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KO

Open to senior & lead engineering roles — remote or relocation

I build software
that moves
money and people.

I build financial, health and AI software for emerging markets — and the teams that keep it running.

Kelvin Ighodalo Omozokpia, Software Engineer & Founder
KelvinLagos, Nigeria
Building Darkel
10 yrs
AWS Certified
Countries shipped in
4
Lagos Business School
MBA

01Profile

Founder, engineer, and the person teams call when the thing that moves money has to work.

Ten years ago I started Darkel Microsystems as a one-person practice. Today it is a team that ships production software for banks, startups and my own products. In between, I have spent a decade as a senior and lead engineer inside companies across Nigeria, Kenya, India and Israel — trade finance at Zenith Bank, cross-border payments at Equity Bank, investing at Chaka, lending at MoneyKarma. I like the parts other people avoid: the money-moving edge cases, the performance cliff at 10,000 rows, the handover that decides whether a system survives its author.

Frontend at scale

React, Next.js and Angular in production for a decade — component systems, state that survives growth, and the performance work that happens after launch.

  • React
  • Next.js
  • Angular
  • TypeScript
  • TailwindCSS
  • RxJS / Redux

Backend & data

REST APIs, authentication and authorisation, third-party integrations and scheduled work — plus the data model underneath.

  • Node.js
  • NestJS / Express
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • DynamoDB
  • GraphQL

Cloud & delivery

Event-driven serverless, container orchestration basics, CI/CD pipelines and access policies — shipped, not diagrammed.

  • AWS
  • Serverless
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • CI/CD
  • Vercel

Quality

I introduced behaviour-driven automated testing at MoneyKarma and brought a QA function onto it.

  • Jest
  • Cypress
  • CucumberJS / BDD
  • Puppeteer
  • Code review

Leading engineers

Hiring, mentoring, code review culture, and the documentation that lets a system outlive the person who wrote it.

  • Team building
  • Mentoring
  • Client delivery
  • Technical writing

Business fluency

An MBA from Lagos Business School, and ten years of owning proposals, contracts and P&L for my own company.

  • Strategy
  • Pricing
  • Proposals
  • Stakeholder management

02Selected work

Products and platforms I designed, built or led — in banks, in startups, and under my own name.

  1. Lema AI platform

    Product · AI · 2026

    Senior software engineer — frontend architecture & AI integration

    The client-side architecture for an early-stage Israeli AI platform, and the Go services that route data between LLMs, ML APIs and the browser.

    • Built real-time React/Next.js interfaces that visualise complex AI output with no perceived latency for users spread across time zones.
    • Engineered low-latency Go microservices to orchestrate calls between large language models, external ML APIs and the frontend.
    • React
    • Next.js
    • Go
    • LLM orchestration
    • Real-time UI
  2. Serenity & Tranquillity

    Product · Healthtech · 2024—present

    Senior frontend engineer, Reliance Health

    Health plans built for senior citizens, and the wallet that pays for them — client-side architecture for products handling both medical and financial data.

    • Own the client-side architecture, designing React/Next.js state that keeps financial transactions consistent across the app.
    • Defined API contracts and data schemas with the backend teams, optimising payloads for low-bandwidth conditions.
    • React
    • Next.js
    • TypeScript
    • REST APIs
    • Performance
  3. WB Exchange

    Product · Fintech · 2026

    Founder & lead engineer (Darkel)

    A crypto-to-fiat app for the Nigerian market: wallet in naira, payouts straight to Nigerian bank accounts, KYC against BVN and government ID.

    • Designed the full money path — quote, conversion, settlement, payout — on top of a licensed third-party broker API rather than running exchange risk in-house.
    • Built KYC around BVN and government ID verification so onboarding clears Nigerian regulatory expectations.
    • Took the app through Apple and Google review with region-restricted availability, and stood up the support and compliance surface around it.
    • Mobile app
    • Broker API
    • NGN payouts
    • BVN / ID KYC
    • App Store & Play
  4. Cartinary

    Venture · Commerce logistics · 2023—2024

    Co-founder & CTO

    An e-commerce logistics platform for Nigerian SMEs — built, launched, and engineered on microservices to handle complex routing at scale.

    • Led end-to-end product engineering: platform architecture, payment rails, and the build team.
    • When the business model pivoted, I managed the technical wind-down and asset restructuring rather than letting it drift — a decision I would make the same way again.
    • Next.js
    • Node.js
    • Microservices
    • PostgreSQL
    • Paystack
  5. Zenith Trade

    Enterprise · Trade finance · 2019—2021

    Frontend engineer, Zenith Bank

    A suite of trade-finance applications used inside one of Nigeria's largest banks — Form A, Form M, Form Q, Form NCS, Form NXP, Export Levy, FX Management and Credit Automation.

    • Owned the Form A application end to end and built reporting applications serving the wider Trade module.
    • Designed and implemented the single sign-on authentication module shared across every application in the suite.
    • Worked directly with business analysts and support to turn regulatory forms into software people could actually complete.
    • Angular
    • Ant Design
    • SSO
    • Microsoft TFS
    • Confluence
  6. Cross-border payments

    Enterprise · Payments · 2021—2022

    Frontend engineer, Equity Bank (Nairobi)

    International and intra-region money transfer flows for a pan-African bank — Thunes and Western Union rails, plus inter-subsidiary transfers.

    • Built the send-money flows for international transfers and for transfers between the bank's regional subsidiaries.
    • Rewrote an app-wide component that rendered every bank in a country — replaced it with Angular CDK virtual scroll and turned a visible stall into an instant list.
    • Angular
    • RxJS
    • Angular Material CDK
    • Azure DevOps
  7. Karma Pro v2 & Commission Engine

    Product · Lending · 2021—2025

    Senior frontend engineer, MoneyKarma (India)

    A CRM handling in-house and partner loan requests, and the commission rule engine that pays everyone correctly.

    • Built the commission rule engine: map cities to regions, configure payout incentives, then process partner commissions for loans inside a defined period.
    • Led the v2 rebuild of the Karma Pro flows with the design team and the senior lead engineer.
    • Researched and implemented the automated-testing blueprint using behaviour-driven design, then brought QA engineers onto it.
    • Next.js
    • React
    • Redux
    • GraphQL
    • CucumberJS
    • Docker
  8. SmartInvest

    Product · Investing · 2021

    Frontend engineer, Chaka Technologies

    A new investment product taken from first commit to deployment, plus the admin console that runs the business behind it.

    • Built SmartInvest modules from start to deployment alongside the product team.
    • Extended the internal administrative console and implemented its secured authentication module.
    • Angular
    • RxJS
    • Jenkins

Also shipped

  • Vendease

    Contract · Web platform · 2022—2023

    Rebuilt and shipped vendease.com, with a Contentful-driven structure so marketing could move without a deploy.

  • CarReminder

    Own product · Mobile · 2024

    A vehicle maintenance reminder app — oil, brake pads, tyres, licence renewal — published on both stores.

  • Sabischolar

    Client product · Edtech · 2024

    A subscription learning product, from payment flows and verification to store submission.

03Under the hood

Three things you can poke at rather than take my word for: a performance bug I fixed, a system I had to defend, and the failure mode that keeps payments engineers awake.

Mount
switch a control
DOM nodes
Scroll FPS
fling it

This is the shape of a real bug I fixed at Equity Bank: an app-wide component rendered every bank in a country at once, and the send-money screen stalled on open. Swapping it for windowed rendering (Angular Material CDK virtual scroll) turned a visible freeze into an instant list — the same 10,000 rows, a few dozen nodes.

04Experience

Seven years inside banks and startups across Nigeria, Kenya, India and Israel — alongside the company I own.

  1. Senior Software Engineer — Frontend Architecture & AI Integration · Lema AI

    Dec 2025 — Present

    Primary role

    Tel Aviv, Israel · Remote (via TechSavannah)

    Client-side architecture for an early-stage AI platform, plus Go microservices orchestrating data routing between LLMs, ML APIs and the frontend.

  2. Senior Frontend Engineer — Architecture & Performance · Reliance Health

    Apr 2024 — Present

    Concurrent

    Lagos, Nigeria

    Owner of the client-side architecture for Serenity (health plans) and Tranquillity (wallet), handling sensitive health and financial data.

  3. Senior Frontend Architect · MyMoneyKarma

    Dec 2021 — Apr 2024

    Telangana, India · Remote

    Spearheaded the Karma Pro CRM architecture and built the company's first reliable regression testing pipeline.

  4. Software Engineer · Chaka Technologies

    Apr 2021 — Dec 2021

    Lagos, Nigeria

  5. Software Engineer · Zenith Bank

    Oct 2019 — Mar 2021

    Lagos, Nigeria

Startups I founded

  1. Founder & Technical Lead · Darkel Microsystems

    2016 — Present

    Lagos, Nigeria · Remote

    Founded and still run the consultancy: cloud architecture on AWS, CI/CD and client delivery, with timelines, budgets and engineering quality on me. Led delivery of WB Exchange, Xaracta, CarReminder Nigeria and Sabischolar's LMS.

  2. Co-founder & CTO · Cartinary

    2023 — Present

    Lagos, Nigeria · Remote

    Co-founded the company and own its technical direction — platform architecture, payment rails and the build team behind an e-commerce logistics platform for Nigerian SMEs.

Contract engagements

Fixed-scope work, taken on and delivered as agreed. The dates are the length of each engagement, not how long I lasted.

  1. Backend Engineer (Contract) · Pharmarun

    Oct 2025 — Jan 2026

    Remote

    A three-month infrastructure sprint to stabilise backend logistics services and the new pharmacy portal.

  2. Senior Frontend Engineer (Contract) · Vendease

    Jan 2023 — Apr 2023

    Lagos, Nigeria

    Four-month rapid-delivery contract on Africa's leading food procurement platform.

  3. Senior Fullstack Engineer (Contract) · Ricive

    May 2022 — Aug 2022

    Remote

    Established a clean-code architecture, cut technical debt, and trained the junior engineers on it.

  4. Software Engineer — Fintech & Payments · Equity Bank

    Jul 2021 — Jul 2022

    Nairobi, Kenya · Remote (via Azenia)

    Core payment infrastructure for one of Africa's largest banking networks.

05Certifications

Three AWS associate-level certifications, plus the Microsoft and AI engineering credentials behind them.

Amazon Web Services ×3

Solutions Architect · Developer · Cloud Practitioner

  • Certified

    Solutions Architect — Associate

    SAA-C03

  • Certified

    Developer — Associate

  • Certified

    Cloud Practitioner

    CLF-C02

Also certified

  • AI Certified Software Engineer

    Micro1

  • Building AI-Powered Search with Vector Search

    MongoDB

  • Azure Data Fundamentals · DP-900

    Microsoft Certified · 2021

  • Cloud Developer Nanodegree

    ALX-T / Udacity · 2022

  • Africa Developer Scholarship

    Google / Andela · 2020

  • Professional Conduct & Ethics

    Bankers Committee, Central Bank of Nigeria · 2019

Education

  • MBA

    Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University

    Master of Business Administration

  • BSc Computer Science

    Ambrose Alli University

    Second Class Upper Division

    2018

06Speaking

Talks on vectors, data and the human side of scaling systems.

  • Lagos MongoDB User Group meetup · 2026

    Why AI Needs Vectors

    Vector search from first principles — embeddings, retrieval, and where it earns its keep.

  • Engineering talk · 2026

    Scaling the Team Behind the System

    Why systems fail at the handover, not the architecture review.

  • Developer session · 2026

    Aggregation & Real-Time Insights

    Turning operational data into answers people act on the same day.

  • Lagos Business School · 2024

    AI as Your Competitive Advantage in Business

    What AI actually changes for an operator, stripped of the vendor pitch.

07Mentoring

Twenty-plus engineers, three programmes, and a channel — the part of the work I would keep if I had to drop the rest.

  • Decagon — Node track

    Senior Engineer Mentor to a cohort of 20+ engineers: classes, code reviews, refactoring sessions and one-on-one career guidance. We shipped Reward Your Teacher together, covering auth, social login, payments and deployment.

  • Darkel Microsystems

    Every engineer who has come through Darkel has been mentored inside real client delivery — reviews, pairing, and ownership handed over deliberately.

  • GC mentorship

    Mentoring engineers early in their careers on the fundamentals, and on the decisions that compound.

  • CodeByMoonlight

    A channel where I teach the things I wished someone had shown me: promises, frontend roadmaps, tooling, and how to think about a codebase you did not write.

08Contact

Based in Lagos, Nigeria, working WAT (UTC+1). I reply to everything that is not a template.

Hiring, building, or stuck on something — let's talk.

Download CV