Experience

Ona
• Kenya
• Information Technology & Services
• 1 - 100 Employee
• Solution Architecture Lead

  • Oct 2022 - Present


Fraction Technologies Inc

• Internet Publishing

• Software Engineer

  • Jan 2021 - Oct 2022

  Nairobi, Kenya



JUMO.WORLD

• Recreational Facilities

• Tech Lead

  • Jul 2019 - Dec 2020

  Nairobi As a Tech Lead, my role is split roughly evenly between: 1. Providing architectural direction for the services under my team's ownership. As part of this, I actively work on incremental improvements in our processes and tooling. 2. Managing a small team of developers. This involves 1:1s with the members of my team, providing wider business context where needed, regular reviews, mentorship, and facilitating the team to meet their individual goals. 3. Being a hands on developer, with… Show more As a Tech Lead, my role is split roughly evenly between: 1. Providing architectural direction for the services under my team's ownership. As part of this, I actively work on incremental improvements in our processes and tooling. 2. Managing a small team of developers. This involves 1:1s with the members of my team, providing wider business context where needed, regular reviews, mentorship, and facilitating the team to meet their individual goals. 3. Being a hands on developer, with a focus on longer term goals, sometimes working outside the sprint cycle. I also regularly participate in pair and mob programming with developers within the sprint cycle where needed. I work closely and regularly with Product Owners, internal customers, the rest of Engineering leadership as well as the HR function to perform my role. This broad view of the business enables me to drive delivery effectively.

• Architect

  • Jan 2019 - Jul 2019

  Nairobi

• Software Developer

  • Jul 2016 - Dec 2018

  Nairobi As a senior software engineer at JUMO, some of the projects I've worked on include the below: 1. Designed and built a static analysis tool used to weed out dead Python code. 2. Led development for an in-house UAT tool simulating for simulating feature phones. 3. Led development of a reporting platform for our partners. This involved designing a DSL to enable the reporting team to describe real time reports and query a datastore without requiring an understanding of the underlying… Show more As a senior software engineer at JUMO, some of the projects I've worked on include the below: 1. Designed and built a static analysis tool used to weed out dead Python code. 2. Led development for an in-house UAT tool simulating for simulating feature phones. 3. Led development of a reporting platform for our partners. This involved designing a DSL to enable the reporting team to describe real time reports and query a datastore without requiring an understanding of the underlying tech, designing a tree-based information architecture that allowed us to leverage the CMS chosen to build a GraphQL API, and building a React-based framework to generate visualisations based on the earlier mentioned DSL. 4. Helped conduct and design drills for technical support readiness. 5. Did some research and development work around rebuilding a session management system for a stateless protocol used in one of our main products. My role involves: 1. Defining application architecture. 2. Providing technical guidance. 3. Documenting research findings. 4. Documenting architecture. 5. Collaborating closely with Product, Design and Architecture to come up with technically feasible solutions.



Hacker Shelf

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals

• Developer

  • Feb 2012 - Jul 2019

  I run the Hacker Shelf, a community-curated collection of free books, working on the design, development and user support.



Ona Systems Inc

• United States
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Software Engineer

  • Dec 2014 - Jun 2016

  Nairobi Highlights Project: Zebra, the flagship product - I led the effort to make Zebra available in multiple languages. - I led the development effort to revamp the data visualization component of Zebra. - Various User Interface & User Experience Design improvements, working with the Design Lead. Consultancy work - I designed the UI for and led development of data visualization dashboards to aid M&E at multinational humanitarian organizations. - I utilized my… Show more Highlights Project: Zebra, the flagship product - I led the effort to make Zebra available in multiple languages. - I led the development effort to revamp the data visualization component of Zebra. - Various User Interface & User Experience Design improvements, working with the Design Lead. Consultancy work - I designed the UI for and led development of data visualization dashboards to aid M&E at multinational humanitarian organizations. - I utilized my networks in the Nairobi tech scene to assist the business development team. Mentorship - I take a keen interest in the progress of interns, passing on knowledge I've acquired during my time in the industry by way of 1:1 meetings, code review, and a general effort to be available as a sounding board. Show less



eLimu

• United Kingdom
• Civic and Social Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Software Development Consultant

  • Aug 2014 - Dec 2014

  Nairobi eLimu delivers a broad range of interactive educational content to underserved schools in Kenya using low cost Android tablets. Some of the work that I did during my time there included: 1. Documenting the source code, and development setup. 2. Setting up a change management process using a variation of Kanban. 3. Setting up access controls for the repositories. 4. Building out a syncing mechanism into the API. Previously, updates to content would require the entire catalog to… Show more eLimu delivers a broad range of interactive educational content to underserved schools in Kenya using low cost Android tablets. Some of the work that I did during my time there included: 1. Documenting the source code, and development setup. 2. Setting up a change management process using a variation of Kanban. 3. Setting up access controls for the repositories. 4. Building out a syncing mechanism into the API. Previously, updates to content would require the entire catalog to be downloaded to the tablet. I built a feature that sent out a push notification to the tablets to alert them of new content, and provide a way to download only what had changed since the last sync, working closely with the Android developer. This led to time and cost savings due to the reduced bandwidth requirements. 5. Automating the deployment process. Show less



FrontlineSMS

• Kenya
• Information Technology & Services

• Software Developer

  • Jan 2013 - Dec 2014

  Nairobi


justokal.com
• Freelance Web Developer

  • 2007 - Dec 2014


Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Student

  • May 2008 - Dec 2012

  Pursuing a Bachelor's in Electronic and Computer Engineering.



Wezatele

• Kenya
• Software Development

• Software Development Intern

  • Jan 2012 - May 2012

  Nairobi Developing turnkey mobile and e-commerce software solutions for both large corporates and small to medium size enterprises. This involves desktop and mobile web applications, as well as SMS-based services. User Interface design and development for mobile classifieds offering. Developing an intelligent search system as part of the mobile commerce platform.



Frontline SMS

• Hospitals and Health Care
• 1 - 100 Employee

• User Interface Developer

  • Aug 2011 - Dec 2011

  Nairobi, Kenya Contributed to the User Interface design of Frontline SMS, Open Source group messaging software primarily employed by Community Based Organizations to communicate using affordable laptops and basic phones in developing countries.



AMREF

• Non-profit Organizations
• 700 & Above Employee

• Intern

  • Mar 2010 - May 2010

  As an ICT Unit intern at AMREF, I worked under my supervisors in routine maintenance and fresh installations of ICT infrastructure. I secured the trust of my boss and was given the opportunity to take charge of IT operations during a conference involving stakeholders in the Kenyan Public Health and Education sectors.