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Folakemi Umar

@folakemiumar

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Senior software engineer specializing in backend, fintech, and blockchain solutions.

Nigeria

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What I'm looking for

I seek roles where I can lead backend and blockchain engineering efforts, design scalable microservices, work with cross-functional teams, and contribute to high-impact fintech or Web3 products with strong DevOps and growth opportunities.

I am a Senior Software Engineer with 6+ years building scalable enterprise applications, primarily in fintech, payments, and blockchain. I specialize in backend architecture, microservices, cloud infrastructure, and delivering high-availability systems used by millions.

I have led engineering efforts for multi-country payment systems, DeFi platforms, and large-scale election and public-sector solutions, improving performance and reducing costs through smart architecture and DevOps practices. I am a Certified Scrum Master who mentors teams and drives engineering best practices.

I focus on measurable outcomes—system performance, uptime, transaction throughput, and deployment velocity—while staying current with emerging technologies and fostering strong cross-functional collaboration.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Senior Backend Engineer

Current

Sterling Bank

Mar 2024 - Present (2 years 3 months)

Architected and developed a next-generation retail core banking application serving 2M+ customers, improving system performance by 40% and achieving 99.9% uptime through microservices and reliability engineering.

Java Spring Boot Microservices PostgreSQL AWS Kubernetes CI CD Monitoring

Software Engineer

GradientFi

Aug 2023 - Feb 2024 (6 months)

Developed a DeFi platform bridging traditional and decentralized finance, built a currency exchange matching engine handling $10M+ monthly volume, and implemented smart contracts for tokenization and exchange.

Solidity Hardhat TypeScript Smart Contracts Web3 DeFi Security Algorithm Design

Backend Engineer

Prunedge

Dec 2021 - Sep 2023 (1 year 9 months)

Led backend development for Terminal Africa's smart card payment system and multi-tenant public sector platforms, built systems handling 500K+ concurrent users and improved team productivity by 30% through mentorship and processes.

Java Python Microservices Redis PostgreSQL New Relic Grafana Team Leadership

Software Engineer

Dukka Limited

Mar 2021 - Feb 2022 (11 months)

Developed RESTful APIs for fintech processing 100K+ daily transactions, implemented CI/CD pipelines that reduced deployment time by 70%, and optimized performance to achieve 50% faster responses.

Python Django RESTful APIs Docker Jenkins PostgreSQL CI CD Performance Optimization

Full Stack Developer

Decagon

Jun 2019 - Nov 2020 (1 year 5 months)

Built full-stack applications for healthcare and civic services, delivered a Hospital Management System used by 20+ facilities and implemented automated testing achieving 80%+ coverage.

Django PostgreSQL Testing REST APIs Agile CI CD