Jakana Kiwanuka
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Senior technical Lead and System Architect with 6+ years of
experience designing, building and scaling complex digital platforms
- from Android Apps serving millions to enterprise grade
entertainment systems. Currently operating as a solo technical
lead, owning full stack, infrastructure and delivery across multiple
production problems. Adept at defining technical direction,
refactoring legacy systems, and implementing scalable foundations
for future team expansion. Strong expertise in Android (Kotlin,
Jetpack Compose), full-stack (Express.js, Laravel, React), and
database management (PostgreSQL, MySQL).
EU BlueCard eligible, supported by German NGO Imagine
Foundation (Germany-based NGO offering career coaching
and integration support for international talent).
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WORK EXPERIENCE
NNCo Group
Nairobi, Kenya
Technical Lead
(Remote)
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Serve as the sole technical owner for NNCo’s digital ecosystem, leading
architecture, development, and infrastructure delivery for three
entertainment platforms.
Collaborate directly with business and creative stakeholders to translate
operational needs into scalable software solutions.
Designed and implemented Maiqcheck, an artist management platform built
with Express.js, PostgreSQL, and React — introducing ORM architecture and
secure authentication flows.
Developed Event Management System with Laravel backend, geolocation
mapping, role-based access, and SMS automation for onboarding workflows.
Executed WordPress multisite migration, achieving 26% faster load times
(0.72s → 0.53s) and reducing infrastructure overhead through Digital Ocean
consolidation.
Established CI/CD deployment pipelines and system documentation to
support future engineering hires.
Starfish.team (Fintech)
Nairobi, Kenya
(Remote)
Lead Android Engineer
Jan 2025 - Mar 2025
Tech Skills: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Firebase Realtime Database, MVVM, Coroutines,
Clean Architecture
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CERTIFICATIONS
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Flutter & Dart - The
Complete Guide [2023
Edition] – Udemy, 2024
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GO - The complete
Guide - Udemy 2025
July 2025 - Present
Tech Stack: Express.js, Laravel, React, PostgreSQL, MySQL, WordPress, Digital Ocean,
SMS APIs
Built a production-ready Android POC for financial data synchronization,
Core Expertise: Android
Development (Kotlin,
Jetpack Compose), System
Architecture, Technical
Leadership
Full-Stack: Express.js,
Laravel, React, REST APIs
Databases: PostgreSQL,
MySQL
DevOps & Infrastructure:
Digital Ocean, CI/CD, System
Migration, WordPress
Multisite
Security: Dexguard,
Biometric Authentication
Testing & Tooling: JUnit,
Espresso, Mockito, MockK
Collaboration: Agile
Delivery, Cross-Functional
Partnership, Mentorship
successfully handed off to core team for user acquisition phase.
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Collaborated with stakeholders to align technical design with cross-platform
product requirements.
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Implemented a Firebase-backed synchronization system to unify data across
web and mobile clients.
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Refactored core modules to follow Clean Architecture principles, decreasing
build failures by 50% and reducing integration complexity.
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Participated in regular sprint planning and retrospectives to improve team
delivery.
Mastercard (Secondment via Andela)
Nairobi, Kenya
Android Engineer
Jan 2020 – Apr 2024
Tech Skills: Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, MVVM, Bluetooth, Dexguard, Biometric APIs,
Spring Boot
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Built and maintained secure Android apps supporting digital payments, from
implementation through to deployment.
Supported onboarding of new developers and contributed to maintaining
coding guidelines across the Android team.
Partnered with backend teams and product stakeholders to support new
payment and authentication features.
Integrated biometric authentication and Bluetooth-based offline payments to
improve user accessibility.
Reduced build time by 30% through Artifactory optimization, accelerating
developer workflows, QA testing cycles, and Play Store deployment processes.
Implemented Dexguard for obfuscation and encryption, maintaining high test
coverage across releases.
Contributed to backend features using Java Spring Boot for end-to-end
alignment.
Andela (SaaS, Consulting)
Nairobi, Kenya
Software Engineer
Dec 2017 – Apr 2024
Tech Skills: Kotlin, Java, Jetpack Compose, Django, React, Git, JUnit, Espresso
➔ Client Projects
◆ Delivered Android features across multiple client engagements, including
Mastercard and Premise Data.
◆ Designed and implemented features from development to QA support
within sprint cycles.
◆ Collaborated with distributed teams to ensure alignment with project
requirements and delivery timelines.
◆ Maintained consistent code quality and test coverage across teams using
shared standards.
➔ Internal Engineering Contributions
◆ Mentored 5+ junior Android engineers, accelerating their technical growth
and reducing code review cycles by establishing consistent development
practices.
◆ Built Django/React dashboards for project allocation and developer
metrics; reducing manual reporting time by 4 hours weekly.
➔ Additional Roles within Andela
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Engineering Council Member (Apr 2019 – Feb 2020)
● Participated in technical policy discussions to support
developer tooling, growth tracks, and knowledge sharing
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across teams.
Cultural Council Member (Apr 2019 – Feb 2020)
● Helped resolve team conflicts and coordinated
team-building initiatives aimed at improving engineer
retention and engagement.
React Native Developer (Aug – Oct 2019)
● Built and shipped features for a mobile audio streaming app
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for a subscription-based platform using React Native.
Backstack Manager (Sep – Nov 2018)
● Managed staffing and prioritization for up to 11 internal
projects, ensuring appropriate engineer allocation based on
delivery needs.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Multimedia University Cyberjaya, Malaysia | 2016
