Open to opportunities

Ephrem Mandefro

@ephremmandefro

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Software engineer building scalable, personalized backend systems with AI-driven, product-minded ownership.

Ethiopia

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a product-focused engineering role where I can own backend systems end-to-end, build scalable customer features, and use AI tooling to ship reliable improvements that delight users.

I’m a Software Engineer with a product mindset and 3+ years of professional experience building scalable, customer-facing features. I work across Go, Python, and TypeScript, treating technology as a means to an end—solving business problems and delighting users.

In my recent role, I engineered core backend features with Java and Spring Boot for a SaaS product, architecting asynchronous microservices and integrating third-party APIs to support 50+ events per second. I’ve also led secure payment backend integrations for QR-based vending-machine transactions (5,000+ monthly) and owned backend engineering for a software artifact marketplace (1,000+ monthly secure transactions), including search optimization that improved performance by 40%. I’m especially proud of taking ownership from concept to production, using AI tooling to document architecture and accelerate onboarding by 30%.

I bring strong cloud and infrastructure skills, with AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD tooling, and I apply AI tooling and agentic engineering in practice. My projects—real-time multiplayer systems and CNN-based detection and audio recognition—reflect how I like to turn ambitious technical ideas into reliable, user-centered outcomes.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Software Engineer

Current

Zion (Social Media Management SaaS)

Dec 2025 - Present (7 months)

Built scalable backend features for Zion’s social media management SaaS using Java and Spring Boot, including TypeScript-based asynchronous microservices and third-party API integrations. Improved onboarding by documenting backend architecture with Maven, Git, and AI tooling, accelerating onboarding by 30%.

Java Spring Boot TypeScript API Integration Maven Git AI Tooling backend architecture

Backend Software Engineer

Satev Engineering Group (Vending Machine Payment System)

Aug 2025 - Nov 2025 (3 months)

Delivered a secure Java backend integration for a soft drink vending machine, enabling QR code-based payments for 5,000+ monthly transactions. Built scalable payment processing APIs bridging React mobile applications with hardware components and refactored the payment codebase to improve customer satisfaction.

Java QR Code Payments Payments Processing React System Troubleshooting Code Refactoring

Software Engineer

Softship (Software Artifact Marketplace)

Feb 2024 - Jul 2025 (1 year 5 months)

Owned backend engineering for Softship’s software artifact marketplace using Java and Spring Boot, supporting 1,000+ monthly secure transactions. Improved personalized shopping and search performance by integrating PostgreSQL and MongoDB, increasing search performance by 40% and achieving sub-second latency while scaling to 5,000+ active users.

Java Spring Boot PostgreSQL MongoDB Search Optimization Agile Development

Freelance Backend Engineer

Hotel Management System

Oct 2023 - Jan 2024 (3 months)

Architected and deployed a highly available Java backend infrastructure for a hotel management system using Docker and Kubernetes, serving 5+ locations with 99.9% uptime. Built low-latency RESTful APIs and optimized relational database schemas for inventory tracking with Apache Calcite, improving read/write query speeds by 35%.

Java Docker Kubernetes RESTful APIs Apache Calcite Billing Cashier Control

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

Addis Ababa Science and Technology University

Bachelor of Software Engineering, Computer Science & Information Technology

Grade: Final CGPA: 3.60

Completed a Bachelor’s program in software engineering with a focus on computer science and information technology, graduating with a final CGPA of 3.60. Completed advanced coursework in artificial intelligence.

ALX Africa & Huawei

Advanced Coursework, Artificial Intelligence (Advanced Coursework)

Activities and societies: Focus areas included agentic engineering, AI tooling, advanced software engineering principles, and enterprise relational database management.

Completed advanced coursework covering agentic engineering, AI tooling, advanced software engineering principles, and enterprise relational database management.