Open to opportunities

Ryan Richard

@ryanrichard

Message

I lead hands-on fintech platform rewrites, cloud architecture, and high-throughput software delivery.

South Africa

Message

What I'm looking for

I'm looking to lead hands-on engineering work where I can shape architecture, delivery standards, cloud security, and high-throughput systems while mentoring teams and partnering closely with Product.

At ekko, I led the successful end-to-end rewrite of a high-throughput fintech platform from NestJS/AWS Lambda microservices to a Go modular monolith on GCP. I owned the architecture, Terraform infrastructure, IAM and security, CI/CD, Git strategy, and hands-on delivery while scaling capacity to 870 requests per second without caching.

Across ekko, Zappi, REPL/Accenture, Elevate Life, and Derivco, I’ve led engineering teams, built payment integrations and serverless platforms, and partnered with Product and Design to turn roadmaps into dependable software. I’m comfortable moving between technical leadership and individual contribution, setting engineering standards, reviewing every pull request, and mentoring teams through change.

I bring 20+ years of software experience and a pragmatic approach to distributed systems, cloud-native architecture, security, and performance. I care about measured decisions, least-privilege access, strong delivery practices, and helping engineers grow.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Senior Engineering Manager

ekko

Aug 2024 - May 2026 (1 year 9 months)

Led the end-to-end rewrite of a high-throughput fintech platform from a NestJS/AWS Lambda microservices estate to a Go modular monolith on GCP, owning architecture, infrastructure-as-code, security, CI/CD, and hands-on delivery. Managed team growth, mentoring, and AI-assisted development governance.