Samuel Kihara Kamau

Samuel Kihara Kamau Email: ​ ​ Mobile: ​ ​ Nationality: ​ ​ LinkedIn Profile: ​ -- Kenyan https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-kihara-803a7a122/ Professional Summary Product Engineer with 9+ years of experience in software, product development, and release, combining technical, business, and leadership skills. Proficient in guiding teams through the entire product lifecycle, from conception to launch, within the financial services sector. Demonstrated success in driving strategic decisions, managing cross-functional teams, and delivering high-quality, scalable solutions. Strong communicator with expertise in Python, AWS, and infrastructure design. Key Skills: ▪​ Team management ▪​ Product requirement gathering, design, development, testing, deployment and metrics tracking ▪​ Analytical skills, including the ability to analyze data and use tools for data analytics, market research and gather customer feedback to inform product decisions. ▪​ Architecture and Infrastructure design ▪​ Client engagement and support ▪​ Research and Development ▪​ Software development: Python, AWS CDK: Pythons, C#, React Native, JAVA, AngularJS, SWIFT, Node, HTML&CSS, C++, C, Javascript) ▪​ Software development tools: Visual Studio, Xamarin Studio(Discontinued), XCode, Android Studio, Arduino, Netbeans, Eclipse, Mysql WorkBench Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - ▪​ Development Frameworks and Platforms: AWS (Infrastructure set up, Services: Lambda, Amazon Pipelines, Cloudwatch, ECS, EC2, DynamoDB), Microsoft Azure, IOS Dev, Micro-Controllers, Xamarin, Universal Windows Dev, BOTs, Android, Rest Client, Bitrise (for iOS and Android Deployment pipelines), Docker (Containerization), Git ▪​ Communication Skills: Articulate communicator with appreciation for different communication styles required when working with team members or customers. Work Experience Placement Kuze - CTO​ August 2024 - On going Kuze is an AI-driven education start-up focused on enhancing student learning through personalized support. By assessing student performance through diagnostic exams, the platform generates detailed reports and custom workbooks, filling educational gaps for students without access to textbooks. Kuze's impactful work began in Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in Kenya, providing critical educational services in an area with limited resources. Before I joined, Kuze had already implemented some core services such as AI-powered question generation, exam marking, and data analytics to produce detailed reports and learning recommendations. However, these were fragmented across different servers and, in some cases, even on separate cloud services. Each service required manual intervention to trigger tasks, slowing down operations as the company scaled. ●​ Automation & System Integration: Leading the design and implementation of a unified system to automate business operations, integrating previously fragmented services into a seamless workflow. ●​ Infrastructure Overhaul: Overseeing the creation of cohesive production and QA environments, improving testing processes and deployment stability. ●​ Pipeline Development: Building automated deployment pipelines, reducing manual tasks and increasing operational efficiency. ●​ MVP Development: Directing front-end and back-end development of Kuze's MVP, laying the groundwork for future platform growth and expansion. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - ●​ Impact on Learning: Collaborating with data scientists to enhance the generation of reports, which help teachers better assess student competency, group students, and provide targeted support. Autofind - Founder​ May 2023 - August 2024 Autofind is a product developed by Geek House LTD, a company I Founded in May, 2023. The platform provides comprehensive vehicle history reports to both used car buyers and dealers, facilitating informed purchasing decisions. In my capacity as CEO and Founder, I initiated the concept and recognized the necessity of a dedicated team for the successful development of our product. I played a pivotal role in assembling a skilled and diversified team, comprising: 1.​ C.T.O. 2.​ Backend Engineer 3.​ QA Specialist 4.​ UI/UX Designer 5.​ Legal Support 6.​ Finance and Accounting Specialist 7.​ Marketing Lead Additionally, I assume multiple roles within our small team: Chief Technology Officer (CTO): I formulate and execute the company's technology strategy, aligning it with our business objectives and market dynamics. I provided guidance and leadership to the development team, ensuring adherence to best practices and efficient development processes. Product Manager: I define the product roadmap and vision, aligning it with our company's goals and market demands. My responsibilities include conducting market research, analyzing user needs and behavior, and identifying market trends to guide our decisions. Leveraging our data-driven approach, I implemented tools such as Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics to capture and analyze user data effectively. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - Front-End Engineer: Collaborating with the UI/UX Designer and Backend Engineer, I developed the web application using NextJS, a React Framework. Despite being new to NextJS, the positive feedback received for the application validates the effort and expertise invested. DevOps Engineer: I managed the infrastructure and made critical decisions, selecting AWS due to its suitability for our requirements and my previous experience with the platform. Implementing Infrastructure as code, specifically utilizing AWS Cloud Development Kit in Python, streamlined our development and deployment processes as well as the effort it takes to maintain or update the infrastructure. Powered By People Inc -Fintech Product Manager (Remote)​ Aug 2020 - Apr 2023 Powered By People is a global company with offices in Canada, the US, and Kenya, offering an e-commerce platform that specializes in providing a marketplace for high-quality handmade products from skilled producers (makers) around the world. The company also provides finance solutions for both makers and buyers. Makers receive an advance as soon as a buyer confirms a purchase, enabling them to produce the items, with the remaining balance paid upon shipment. For buyers, credit options are available based on our credit decisioning, which takes into account their borrowing capacity. As the Fintech PM, I was responsible for driving the architecture and development of a system that supported the business's money movement and finance product, specifically the credit process. This involved collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to understand their requirements, building a high-performing team through the hiring process, and designing efficient work processes to ensure the timely delivery of quality code. I oversaw the entire product life cycle from ideation to release and metrics tracking, and managed all aspects of the development process to ensure successful project outcomes. Achievements and Contributions Infrastructure Design and Set Up ●​ Designed and set up the infrastructure for the payments service using the AWS Well Architected Framework. ●​ Utilized AWS API Gateway to launch with a secure and reliable API in a short amount of time. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - ●​ Incorporated other AWS services for various functions, including AWS EventBridge to manage transaction queues and other events, AWS Cloudwatch for monitoring and logging, and Sentry for error tracking and performance metrics. ●​ Worked on infrastructure design and set up. This included: ○​ Setting up deployment pipelines from Gitlab to ECS Clusters with Auto Scaling on AWS, which required a Gitlab runner setup on an EC2. ○​ Setting up multiple OUs for Development, Staging, and Production environments. ○​ Setting up respective ECS clusters. Initially I performed these tasks manually, but as the team grew, we got devops engineers and transitioned into using Terraform, allowing for easier deployments and maintenance of infrastructure. Buyer Payments: ●​ Delivered a Custom Payment Application that allows PBP to collect card and bank account information from users and securely store it for later use in charging buyers for their purchases. This resulted in a significant increase in the company's collection rate from 40% to 95% for Pay Now orders and from 40% to 60% for Pay Later orders. ●​ Improved operational efficiency by automating payment updates to the CRM and sending invoices and other notifications to customers via API, reducing the need for manual updates by staff. ●​ Added 3D Secure for all card payments and balance checks for bank account transactions to improve the repayment rates further and reduce fraud. I was able to achieve repayment rates of 99% and 80% for Pay Now and Pay Later options, respectively marking this project as a huge success. Maker Payouts ●​ Similar to buyer payments, payouts to makers were handled manually, with each payment being made through the bank portal one order at a time. I designed and with the help of my engineering team, built a service to automate these transfers. ●​ Implemented specific days for triggering transactions to reduce excessive transaction fees when sending money to makers. This allowed us to combine payouts to the same maker into one transaction, saving the company and the maker transaction fees. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - ●​ Utilized AWS Cloudwatch Events as a trigger for our service and AWS EventBridge to queue the transactions since our integration partner only allowed us to create one payment order at a time. ●​ This payouts service decreased the time it took to pay makers from an average of 28 days to 3 days, meeting the target metric by 100% after the release of the service. Designed a Product/Feature Release Process ●​ Drawing on best practices from my team, industry leaders such as Amazon, Google, and Coda, and my own experience, I designed a comprehensive process for Product Managers to follow when developing features. This included templates for all necessary documentation throughout the feature build and release pipeline. I observed that other engineering teams lacked a defined process, resulting in rushed production and unreliable systems. By contrast, our team's rigorous process consistently delivered high-quality applications with error-free sessions (99% as tracked on Sentry) Studio Facelift- Founder, Chief Operating Officer, Head of Product​ Aug 2020 - On going Founded Studio Facelift, a woodworking workshop, in collaboration with a friend, driven by our shared passion for DIY and a love for building. Over the years, the company has experienced significant growth, expanding both its team and customer base, while also taking on larger projects. My role has evolved with the company's growth, and I've been integral in establishing internal processes and driving product innovation. The success of Studio Facelift is a testament to our commitment to quality, customer satisfaction, and fostering a community of woodworking enthusiasts. This experience has not only allowed me to contribute significantly to the woodworking industry but has also honed my skills in strategic planning, product development, and efficient operational management. Achievements and Contributions 1.​ Transformed a startup focused on laser-cut wooden projects into a fully-fledged workshop capable of producing high-quality furniture items at scale. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - 2.​ Successfully launched Kenya's first Craft Cafe, offering customers the opportunity to participate in woodworking sessions, fostering skill development and hands-on experiences. 3.​ Led the design and launch of various products, including the innovative Tazi shelf (our first product), laptop stands, numerous other items available in our shop and various custom ordered products. 4.​ Set up processes that ensure consistent product quality, shorter build periods and quicker knowledge transfer with new employees. These also incode structured internal processes and tools for optimizing task and project handling. 5.​ Primary Investor. Personally invested in Studio Facelift, serving as the primary financial supporter until the business achieved self-sustainability in August 2023 ASPIRA - Senior Software Engineer/Technical PM (Hybrid)​ September 2018 - Nov 2021 Aspira is a Kenyan consumer finance company that provides financing solutions to customers, enabling them to purchase items from their network of retailers and pay in installments over a period of three to twelve months with interest. Their primary focus is to make purchases more accessible to consumers by providing flexible payment options, allowing them to get the items they need without any financial constraints. As the Senior Engineer and Technical PM, I led a team of three developers, a UI/UX designer, and a quality assurance analyst, responsible for the core technology of the company, including the credit engine and mobile app. In addition, I managed outsourced vendors in South Africa and India to ensure their work aligned with our standards. As an interface between my team and management, I provided technical guidance and advised on development plans, delegating tasks and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality products. I served as a technical advisor to management, providing valuable engineering insights to support business decisions and also our infrastructure design build and maintenance. Achievements and Contributions ●​ Establishing the In-House Development Team: I played a pivotal role in building an in-house development team from scratch to take over the project from our outsourced vendor. This involved identifying and reaching out to potential candidates within my network, as well as conducting interviews to select the most suitable candidates. Through this process, I Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - assembled a cohesive and high-performing team that was able to deliver quality work in a timely manner. ●​ System Handover: I facilitated the handover of our system from an outsourced vendor in South Africa to an inhouse development team. This entailed a lot of work mainly conducting a code review, migrating environments as well as learning anything and everything to do with the system. ●​ Stabilization: After leading the in-house development team takeover of the project from our vendor, my main focus was stabilizing and improving the system. At the outset, the system was plagued with a high frequency of app crashes (both on iOS and Android) as well as a substantial number of backend bugs. I tackled these issues head-on by performing a thorough analysis, identifying root causes, and implementing effective solutions. As a result, I was able to significantly reduce the number of crashes to a negligible amount and completely eliminate the bugs in our backend. These improvements ensured seamless day-to-day operations of the system. Main Features Developed As the lead of a talented team, we accomplished a range of development tasks such as bug fixing, feature enhancement, research and development, testing, and developing new features. I am particularly proud of the following highlights of our development of new features at Aspira ●​ Know Your Customers (KYCs) Uploads: We successfully built a feature that enabled customers to directly upload KYC documents such as photos of their National ID, bank statements, and Mpesa statements from the app, eliminating the need for manual mailing. Our team built this feature from the frontend using React Native to the backend using C#. ●​ Mpesa Checkout: We designed a feature that allows customers to pay for their deposits and monthly installments directly from the app, integrating with the Safaricom Daraja API. I was responsible for building this feature from the frontend using React Native to the backend using C#. ●​ SMS Queuing System: Previously, messages triggered by events were sent out immediately and since loan products are governed by dates, this created a problem where some notifications were sent out at midnight. We built this service to make sure that SMSs were sent out at appropriate times. We were able to achieve this by using two AWS Lambdas built in python coupled with AWS DynamoDB. One saves the SMSs to DynamoDB while the other is set up to Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - send the saved SMSs when triggered by a Rule set up on AWS Cloudwatch using Africa Is Talking as an SMS Gateway. ●​ Digital Identity Validation: We implemented a feature that allows Aspira to validate a customers' digital identity without the need for physical meetings. This involved integrating our backend to the Kenya Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS), SDK integration into the app to build facial recognition with liveness detection and National ID capture with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capability. To ensure seamless integration, I wrote bridging files for both Java and Swift and collaborated closely with the frontend team to successfully implement the feature on both Android and iOS platforms using React Native. ●​ Aspira Web App: We set up a zero-code web platform to streamline internal business operations and offer a self-service portal for customers who prefer using their PCs or laptop browsers instead of the mobile application. CEVA Limited - Senior Software Engineer​ September 2016 - September 2018 CEVA Limited is a leading software development company specializing in providing bespoke white-label banking solutions to financial institutions, neobanks, insurance companies, and payment-intensive businesses. In this position, I played a crucial role in various projects as a project manager, developer, and trainer. As a project manager, I led and directed a team of developers by defining roles, assigning tasks, creating project timelines, and ensuring adherence to them. Additionally, I was actively involved in frontend development, specifically mobile apps and bots. As a trainer, I shared my knowledge and experience with junior developers to help them enhance and refine their skills. Achievements and Contributions ●​ Project Management: Led two projects as a Project Lead, utilizing my development skills and expertise to guide the project development process and ensure successful project completion. ●​ Mentorship: As the resident expert in Xamarin, Windows Dev, and bots, I actively shared my knowledge and skills with colleagues, providing mentorship and training to help them develop their own projects. ●​ Software Development: Developed mobile banking applications for Windows, Android, and iOS, utilizing both native frameworks and Xamarin. Contributed to backend development to support USSD, bots, and mobile applications. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - ●​ Research: Conducted extensive research to gain a deep understanding of existing and emerging technologies, enabling us to stay at the forefront of innovation. Main Projects UBN WIndows Mobile: As a front-end developer, I spearheaded the development of a mobile banking application for Union Bank of Nigeria, with a particular focus on Windows Mobile. In addition to leading a team of developers throughout the project, I also mentored a junior developer in Windows development. The mobile app boasted several features, such as user registration, login, fetching user bank details (account number, balance, etc.), fund transfers, airtime purchases, bill payments, and a lifestyle section with promotions, offers, and deals on products and services. National Bank of Kenya (NBK) IOS Mobile App: As a front-end developer, I was tasked with replicating my previously built Windows mobile application onto the iOS platform using the Xamarin framework and swift. I successfully built the app with features such as user login, fetching user bank details (Account No, balance, etc), fund transfer, airtime purchase, and bill payment. CEVA Limited - Software Engineer​ January 2016 - August 2016 As a software developer in this position, I was involved in both front-end development of mobile applications and bots, as well as back-end development for various projects. Achievements and Contributions ●​ Front-end development: Spearheaded the development of cutting-edge mobile banking applications for Windows, Android, and iOS platforms, utilizing both native frameworks and Xamarin, to enable seamless banking transactions for customers. ●​ Back-end development: Contributed to the development of robust back-end systems supporting USSD, BOTs, and mobile applications, ensuring efficient data processing and enhanced customer experience. ●​ Research and Development: Championed innovation efforts by conducting thorough research on emerging technologies and leveraging valuable insights to enhance product offerings. This contributed to improving the customer experience by implementing cognitive services that use natural language understanding to optimize our responses to consumer queries. Main Projects Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - National Bank of Kenya WIndows Mobile: As a Front End Developer, I played a key role in developing a mobile banking application for NBK on the Windows Mobile platform. Working collaboratively with other engineers and product managers, I successfully delivered the project to meet the client's needs. The app's features included user login, real-time access to account details such as balance and account number, and payment functionalities such as fund transfers, airtime purchase, and bill payments. CEVA Limited - Intern​ October 2015 - December 2015 During my internship at CEVA, I provided valuable support to the software engineering team, specifically in front-end development tasks. Additionally, I dedicated the rest of my time to further developing my skills and knowledge in the field of software development. Achievements and Contributions ●​ Client engagement and requirements gathering: Successfully collaborated with clients and offered exceptional support to ensure project requirements were met, while working closely under the guidance of the Project Manager ●​ Mobile Application Development: Took part in the front-end development of a mobile banking application for a client on the Windows Mobile platform. ●​ System Support: Proactively provide system support by efficiently addressing customer support requests and expertly investigating and resolving issues, while maintaining open communication with clients and escalating complex issues when necessary. Education and Certification AWS 2023 - Ongoing AWS Certified Solution Architect African Leadership University 2018 - 2019 ALX Leadership Xcelerator Program Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - This unique program takes participants through six phase modules on in-person intensives to help deliver all round impact. The program aided in improving my mindset and behavior, equipping me with tools, frameworks and leadership lessons to immediately use within my organization. University of Nairobi 2014 - 2016 B.SC. Electrical Engineering During my enrollment in the program, my primary objective was to expand my knowledge in telecommunication architecture and hardware engineering. Throughout the three years, I acquired valuable skills and insights that continue to influence my pursuits, evident in my engagement with microcontrollers as a personal hobby. However, as I progressed, I reached a pivotal realization: my true passion lies in software engineering. This pivotal revelation led me to make the decision to discontinue the program, allowing me to channel my energy and expertise into the field that resonates most deeply with my aspirations and strengths. By focusing on software engineering, I have been able to thrive and make significant contributions in this dynamic and evolving domain. Strathmore University 2012 - 2015 Bachelor in Business and Information Technology Majored in Networking, graduated 5th in my class and awarded 2nd Class Honors(Upper) This helped me build and sharpen my system development skills as well as hone my interpersonal skills Personal Interests ●​ I have a strong passion for technology, which has led me to pursue exciting hobbies outside of work. In my free time, I enjoy working with microcontrollers to create innovative IoT projects that enhance my living space or simply for fun. ●​ I am also a passionate car enthusiast with a particular interest in classic cars. In my free time, I enjoy rebuilding and restoring vintage vehicles, and I am currently working on restoring a 1989 Mercedes W201. This hobby has allowed me to develop valuable skills in problem-solving, attention to detail, and project management. Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: - Professional Referees Ella Peinovich-Griffith C.E.O. Powered By People Phone: - Email:- Brian Towett Senior Engineering Manager Microsoft Phone: - Email:- Lydia Maison Product Strategist/ Senior Product Management Consultant Phone: - Email:- Samuel Kihara Kamau | • Email:-| ☎ Mobile: -