 Docker | Images & Dockerfiles, CLI, networking, volumes, Compose, production Docker for Java, Spring Boot + PostgreSQL project |
| 🧠 Quiz | Interactive Java quizzes — basic, advanced and mixed |
⭐ Feedback, issues and content contributions are very welcome.
IBM i / AS-400
Java & Web
Data & Tools
| Period | Role | Where | What |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 – 2024 | Consultant | Anadolu Sigorta | Commercial Fire policy & endorsement modules in ILE RPG; RPG ↔ Java health web-service integration |
| 2020 – 2022 | Consultant | Anadolu Hayat Sigorta | Life & pension applications on AS/400; surrender reserves, regulatory tariff and premium logic |
| 2014 – 2017 | Consultant | Accenture | Insurance automation in Java/Spring/Hibernate; bulk Fleet Casco issuance; Tramer reconciliation |
| 2012 – 2013 | Senior Software Engineer | Atos | Vodafone DMSP-CRM; Jira REST integration into PrimeFaces screens |
| 2005 – 2011 | Software Development Specialist | Yapı Kredi Sigorta | Underwriting, claims, reinsurance modules; AS/400 accounting integration; DASK & Tramer transfers |
Earlier roles from 1987 onward — Coretech, Sistek, Garanti Sigorta/Teknoloji, SFS Danışmanlık, Cedetaş. Full history on LinkedIn.
I'm always happy to talk about IBM i modernization, insurance domain systems, or bridging legacy platforms with modern Java stacks.