Bernard Niset
Senior Java Developer & Tech Lead — Fullstack (Freelance)
Senior Java Developer and Technical Lead with more than 20 years of experience building backend services on the Java platform (Java EE, Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate), plus solid frontend experience in Angular and ReactJS. I have led and coached Java development teams, made architecture and technical decisions, reviewed code and worked closely with business stakeholders and Product Owners to turn requirements into maintainable software.
Quality matters to me: systematic unit testing, integration testing with Cypress and Playwright, code reviews and secure coding practices.
Specialties
Java, Spring Boot, Spring Security, Hibernate, Java EE, SOAP and REST web services, ActiveMQ, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. Delivery with Maven, Jenkins, Git, Docker and Kubernetes. Frontend with Angular, ReactJS and TypeScript.
Experience
Office National de l'Emploi
Senior developer with a technical lead role on the unemployment eligibility applications of the Office National de l'Emploi. Responsible for the technical side of the application. Implement the complex rules that decide who is eligible and at which unemployment benefit rate.
- Make the architecture decisions: hexagonal architecture with anti-corruption layers keeps the business logic apart from external systems. Backend in Java/Kotlin with Spring Boot, frontend features in Angular.
- Review code in a Scrum team of two to three developers and coach a junior developer closely.
- Give Spring training to colleagues and share know-how on Java, Kotlin, Maven, OpenShift and Helm.
- The team has the smallest budget in hours, yet delivers among the most.
- Stable, maintainable application: very few production errors and CI tests that don't randomly fail.
- Since 2026, more involved in refinement, functional analysis and UX preparation, so requirements are clearer before development starts.
- angular
- java
- kotlin
- spring boot
- hibernate
- typescript
- mssql
- openapi
- cypress
- playwright
- docker
- kubernetes
- openshift
- helm
- azure-devops
- grafana
- kibana
GLS Belgium
Responsible for the frontend in a six-person team building MyGLS shipment services and a transport-partner portal for partners, drivers, vehicles and their compliance documents.
- Chose the frontend stack (React, TypeScript, Ant Design) and built the interfaces.
- Stable frontend; users liked its look and how easy it was to use.
- Unit tests with React Testing Library; integration and visual regression tests with Playwright.
- reactjs
- zustand
- ant-design
- apexcharts
- framer-motion
- typescript
- react-testing-library
- playwright
- vitejs
- axios
- leaflet
- openapi
- tailwindcss
- typesafe-i18n
EVS Broadcast Equipment
Asked back by EVS after positive feedback on the first assignment. Responsible for the HiRes video player and the stack upgrade of IPD.VIA, a production asset management platform for broadcasters.
- Designed the Electron-based HiRes video player, then presented and defended the solution; integrated the in-house C++ video library through Node-API.
- Developed an Electron and web application for ingesting local video files.
- Upgraded React, Webpack, Electron and Node.js, fixing the Webpack build and native module issues along the way.
- React development in a larger team building a video editing tool for FOX Sports US.
- cucumber
- cypress
- electron
- electron-forge
- nodejs
- react-redux
- reactjs
- redux
- redux-saga
- redux-thunk
- react-query
- typescript
- webpack
- cpp
- node-gyp
- node-napi
Kensu
Responsible for the React/TypeScript frontend of a data observability platform, in a team of four developers (the other three on the Scala backend). Learned a complex business domain in depth to build its user interfaces.
- Moved the frontend from a custom design system to Ant Design.
- Introduced a mock backend so frontend and backend could be developed in parallel.
- Maintained the OpenAPI definitions between the React frontend and the Scala backend.
- Frontend tests with Cypress and WireMock.
- ant-design
- apexcharts
- axios
- css/sass
- cra
- cypress
- enzyme
- git
- github
- html
- jest
- json-schema
- jsonata
- nodejs
- openapi
- react-diagrams
- react-redux
- react-router
- react-query
- reactjs
- redux
- redux-toolkit
- typescript
- websocket
- wiremock
Deutsche Bank Belgium
Developed Angular features for the bank's Online Banking application: third-party card linking and the sign-in screens. Also worked on an internal administration application.
- Introduced a mock backend and Cypress/WireMock tests, so the frontend could be tested thoroughly without the backend services and became more stable.
- Reviewed pull requests on both the frontend and the Java backend.
- angular
- cypress
- typescript
- wiremock
EVS Broadcast Equipment
Developed React and Electron applications for IPD.VIA, including the first versions of the video player and the ingest application, improved again on returning in 2021–2022.
- Designed and built the first Electron-based HiRes player and an Electron and web application for ingesting local video files.
- Developed the workflow management UI in React.
- Reviewed colleagues' pull requests.
- cucumber
- cypress
- electron
- node-ffi
- node-gyp
- nodejs
- react-redux
- reactjs
- redux
- redux-saga
- redux-thunk
- typescript
- webpack
EVS Broadcast Equipment
Designed and built the Java/Spring Transfer Agent for IPD.VIA, as a multi-module Maven project.
- File transfers from and to FTP, SFTP, AWS S3, Aspera, FileCatalyst and tape storage.
- Set up automated integration tests of the agent against its external systems, using Docker and Docker Compose.
- spring
- amazon-web-services
- spring-boot
- java-8
- maven
- rest
- docker
- docker-compose
Design is Dead (now Emakina)
Developed features for Base's e-commerce website using Java, Angular and AngularJS.
- angular
- angularjs
- java
BNP Paribas Fortis
Technical architect and IT integrator of the team, writing Java code while also handling the DevOps side. Designed the application together with experienced developers and was responsible for deployment, database migration scripts and log monitoring until the application was deployed.
- Worked with experienced developers on architecture and technical decisions; implemented features in Java, Spring and Hibernate.
- Responsible for deployment: coordinated server provisioning, network configuration and WebSphere setup in the bank's infrastructure.
- Prepared database migration scripts and followed up their execution with the DBAs; managed application security and roles; monitored application logs.
- Provided Cucumber-Java tooling for test automation.
- bdd
- cucumber-java
- hibernate
- java
- oracle
- spring
- tdd
- websphere
- liquibase
Takeeateasy.be
Senior fullstack developer in a larger Agile team: Java/Spring Boot backend services and web interfaces in JavaScript and TypeScript.
- Took part in the technical discussions behind the team's technology choices.
- Worked on the iOS version (Swift) of a new mobile application.
- Managed the AWS hosting (S3, RDS, Elastic Beanstalk).
- java
- javascript
- spring boot
- hibernate
- aws
- ios
- cloud
- angularjs
- typescript
- swift
- liquibase
BNP Paribas
Tech lead who kept coding: coached up to four Java developers on the Centric trading and post-trade applications. Helped bring several applications to production: FX trading, market data visualisation and EMIR regulatory reporting.
- Assigned Jira tickets to the developers and followed their progress.
- Coached developers in implementation discussions: answered technical questions and helped them weigh solution options.
- Had a major say in backend and frontend technology choices, notably Spring and Apache Wicket.
- Reviewed code and set the coding standards.
- Worked with business analysts to turn trading and regulatory requirements into technical solutions, and followed applications through to production.
- angularjs
- cxf
- hibernate
- highcharts
- java
- java-ee
- jira
- javascript
- jboss
- jquery
- oracle
- spring
- websphere
- wicket
- liquibase
Electrabel - Engie
Backend J2EE development and BPMN workflows for the ETRM energy trading project. Developed components in Java, Spring and Hibernate, with Wicket, Jasper Reports, JBoss, Oracle, Ant and SVN.
- java
- spring
- hibernate
- wicket
- jasper-reports
- jboss
- oracle
- ant
- svn
Direct Mobile SPRL
Own company. Architecture, development and production support of mobile applications on Java/J2EE, frontend and backend, with Wicket, PostgreSQL, JBoss and ActiveMQ.
- java
- spring
- hibernate
- jee
- wicket
- mobile
- postgresql
- jboss
- activemq
Newtec Cy
DVB-RCS Project. Development of the network Hub management application (Customer Configuration Management Tool). J2EE Java Development with Jboss / Hibernate / Spring on Linux/Windows.
- j2ee
- java
- linux
- mysql
- hibernate
- spring
- soap
- jax-rpc
- xml-rpc
- jboss
Golog SPRL
Development of a redirection system for bad requests done by ISPs Internet users. Design, development and technical support of the complete IT infrastructure following the requirements provided by the customer. The redirection engine is written in C++ and Python, the administrator part is a web site written in J2EE.
- c/c++
- python
- corba
- java
- j2ee
- jakarta
- struts
- hibernate
- linux
- tomcat
- jboss
- postgresql
- python
IBM Belgium
Part of the GUI development team for the CLS Bank system, running on both Windows NT and AIX. Led the design and evolution of a complex MFC/STL application and a C++ API. Mentored a team of 6, improved code quality, provided AIX support, and developed a Java based system monitoring tool.
- windows
- nt
- unix
- aix
- c++
- mfc
- stl
- rational rose
- java
- xml
- xslt
- xml-rpc
Various Companies - France, Belgium
Developer, then team leader, in France and Belgium, as an employee and as a freelancer. Web and distributed applications, document management (EDM) and workflow systems for telecom and other companies. Worked in C, C++, Java and Python on Windows, UNIX and Linux, with various databases and development tools.
- c
- c++
- corba
- forte
- gnu
- hp-ux
- java
- jsp
- linux
- mysql
- oracle
- python
- solaris
- sql server
- uml
- win32
- windows nt
- wml
- xwindows
Teaching
Elixir Solutions
Three days of hands-on React training for the company's developers, aimed at working on maintainable React applications.
- Taught React Hooks, state and side-effect management, custom hooks and performance optimisation through practical examples.
- Covered styling with CSS Modules and Tailwind CSS, navigation with React Router, and application state management with Redux Toolkit.
- Showed server-state management with TanStack Query, including data fetching, caching, error handling and CRUD operations.
- reactjs
- redux-toolkit
- react-query
- react-router
- tailwindcss
Ecole-IT
Designed and taught software engineering courses for 20 first-year master's students at Ecole-IT, many of them beginners in these subjects. Each course was an intensive five-day block, given alongside client assignments.
- Courses built around a real application: short theory, then live coding to show design and implementation step by step.
- Taught database modeling with Merise, Java/Spring Boot and Hibernate backend development, and React/TypeScript frontend development.
- By the end, students had built a fullstack application; some now work as Java developers.
- reactjs
- java
- spring boot
- hibernate
- typescript
- database