Albert Ashaba Aheebwa

Professional Summary

Backend software engineer specialising in Python, Django, and financial systems engineering, with 3+ years of production experience at Onafriq (Beyonic) — a pan-African mobile-money infrastructure platform. Owns backend systems processing cross-border payments across MTN, Airtel, Vodacom, and Orange networks. Demonstrated ability to identify critical financial correctness issues, optimise high-throughput APIs, and enforce engineering standards through structured code review. Progressed rapidly from intern to core backend developer within a production fintech team. Comfortable operating autonomously in async, distributed engineering environments with a strong documentation and review culture.

Technical Skills

Languages:: Python, JavaScript (ES6+), SQL, Dart
Backend & APIs:: Django, DRF, REST API Design, Microservices, Monolithic Systems, HTMX, Alpine.js, CLI Tooling
Frontend:: Flutter, TailwindCSS, Bootstrap CSS
Databases:: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Django ORM, Schema Design, Query Optimisation
Cloud & DevOps:: GCP, CI/CD Pipelines, Bitbucket Pipelines, NGINX, Linode VPS, Automated Testing, Linting Automation
Architecture & Practices:: System Design, Performance Profiling, Security Engineering (MFA, Fraud Detection), Financial Reconciliation, Code Review, Technical Documentation
Tools & Collaboration:: Git, Agile/Scrum, Sprint Planning, Async Remote Collaboration

Professional Experience

Onafriq (Beyonic) — Backend Developer, FinTech

Nov 2023 – Present

Diagnosed a systematic rounding error in the financial reconciliation module by auditing transaction-to-settlement discrepancies across payment cycles; the defect had silently accumulated over $70,000 in missed collections. Patched the calculation logic, wrote regression tests, and implemented an automated reconciliation audit job to detect similar drift proactively.
Architected microservices to isolate mobile-money provider integrations (MTN, Airtel, Vodacom, Orange) from the core Django monolith, reducing cross-service coupling and enabling independent deployment and failure isolation per provider.
Profiled and optimised payment-processing API endpoints using Django Debug Toolbar and query analysis, reducing average response latency by ~20% and increasing successful transaction throughput by ~15%.
Designed and implemented fraud-detection logic and multi-factor authentication flows for financial transaction pipelines, reducing exposure to unauthorised transaction patterns.
Owned CI/CD pipeline configuration on GCP and Bitbucket; introduced automated health-check services and production monitoring hooks contributing to sustained 99%+ uptime across core payment services.
Established and enforced backend code quality standards through PR review: defined patterns for API error handling, enforced test coverage thresholds, and documented architectural decisions to reduce onboarding friction.
Authored and maintained internal API documentation and technical runbooks, enabling async handoffs across a distributed team.
Led sprint planning and peer code review cycles; mentored junior engineers on financial data correctness, debugging methodology, and Django backend architecture.

Nugsoft Technologies — Junior Software Developer

Aug 2023 – Oct 2023

Built a Django/DRF analytics backend integrated across multiple client platforms (including WordPress sites), enabling real-time tracking of user engagement metrics for product teams.
Delivered a full-stack Real Estate Management platform covering construction tracking, inventory management, and sale/rental workflows — independently designing the data model and API layer.
Diagnosed and resolved production bugs in a live loan management system serving 100–300 users, shipping fixes without service disruption.

HCH Financial Services — Software Developer Intern

Apr 2023 – Sep 2023

Served as Scrum Master for a four-person team delivering a Django-based loan management system; personally authored approximately 80% of the backend codebase while coordinating sprint delivery and client communication.
Designed relational database schemas for sensitive financial records, balancing query performance with data privacy requirements using Django ORM and raw SQL.
Deployed the production application on a Linode VPS behind NGINX, configuring the server environment for stable, low-maintenance operation.

Selected Engineering Projects

Reconciliation Audit System

Stack: Python · Django · PostgreSQL · Celery

Problem: Payment totals reconciled at the summary level but silently diverged at the per-transaction level due to floating-point rounding across currency conversion steps.
Solution: Redesigned reconciliation logic to use Python's Decimal type throughout; added an async Celery beat job that cross-validates every transaction against settlement records nightly.
Outcome: Caught $70,000+ in accumulated losses; zero recurrence since deployment.

Mobile-Money Provider Microservices Layer

Stack: Python · Django REST Framework · GCP · PostgreSQL · Bitbucket CI/CD

Problem: All four mobile-money provider integrations lived inside the core monolith; a breaking API change on one provider could degrade the entire payment system.
Solution: Designed a thin service abstraction layer with a common provider interface, isolating each integration behind its own deployable unit with independent error handling, retry logic, and circuit-breaking.
Outcome: Enabled zero-downtime provider updates, improved fault isolation, and allowed per-provider performance tuning without risk to core payment flows.

Loan Management Platform

Stack: Python · Django · PostgreSQL · HTMX · Bootstrap · NGINX · Linode

Problem: Client needed audit-safe loan records with role-based access — standard CRUD patterns were insufficient for financial compliance requirements.
Solution: Implemented append-only transaction logs for loan state changes, separating mutation events from the read model to preserve full audit history.
Outcome: Delivered a compliant, production-deployed platform; system served 100–300 users with stable uptime.

Internal Developer Tooling Suite

Stack: Python · Django · Bash · GCP

Problem: Production incident response was slow because engineers lacked fast, consistent ways to inspect service health or validate API behaviour without SSH access.
Solution: Built a set of internal CLI tools and a lightweight health-check service exposing key system indicators (queue depth, API error rates, deployment version) via a simple interface.
Outcome: Reduced average time-to-diagnose for production incidents; adopted as standard tooling across the backend team.

Education

Software Engineering Bootcamp — Refactory Jan 2023 – Aug 2023

Software Engineering Certificate — Clerk International University Aug 2022 – Nov 2022

B.Sc. Chemical Engineering — Liaoning University of Technology, China 2013 – 2017

Languages

English (Native) · Chinese (Proficient) · German (Beginner)

Additional Information

Writes about backend engineering, Python, and fintech systems on personal blog — trippleaunit.com
Career transitioner with a strong analytical foundation from engineering sciences; applied directly to debugging, systems thinking, and financial correctness.