Available for select opportunities Bamenda, Cameroon

Elroy Kimbi

I build reliable systems and the teams behind them.

View selected systems Résumé

Evidence / 01

Selected systems

Three builds where the architecture is the story. No mystery bars, no percentage confetti.

Content-addressed object store

Barme

A lightweight object store built around one decision: address bytes by their content, not their name.

Design proof

S3 and native JSON APIs share one engine. Chunk hashes make deduplication, cheap versioning, integrity checks, and instance sync consequences of the storage model.

Rust
S3 / SigV4
Content addressing
Sync

View repository

Offline-first sync library

Maayo

A small sync layer built for apps that cannot pretend the network will always be there.

Design proof

Writes land locally in an IndexedDB outbox and appear immediately. Independent push and pull flows drain mutations and fetch cursor-based changes when connectivity returns.

TypeScript
React
IndexedDB
Sync protocol

Read the design story

Evidence gate for coding agents

Vince Gate

A portable implementer-and-reviewer toolkit that makes completion depend on reproducible proof.

Design proof

Turns requests into confirmed contracts, requires RED, GREEN, TAMPER, and a real wire proof, then hands the diff to a fresh adversarial reviewer whose PASS is the completion gate.

Python
Agent Skills
TDD
Adversarial review

View repository

Record / 02

Experience

Roles are useful. The decisions, systems, and people behind them are the actual record.

Dec 2023 — Feb 2026

Senior Software Engineer

Drifting Desk

Led developers across architecture, reviews, and mentoring while shipping enterprise microservices.

Spring Boot
Java
Kotlin
C#/.NET
React
Angular
Kubernetes
Kafka

Led a team across code reviews, architecture decisions, and mentoring, elevating team capability and accelerating delivery via Agile/Scrum.
Designed and maintained microservices (Metasonic, ESG Assistant) using Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, C#/.NET, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MongoDB, Redis, and Kubernetes.
Built and optimized React and Angular frontends, improving performance and UX across platforms.
Improved observability and reliability with Grafana dashboards, containerized deployments, and automated CI/CD via Azure DevOps and GitLab CI/CD.
Developed WordPress plugins and PHP integrations enabling custom internal tooling.

Sep 2022 — Aug 2023

Software Engineer

Bayzat

Built HR and payroll platform features serving thousands of users.

Kotlin
Spring Boot
PostgreSQL
React
TypeScript
Terraform
Amazon SQS

Developed and maintained HR/payroll features with Kotlin, Spring Boot, and PostgreSQL, ensuring compliance and reliability at scale.
Built a bank integration with Saudi Awwal Bank, enabling on-platform payroll processing for customers in KSA.
Collaborated with product and customer success in Agile sprints to prioritize feedback and improve UX.
Enhanced backend architecture, reducing incidents and improving scalability.

May 2022 — Dec 2023

Software Engineer

Skolabox

Built and secured the Transkript education management system.

Java
Kotlin
Spring Boot
Angular
ExpressJS
Azure App Service
PostgreSQL

Maintained and enhanced attendance, authentication, and records modules for the Transkript platform.
Designed and implemented data security policies (including MFA), ensuring confidentiality and integrity.
Managed CI/CD pipelines and Azure DevOps deployments, reducing release time and improving consistency.
Optimized backend architecture for performance, scalability, and maintainability across multiple schools.

Mar 2022 — Aug 2022

Software Developer

OpenRefine

Open-source contributor (Outreachy) improving global accessibility.

JavaScript
Java
Servlets
Java IO/NIO
Weblate

Implemented server-side localization to support multiple languages and improve global accessibility.
Reviewed contributions and maintained server-side code quality through peer reviews.
Collaborated with the open-source community to triage and resolve critical issues.

Feb 2022 — Aug 2022

Software Engineer

Nasia Technologies

Helped launch One Seed One Farm, an enterprise market system.

Java
Spring Boot
CI/CD
PostgreSQL

Contributed to the inception and development of One Seed One Farm, an enterprise-grade market system.
Designed the database architecture and implemented CI/CD pipelines for faster, more reliable deployments.

Field notes / 03

Notes from the Grassfields

Systems, teams, and the practical reality of building software from Cameroon.

Read all notes

July 17, 2026 · 8 min

Barme: I wanted a lightweight object store, so I built one in Rust

I wanted an object store that stays small, is aware of versions, manages its own storage, compresses, and is written in Rust. I couldn't find one that fit, so I built Barme. It stores objects by content instead of by name, which turns out to hand you dedup, cheap versioning, and integrity almost for free. Here is the idea and the parts that bit me.

July 4, 2026 · 3 min

Eight teams, one demo day: the Bamenda Community Challenge

In early June we ran the Bamenda Community Challenge again, five years running now. Eight teams built real products for real local problems. One of them, a shop inventory app called Wé, would not leave my head.

June 26, 2026 · 4 min

How Serena made Claude Code usable in a 100-microservice codebase

I knew a hundred-microservice system well, but there were deeper layers I had never had to touch, and Claude Code kept burning its whole context just digging them out. Serena fixed that. Here is how, and the gotchas to watch for.

Field / 04

Operating principles

Good systems are understandable. Good teams make that understanding travel.

Technical Lead & Senior Full Stack Engineer with 4+ years of experience leading cross-functional teams and delivering scalable enterprise applications, microservices, and CI/CD solutions. Proficient across the JVM, .NET, and modern web stacks, with hands-on expertise in Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS). I drive Agile delivery, mentor developers, and obsess over reliable, well-architected systems.

Years building: 4+
Teams shipped with: 5
Stacks: JVM · .NET · web: 3

Field / 05

Things I believe

Rule 01

Boring tech, exciting outcomes

I reach for proven tools. The thrill should be in what we ship, not in 3am incident calls.

Rule 02

Readable beats clever

Code is read far more than it’s written. If the next dev needs a séance to understand it, I rewrote it.

Rule 03

Mentor as you go

A team that levels up together ships faster than any one hero ever could.

Rule 04

Ship, measure, repeat

Small reversible steps with good observability beat a big-bang launch and a prayer.

Field / 06

Skills & tooling

Languages

/Java
/Kotlin
/C#
/TypeScript
/JavaScript
/SQL

Frameworks

/Spring Boot
/.NET
/Angular
/React
/ExpressJS

Cloud & DevOps

/Docker
/Kubernetes
/GitLab CI/CD
/Azure DevOps
/AWS
/Terraform

Data & Messaging

/PostgreSQL
/MongoDB
/Redis
/Kafka
/RabbitMQ
/Amazon SQS

Practices

/Microservices
/Systems Design
/Database Design
/Scalability
/Agile / Scrum

Field / 07

The Arcade

Three tiny games, because a portfolio shouldn't be a chore to read. High scores save to your browser. Go on, flex.

+1 +3 avoid

score 0best 020s

The bugs won't squash themselves.

Field / 08

Education & community

Education

B.Eng, Computer Engineering
University of Bamenda · 2019 — 2023
GCE Advanced Level
Lycée Bilingue d’Atiela · 2017 — 2019

Volunteering & leadership

Student Ambassador
Microsoft Learn · 2022 — Present
Organiser
Google Developer Group · 2022 — 2023
Project Coordinator
Google Developer Student Clubs · 2021 — 2022

Field / 09

Unsolicited facts

01I’ve shipped to production on a Friday and lived to tell the tale.

02My commit messages are 60% poetry, 40% “fix stuff”.

03I debug rubber-duck style — the duck has equity now.

04Kotlin and I are in a committed relationship. Java knows.

05I once named a microservice after a snack. No regrets.

06Dark mode isn’t a preference, it’s a personality.

Field / 10 · Open channel

Let's build something that holds up.

I'm open to interesting roles, collaborations, and conversations. The fastest way to reach me is by email.

elroykanye@gmail.com