About
I am a backend developer and data scientist in Nairobi. I started out on freelance data and software projects in 2022, and since 2024 I have been at Optiven, where I own the pipelines that feed the company’s analytics and the CRM its sales team runs on.
The through line is that I like owning whole systems. Most of my work has been the only version of itself at the company: the CRM at Optiven was not a rewrite of an existing one, and Mara is a product I designed, built, deployed, and still operate on my own. That shapes how I work. I care more about whether something survives contact with real users than whether the architecture is impressive on a whiteboard.
I studied computer science at St Paul’s University and majored in system security, which is also why I still work through Hack The Box challenges for fun. Over 100 of them so far. It makes me a more paranoid backend developer than I would otherwise be, and I think that is a good trait in someone who ships things.
I speak English, Swahili, and Russian.
Where I have worked
2024 to present
Data Scientist & Backend Developer
Optiven, Nairobi
Predictive models for customer engagement and payment behaviour. Designed and built the CRM the sales team runs on, integrated it with the existing ERP, and contributed to the internal ERP system in Django. Ran the training that drove adoption.
2022 to 2024
Freelance Developer
Data and software projects, remote
Data analysis and application work for clients end to end: cleaning, transformation, and delivery, plus integrations and data flows between systems.
Education
Degree
BSc Computer Science, major in system security
St Paul’s University
Diploma
Computer Science
St Paul’s University
Certificate
Data Analytics and Machine Learning
Data Networks Learning LLC
What I use
Tools I reach for, and what I actually use each one for.
Backend
- Python for data work, ML, and anything that needs automating.
- Django for REST APIs, ORM modelling, and the CRM at Optiven.
- FastAPI when the job is serving a model or a light async API.
- PostgreSQL and MySQL for schema design, not just querying.
- Celery and Redis to keep slow external calls off the request thread.
Data and ML
- scikit-learn for forecasting and classification that has to stay explainable.
- pandas for wrangling and feature preparation.
- MLflow so experiments are comparable months later.
- Power BI for dashboards people outside engineering actually open.
Automation and infrastructure
- n8n for ERP syncs, alerting pipelines, and scheduled ETL.
- Docker for everything I deploy, Mara included.
- Linux and shell because that is where the things I run live.
- Git with a bias toward reproducible, documented workflows.
Frontend
- React for the Mara dashboard and client work.
- HTML and CSS written by hand when a framework would be overhead.
Certifications
- Business Data Analysis and Machine Learning · DMK IT Solutions
- Artificial Intelligence Analyst · IBM
- Practical Network Penetration Testing · TCM Security
- Hacking (and Defending) Active Directory · TCM Security
- Advanced Google Analytics · Google
- Android Development · Udacity
Working together
I am open to remote senior engineering roles, particularly at companies building AI or automation heavy products, data platforms, or anything where backend and data science sit close together.