Kelvin Ngigi

I’m a backend engineer who ships live products across African and European markets, turning ambiguity into working systems fast. I progressed from intern to Lead Backend Engineer at a climate tech startup, and I now focus on APIs, real-time functionality, and production-grade reliability.

At Clengo, I architected and delivered a multi-client REST API backend serving three applications—a cleaner mobile app, an admin platform, and a customer web app. Hosted on a self-managed DigitalOcean VPS with Nginx, I also designed and implemented a real-time WebSocket feature for instant messaging and live online presence broadcasting to the admin application.

I led a migration from Appwrite managed backend to a custom VPS-hosted architecture, owning server configuration, database connections, and the deployment pipeline end-to-end. Previously, at Climate Wavers, I redesigned backend architecture from the ground up to support a social media–style platform with real-time interactions, serving as the technical foundation for early user acquisition.

I coordinate distributed backend development by conducting code reviews, maintaining API documentation, and aligning four engineers around consistency, scalability, and maintainability. My core foundation includes Django, Node.js, and REST API design, with growing expertise in real-time systems, VPS deployment, and financial integrations—built with an Agile, security-first mindset.