
Obodugo Rapheal
Verified Expert in Engineering
Front-end Engineer and Developer
Lagos, Nigeria
Toptal member since May 21, 2021
Rapheal is a creative front-end engineer with a solid knack for product and interactive design. With over seven years of professional experience in software engineering, he has had the opportunity to work with sectors, cutting across media, finance, consultancy, and educational technology. He has been opportune to work on enterprise systems, CRMS, fintech applications, and design systems in these roles. Rapheal also has experience working with back-end technologies and DevOps.
Portfolio
Experience
- JavaScript - 14 years
- HTML - 10 years
- CSS - 10 years
- Vue - 10 years
- Airtable - 8 years
- Figma - 8 years
- React - 5 years
- Product Design - 5 years
Preferred Environment
MacOS, Windows, Linux
The most amazing...
...thing I've built is an all-in-one product management suite that allows employers to create and manage employees, create tasks, and enable employees to log time.
Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer
Avae AI
- Architected and built the full-stack platform from scratch, designing scalable back-end services, AI inference pipelines, and structured data workflows.
- Engineered an intelligent outbound engine that programmatically maps startups to relevant investors using signal-based scoring models (stage fit, sector alignment, geographic thesis, portfolio overlap).
- Designed a modular AI system leveraging LLM orchestration, structured prompt pipelines, and retrieval-based augmentation to generate personalized, high-conversion outreach.
- Implemented data normalization and enrichment pipelines to aggregate and clean fragmented venture ecosystem data.
- Led product-architecture decisions balancing AI experimentation with deterministic system design to ensure reproducibility and scale.
Engineering Lead
Derayah Financial
- Led product engineering for a high-volume retail trading platform operating under live market and regulatory constraints.
- Owned the modernization of core investing dashboards, focusing on correctness, latency, and state consistency under real-time data.
- Worked closely with compliance, growth, and trading stakeholders to ship features without compromising regulatory or execution guarantees.
- Re-architected legacy frontend and data interaction layers to support scalability, maintainability, and faster iteration.
- Built and led the web engineering team end-to-end, from role definition and hiring to execution standards and delivery cadence.
Front-end Developer - Airtable, Java & Python
Landscape Ventures Ltd
- Built a complete online store from scratch using Vue Storefront’s SDK and GraphQL API, enabling seamless product management and checkout integration.
- Integrated OpenAI’s function-calling architecture to allow dynamic querying across funding databases and Crunchbase-like sources.
- Built an internal tool to filter noisy dealflow using a custom scoring algorithm based on traction signals, team pedigree, and market potential—reduced manual review time by 60%.
- Spearheaded the development of an AI-powered agent system that autonomously scans startup ecosystems and surfaces high-quality investment leads for VCs.
Senior Front-end Engineer - React & Airtable
Rollee
- Developed the coverage modules, ensuring clients can monitor our providers' status effortlessly.
- Engineered a comprehensive analytics module for the dashboard, empowering customers to track vital metrics easily.
- Collaborated with our lead designer to create a robust design system component library.
- Made significant contributions to our Connect Mobile SDKs, utilizing React and Flutter for development.
Lead Front-end Engineer
HitPay Payment Solutions
- Developed a comprehensive eCommerce website builder, empowering customers to customize their online stores effortlessly using the Vue storefront.
- Implemented a robust design system for the entire front-end system, streamlining collaboration and enabling efficient contributions from fellow engineers.
- Optimized the customer dashboard's performance by reducing bundle size and introducing reusable components, improving speed and efficiency.
Senior Web3 Front-end Engineer
Samy Halim
- Integrated a decentralized wallet solution successfully, allowing users to securely manage their crypto assets directly from the platform.
- Developed a custom UI for interacting with smart contracts, enabling users to execute complex blockchain transactions with ease.
- Designed and developed a customizable token dashboard where users can monitor their unique portfolio of tokens. Implemented drag-and-drop functionality for reordering and organizing tokens based on user preference.
- Enabled cross-chain compatibility by integrating multiple blockchain networks, allowing users to seamlessly interact with various tokens and assets across different ecosystems.
Senior Front-end Engineer
PokerGO Tour
- Led the development of the PokerGO website, significantly improving performance and achieving a remarkable 70% reduction in load time.
- Implemented a concise and efficient design system for the PokerGo Admin dashboard, ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly interface for administrators.
- Assisted with ad-hoc back-end-related issues, leveraging Go and Laravel to address and resolve various challenges, ensuring a smooth and seamless user experience.
Creative Developer
Xbox Game Studios
- Played a pivotal role in building an immersive experience to celebrate Xbox's 20th anniversary, engaging users with captivating features and interactions.
- Developed custom components for the application, enhancing its functionality and delivering a unique user experience tailored to Xbox's brand.
- Focused on optimizing the platform's performance, ensuring smooth and responsive gameplay while also prioritizing accessibility to make the gaming experience inclusive for all users.
Front-end Engineer
ExpressWay
- Spearheaded the development of a real-time tracking feature on the ExpressWay web app, enabling users to monitor bus locations based on their real-time positions conveniently.
- Conducted a comprehensive refactoring of front-end components, enhancing reusability and promoting a more efficient development process across the project.
- Implemented optimization techniques to improve website performance, focusing on reducing load times and ensuring seamless accessibility across all website elements.
Senior Front-end Engineer
Ecosia
- Collaborated in building the shopping tab on Ecosia search, providing users with a convenient platform to shop sustainably and support eco-friendly products. Leveraged the Vue storefront for this.
- Developed custom components to enhance the shopping experience and successfully improved page load time by over 40%, ensuring a seamless and efficient user journey.
- Implemented automated end-to-end testing into the application, enhancing the quality and reliability of the software by ensuring robust functionality and reducing potential issues.
Senior Front-end Engineer
Baobab Partners
- Led the design process, creating wireframes and high-fidelity mockups for web applications, ensuring intuitive user interfaces and seamless user experiences.
- Developed responsive, cross-browser compatible, and accessible compliant web applications, delivering exceptional usability and reaching a broad audience.
- Optimized load time by more than 50 seconds, implementing performance optimization techniques to enhance website speed and user satisfaction.
- Implemented automated tests into the deployment pipeline, significantly reducing issues by 50% and ensuring the reliability and stability of the applications.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams, providing technical expertise and contributing to the overall success of projects.
- Researched and adopted new technologies, staying updated with industry trends to drive innovation and improve development processes.
- Participated actively in code reviews, providing valuable feedback and maintaining code quality and best practices.
- Demonstrated strong problem-solving skills, troubleshooting and resolving issues promptly to maintain the smooth operation of applications.
Senior Full-stack Engineer
Prepclass Nigeria
- Built and managed microservices Laravel used by over 50 internal staff.
- Performed back-end development to support the creation of valuable APIs for the enterprise app of over 50,000 users.
- Designed a prototype and architect software systems that work and meet global standards.
- Implemented an activity log system to better track actions on the in-house CRM solution.
- Designed the role-permission system for the application for better access control.
- Refactored the codebase and added automated tests to the legacy codebase.
Software Engineer
Techpoint Africa
- Designed responsive and performant web user interfaces for in-house digital solutions.
- Built web applications, such as Techpoint Base, with modern JavaScript while ensuring all components are accessible.
- Integrated automated tests into the deployment pipeline, reducing issues by 50%.
Software Engineer
FeedMonkey
- Designed and developed UIs and front-end components for the entire FeedMonkey web application.
- Integrated automated tests into our deployment pipeline, reducing bugs and issues site-wide.
- Integrated APIs into front-end components while ensuring all components were functional and fast.
Experience
Ecosia Shopping
Expressway Dublin
I leveraged Google Maps API and Google customized markers for this.
HitPay eCommerce Solution
https://dashboard.hit-pay.comPokerGPT Website
https://www.pgt.com/Web Engineer Lead
http://mysub.ioI was responsible for defining the technical architecture, implementing the core subscription-tracking engine, and building an intuitive dashboard that translates complex financial data into actionable insights. I also established the design system foundation to ensure consistency, performance, and long-term maintainability as the product evolved.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of Nigeria, Nsukka - Enugu, Nigeria
Certifications
Frontend Masters
FrontendMasters.com
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Vue 2, React, Vue, Node.js, React Redux, Stripe, PayPal API, Liquid, Typeform, Shopify API, Context API, Web API, jQuery, PrimeNG, API Development, Claude API, Google Maps API, Vue 3, GSAP, D3.js, Chart.js, Stripe API, ASPX
Tools
Figma, Google Analytics, Canvas, Shopify Plus, Wix, Webpack, Git, Claude, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Claude Agent SDK, Claude Code, CircleCI, PostCSS
Languages
JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS, Go, TypeScript, HTML5, Shopify Liquid, SQL, GraphQL, Python, CSS3, Java, Swift, Sass, SCSS, Solidity
Frameworks
Laravel 5, Nuxt.js, Bootstrap, Angular, AngularJS, Next.js, Redux, Tailwind CSS, Nuxt 3, React Native, Django, Flutter, Eclipse Gemini, AdonisJS, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Fastify, Laravel, Cypress, Jest, Electron
Paradigms
UI Design, UX Design, Rapid Prototyping, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Responsive Web Design (RWD), Responsive, Web UI Design, Role-based Access Control (RBAC), Business Intelligence (BI), DevOps, Split Testing, Automation, Mobile Development, HIPAA Compliance, Unit Testing, Testing, Automated Testing
Platforms
MacOS, Windows, Linux, Webflow, Shopify, WordPress, Calendly, AWS IoT, Klaviyo, Firebase, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Webflow CMS, Azure, iOS, Mobile, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AppSheets, Google AppSheet, FlutterFlow, Android, Blockchain, Kubernetes, Docker
Industry Expertise
Web Design, Marketing
Storage
MySQL, Cloud Firestore, PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, Google Cloud, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Other
Software Engineering, Product Design, User Experience (UX), Communication, Front-end Development, User Interface (UI), Full-stack Development, Front-end, Web Development, Web UI, Responsive UI, Websites, Landing Pages, Pixel Perfect, HTML5 Animations, CSS3 Animation, UI Animation, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), HTML Email, Email, APIs, PayPal, CSS Animations, eCommerce, Responsive UX Design, WordPress Themes, Branding, Responsive Design, First Contentful Paint (FCP), Perch CMS, Animation, Creative Problem Solving, Creativity, Detail-oriented, Graphic Design, Membership Sites, API Integration, Google SEO, Keyword Searches, Shopify Design, Shopify Customizations, Custom Shopify Apps, Elementor, WordPress Plugins, Conversion Rate, Shopify SEO, Site Speed Optimization, Startups, Responsive Web Apps, UI Components, Tailwind UI, Vite, Tanstack Query, Accessibility, Multilingual Websites, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Web Accessibility, MERN Stack, Supabase, Mobile UX, Technical Leadership, Airtable, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Analysis, Data Security, Leadership, FastAPI, Algorithmic Trading, App Store, AI Integration, Elementor Pro, Architecture, Large Language Models (LLMs), Widgets, Chrome Extensions, Performance Optimization, Reinforcement Learning, AI Agents, Gemini API, Gemini, CRM APIs, AI Automation, Manus, AI Agent Orchestration, AI Architecture, UI Development, Mobile UI, Full-stack, HIPAA, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), LLM Integration, Speech-to-Text (STT), Text-to-Speech (TTS), Algorithms, Statistical Methods, Web3, Loyalty Programs, UI Testing, Performance, A/B Testing, Vue Storefront, Back-end Development
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