Francis

E&M Technology House Ltd

Aug, 2023 - Present · Contract

Tatu City, Ruiru, Kiambu, Kenya

• Software Engineer Oct 2025 – Present

• Lead a team of 6 engineers, owning delivery of the systems in my domain: the multi-tenant SACCO core banking platform, the SWIFT MT ↔ MX (ISO 20022) converter and the integration middlewares.
• Spearhead architecture and development across those systems, from message mapping and validation rules through to integration with core banking and external payment networks.
• Architected a centralised API layer giving external channels — including the Interswitch network — controlled access to the Finacle Core Banking System, handling JSON ↔ XML transformation, request validation, idempotency and transactional workflow orchestration.
• Designed and implemented highly available banking infrastructure using HAProxy and Keepalived, backed by a MariaDB master–slave cluster fronted by ProxySQL, providing load balancing, automated failover and near-zero downtime for mission-critical services.
• Built the EAPS converter service linking the core banking system to the East African Payment System, converting outbound MT103 and MT202 into pacs.008, pacs.009 and pacs.004 and inbound pacs.008 back into MT103, with routing to central-bank participants across seven East African countries.
• Designed its correctness model: the UETR is the idempotency key so a replayed file cannot post a payment twice, output is staged and renamed only once the conversion is recorded, downloaded files are fingerprinted so only unmodified originals convert, and SSH host keys are pinned on first use. Covered by 224 automated tests including an embedded SFTP server.
• Trained and mentored 8 junior developers, bringing them up to speed on these systems to provide day-to-day production support.

• Software Developer Aug 2023 – Oct 2025

• Designed and implemented a production-grade SWIFT MT ↔ MX (ISO 20022) payment messaging engine for banks, enabling bi-directional transformation between MT103, MT202 and MT940 and MX messages (pacs.008, pacs.009, camt.053) while ensuring data accuracy, standards compliance and straight-through processing (STP).
• Spearheaded the development of a multi-vendor SACCO core banking solution supporting 300+ SACCOs and over 10,000 active customers concurrently.
• Built the Mobile Money Integration Middleware for SACCOs, integrating core banking systems with mobile money platforms to enable real-time deposits, withdrawals, loan disbursements, and repayments across multiple institutions.
• Designed and deployed custom data migration tools for SACCOs, streamlining onboarding and empowering technical teams through comprehensive training.
• Designed and implemented CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins, automating build, test, and deployment workflows to accelerate releases and improve software quality.
• Executed large-scale SACCO data migration covering member, account, loan, and transaction records while maintaining full data consistency and system reliability, ensuring a seamless transition to the new core banking platform.
• Tested and documented APIs using Swagger, ensuring seamless integration.
• Conducted peer code reviews to ensure code quality, maintainability, security and adherence to coding standards.
• Delivered advanced technical support and customized solutions to SACCOs and microfinance institutions, reducing system downtime and improving user satisfaction and service efficiency.
• Collaborated with QA teams to perform testing and resolve any identified issues.

Software Developer

Jan, 2023 - July, 2023

Tecsol Electrical Limited

Mombasa County, Kenya

• Designed and implemented a RESTful API for managing product listings, customer inquiries, and sales data, including authentication, role-based access control, and an admin dashboard for internal operations.
• Built and deployed a backend data pipeline integrating form submissions, validation logic, and reporting endpoints, ensuring data integrity and secure handling across the system.
• Integrated Google Analytics and SEO best practices, enhancing the company’s online visibility and marketing insights.

Software Developer (Volunteer)

Jan, 2022 - Dec, 2022

Technical University of Mombasa

Mombasa County, Kenya

• Built a digital voting platform and member registration system serving an active user base, focusing on data integrity, access control, and automated record generation.
• Delivered full deployment independently, covering backend logic, database design, and system optimization

Data Entry Clerk, Customs & Border Control (Internship)

Jan, 2022 - Mar, 2022

Kenya Revenue Authority

Mombasa County, Kenya

• Calculated expected revenue from different vessels, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
• Inspected customer documents for authenticity, preventing potential fraud.
• Troubleshot computers and printers, maintaining smooth office operations.
• Prepared and sent monthly reports to the supervisor.
• Conducted general office duties such as scanning and printing.
• Organized the office records.

View recommendation letter from KRA here

Enumerator

Aug, 2019 - Sep, 2019

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

Kiaga, Kirinyaga, Kenya

• Collected and recorded data door-to-door, administering questionnaires and conducting interviews.
• Presented daily reports on the enumeration process to the content supervisor.
• Identified boundaries for Enumeration Areas (EAs) and visited every household for listing.

View certificate of recognition from KNBS here

Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Computer Science (Statistics Option)

Sep, 2018 - Dec, 2022

Technical University of Mombasa (TUM)

Databases for Developers: Foundations

Oracle Dev Gym

Modules: Tables, Columns and Data Types, Data modelling, Joins, Aggregates and Group By, Transactions, CRUD operations

View the certificate here

Docker from scratch Course

Udemy

Modules: VM vs Containers, Docker Overview, Docker Engine, Docker Images, Docker Containers Docker Networking, Docker Commands, Docker file, Containers Management

View the certificate here

Payments engineering, published on LinkedIn

Thirteen technical posts on SWIFT, ISO 20022, ISO 8583, RTGS and high availability over the past year, reaching 125,000+ impressions across an audience of 3,700+ banking and payments engineers.

Read the write-ups