Benjamin Gakami
Nairobi
Summary
Experienced Software Engineer with over 7 years of success delivering innovative, business-aligned technical solutions. A strategic problem solver with a proven ability to drive growth and develop reliable, high-performance software. Skilled in a wide range of technologies, with a passion for continuous learning and optimizing systems to achieve outstanding results.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
Work History
Web, Mobile, DevOps Engineer.
Blue Book Publications, Inc.
04.2023 - Current
- Led a team of 4 developers to rebuild the company's web applications from scratch using Laravel (backend), Livewire, and Vue.js (frontend).
- Achieved a 1,100% increase in recurring subscriptions through the rebuilt platform.
- Introduced a customer feedback system to continually improve the product.
- Developed a cross-platform mobile app using the Flutter framework & Dart, enhancing the user experience for mobile customers.
- Managed the AWS-hosted server infrastructure, ensuring stability and scalability.
- Assisted in recruiting new developers and growing the development team.
Lead Software Engineer & Product Engineer
Syntax LTD
04.2020 - 03.2023
- Engaged with clients to understand their business problems and architected custom solutions for their needs.
- Collaborated with designers and developers to translate client requirements into functional software solutions.
- Served as the primary communication point for clients, ensuring their needs were met throughout the development process.
- Managed the entire product lifecycle, from conception to delivery, ensuring alignment with client goals.
- Continued handling DevOps tasks, optimizing infrastructure, and ensuring efficient deployment processes.
Front End Engineer
Juice.AI
04.2022 - 09.2022
- Contributed to Juice.ai, a platform that helped e-commerce businesses generate SEO-friendly blog content using AI to drive targeted traffic.
- Focused on frontend development, building the Vue.js single-page application (SPA) for a seamless user experience.
- Developed a custom article editor using the Tiptap editor for Vue 3, building custom modules with TypeScript to improve content creation tools.
- Gained valuable experience in TypeScript, enhancing the functionality and usability of the editor for business owners.
- Collaborated closely with other developers to ensure smooth integration and user experience across the platform.
Software Engineer
The CodingMachine
11.2018 - 05.2021
- Mainly worked on JOBREADY (https://jobready.fr), a skills recognition platform developed by the Article 1 association, designed to aid in social and professional integration (similar to LinkedIn but for France).
- Developed and maintained the Laravel-based backend and Vue.js SPA frontend, enabling seamless user experience.
- Implemented communication between the frontend and backend using GraphQL and integrated full-text search with Algolia.
- Gained first-hand experience working with GraphQL and Algolia, expanding technical skills in both technologies.
- Collaborated with a team following Agile methodology, managing tasks via Jira with 2-week sprints, and contributed to project planning and feature iterations.
Lead Software Engineer
Syntax LTD
03.2018 - 04.2020
- Led a team of 10 developers on various client projects, primarily using Laravel and Vue.js.
- Introduced tools like PHPStan to ensure cleaner code, improving overall code quality and maintainability.
- Assigned tasks, monitored team performance, and provided mentorship to junior developers.
- Developed project roadmaps, ensuring on-time delivery and implemented quality control measures to deliver high-quality software.
- Took on the DevOps role for different projects, managing infrastructure setup, CI/CD pipelines, and deployments.
Back End Developer
GEIA.AI
06.2017 - 12.2017
- Built and designed APIs using Laravel to support the user dashboard and smart farming sensors/hardware integration.
- Redesigned the backend to serve as an IoT cloud, enabling communication with farming hardware and sensors through the MQTT protocol.
- Addressed limitations of the original Laravel code builder by rebuilding the project from scratch, improving performance and scalability.
- Collaborated with a front-end developer who developed the user dashboard in Angular.
- Gained hands-on experience in IoT backend development, API design, and MQTT protocol communication for smart farming technologies.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Dedan Kimathi University Of Technology (DeKUT)
Nyeri, Kenya04-2019
Skills
- Laravel Framework
- PHP
- Vuejs
- MySQL
- GraphQL
- Tailwind CSS
- Laravel Livewire
- Inertiajs
- Dart
- Flutter
Timeline
Web, Mobile, DevOps Engineer.
Blue Book Publications, Inc.
04.2023 - Current
Front End Engineer
Juice.AI
04.2022 - 09.2022
Lead Software Engineer & Product Engineer
Syntax LTD
04.2020 - 03.2023
Software Engineer
The CodingMachine
11.2018 - 05.2021
Lead Software Engineer
Syntax LTD
03.2018 - 04.2020
Back End Developer
GEIA.AI
06.2017 - 12.2017
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Dedan Kimathi University Of Technology (DeKUT)
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