Ian Nechenje
Nairobi
Summary
Dynamic Senior Software Engineer with a passion for innovation and a knack for delivering customer-centric solutions. Known for embracing challenges, experimenting with new technologies, and fostering a culture of continuous learning within dynamic teams. A polyglot software engineer who is a pragmatic problem-solver who thrives on pushing boundaries and learning from failures. Equally at home in the fast-paced tech environment and the great outdoors, bringing a unique blend of creativity and technical expertise to every project. Proven track record of delivering high-quality products that exceed customer expectations.
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
Work History
Software Engineer II
Microsoft
09.2022 - Current
- Developed a feature called Refiners for people search that greatly improved scoping down of People search results for better search relevance to the user. Built on top of our People API that serves over hundreds of millions of requests daily, this feature was powered by a state-of-the-art index with support for natural language query processing, fuzzy searches, relevance and ranking.
- Led the planning, design and development of Privacy controls for People Search on M365 that empowers users to control who can see the people they closely collaborate or work with which was in line with privacy requirements in the EU and US govt clouds. This was a full-stack initiative powered by react and typescript on the frontend, and hooked onto our robust and unified M365 People Search backend Platform built on .NET and C++.
- Developing and maintaining M365's unified search platform, which is driven by an advanced index. This index supports natural language query processing, fuzzy searches, relevance and ranking, and high throughput, alongside configurable APIs. This highly available, low latency, AI-driven platform forms the backbone of search experiences across Microsoft's products, catering to hundreds of millions of M365 users every day.
- I was part of a mentorship program for university students as a coach in the Microsoft's Game of Learners program across different Universities. Also provided mentorship to junior engineers on the team, did code and PR reviews while also contributing to the pivotal architectural discussions that influence technical direction and organization culture as a whole.
Software Engineer
Microsoft
02.2021 - 09.2022
- Led the planning, design and development of self-suggestion feature that powers Self-chat on Microsoft Teams. This was a full-stack initiative with the frontend being built on react and typescript and powered by the low latency, ultra-high performance unified M365 search platform built on C++, .NET and Machine learning models that power the ranking of results propagated via natural language processing.
- I drove the initiative to increase user traffic base on People Search API by over 5 million user requests by bringing new partners onboard from Legacy, siloed search services.
- Delivered COGs reduction in the backend services through search optimizations, latency improvements and bug fixes. This was also achieved through rigorous on-call rotations that involved extensive debugging, root-cause analysis and a continuous feedback loop with customers.
Software Engineer
Safaricom PLC
05.2019 - 02.2021
- Led the development and shipping of a B2C SaaS called Postpaid DIY across different Safaricom Digital Channels, like web, android and iOS. This was 12-factor product engineered on a Microservices architecture with pivotal design patterns like Event-driven architecture, SAGA pattern, Backend For Frontends (BFF), API gateway and CQRS. This product reduced the process of changing tariffs/mobile data plans from 2 weeks to under 3 minutes.
- Drove the planning, design and delivery of the 'Okoa Jahazi' Engine(Advanced Airtime Credit System) from legacy code to a Microservices architecture that improved reliability, extensibility and flexibility of the service. Best practices for OOP and SOLID design principles were key in rewriting the legacy code into a high performance and modern architecture powered by gRPC, GraphQL and shipped as containerized services on AWS.
- Led technical discussions, code review sessions, system architecture reviews and ran leveling-up bootcamps with junior engineers and also advocated for favorable design patterns within the team.
Software Engineer
Safaricom PLC
04.2018 - 04.2019
- Spearheaded the development and delivery of the DigiNOC mobile application, leveraging a microservices architecture to ensure high performance and high availability. The application provides real-time monitoring of Safaricom Network Sites (BTS) to our NOC Engineers. The development process followed test-driven development methodologies and utilized containerization with Docker and orchestration with Kubernetes on an on-prem AWS cloud setup for efficient deployment and scaling.
- Championed the adoption of Agile and Scrum methodologies within the Network Operations department, transforming our approach from traditional, bureaucratic waterfall methods to a more dynamic and responsive way of handling service delivery. By embracing Agile principles such as iterative development and cross-functional collaboration, we were able to enhance our team's adaptability and responsiveness to changing requirements. This shift empowered our team to deliver value more efficiently and effectively, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.
Software Engineer
Seven Seas Technologies Limited
11.2017 - 03.2018
- I contributed as a software engineer and business analyst in the delivery of a Unified Healthcare management system for the Ministry for Health, Kenya for all level 5 and 6 Hospitals.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
11.2017
Skills
Tools and Software:
RDBMS (PostgreSQL), Key-Value stores (DynamoDB), In Memory caches (Redis), Message Oriented Middlewares (SNS, SQS, ActiveMQ, RabbitMQ, Kafka), Cloud Services (AWS), Containerization and Orchestration (Docker and Kubernetes), Infrastructure as Code (AWS CloudFormation, Terraform), VCS (git), CI & CD (Jenkins, Spinnaker, GitHub Actions), Monitoring and Observability (DataDog metrics, logs, traces)
Technical Skills:
Debugging, Testing, Automation, Agile Methodologies (Scrum and Kanban)
Techniques:
Distributed Systems, Solution Architecture, Scalable Architectures, Systems Analysis, Software Design
Programming languages:
Java, Python, NodeJS, C#, Go, JavaScript
Volunteer Experience
Microsoft ADC Game of Learners Program, Mentor and Team Coach
Timeline
Software Engineer II
Microsoft
09.2022 - Current
Software Engineer
Microsoft
02.2021 - 09.2022
Software Engineer
Safaricom PLC
05.2019 - 02.2021
Software Engineer
Safaricom PLC
04.2018 - 04.2019
Software Engineer
Seven Seas Technologies Limited
11.2017 - 03.2018
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
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