Theo Okafor, Developer in Lagos, Nigeria
Theo is available for hire
Hire Theo

Theo Okafor

Verified Expert  in Engineering

React Developer

Location
Lagos, Nigeria
Toptal Member Since
August 31, 2021

Theo is a highly accomplished senior software engineer with a strong track record of delivering innovative solutions using a broad tech stack, including React, JavaScript, Python, AWS, and more. He has proven leadership experience in technical roles, fostering collaboration and driving results, exceptional problem-solving skills, work ethic, and a commitment to mentorship and excellence.

Portfolio

Above Lending Inc
React, Node.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, Redux, Express.js, Webpack, Docker...
Neoteros Limited
JavaScript, React, Chrome Extensions, OpenID, REST APIs, REST...
BBC
JavaScript, HTML, HTML5, CSS, CSS3, Sass, Webpack, Handlebars, React...

Experience

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Unix, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Ubuntu, MacOS

The most amazing...

...moment of my career is transitioning from associate software engineer to lead software engineer in under 10 months.

Work Experience

Senior React Engineer

2022 - 2023
Above Lending Inc
  • Developed the newest version of the front-end application, which merged the loan servicing dashboard and the loan application web app into a single, easy-to-use, and maintainable application.
  • Developed the servicing dashboard payment schedule functionality that enables the users to schedule loan repayments as they wish.
  • Oversaw the deployment of a multi-variant test on the offer page using launch darkly.
Technologies: React, Node.js, JavaScript, TypeScript, Redux, Express.js, Webpack, Docker, Cypress, React Query, Context API, Formik, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Test-driven Development (TDD), Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Storybook, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Clean Code, Accessibility, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, Design Systems, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), Test Case Development, Web App Development

Senior Full-stack Developer

2021 - 2022
Neoteros Limited
  • Collaborated with back-end developer to design the architecture of the Exhibitrust Chrome extension, web application, and the back-end.
  • Designed and developed the Exhibitrust Chrome extension software for secure full webpage captures in PNG and MHTML formats.
  • Integrated custom-made OpenID and OAuth2 authentication mechanism to the Exhibitrust Chrome extension, enabling secure client-side authentication on the Chrome extension.
  • Collaborated with the back-end engineer to integrate fit-for-purpose RESTful APIs to securely transmit data generated from the Chrome extension to the archive.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, Chrome Extensions, OpenID, REST APIs, REST, RESTful Web Services, HTML, CSS, OAuth 2, Git, Azure, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Clean Code, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), Test Case Development, Web App Development

Software Engineer | Web Developer

2021 - 2022
BBC
  • Contributed to the development of interactive visual web content covering the African water security problems using HTML, Sass, Handlebars, and Webpack.
  • Developed the 2021 Africa Nations Cup results and fixtures for 12 African languages.
  • Aggregated and documented the team's libraries using Dropbox Paper.
  • Contributed to the documentation of the team's tools and best practices that enhanced the onboarding experience of new joiners.
Technologies: JavaScript, HTML, HTML5, CSS, CSS3, Sass, Webpack, Handlebars, React, Serverless, AWS Lambda, Cosmos, Jenkins, Web Security, Serverless Architecture, Continuous Delivery (CD), Continuous Integration (CI), Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Clean Code, Accessibility, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, Design Systems, Web Usability, Web Applications, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), SOAP, Web App Development

Front-end Engineer

2021 - 2022
E-Settlement Limited
  • Implemented complex features such as secure client authentication, merchant onboarding, and merchant settings for the company's next-generation fintech application.
  • Developed Yep!'s secure payment widget enabling merchants to integrate it into their platforms and receive payments from their customers.
  • Interfaced with back-end engineers to build fit-for-purpose RESTful API services.
  • Collaborated with the product designer to develop parts of the application designs.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, HTML5, CSS3, Tailwind CSS, Bitbucket, Jest, REST APIs, RESTful Web Services, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), React Query, Test-driven Development (TDD), Git, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Context API, Formik, Webpack, CSS, HTML, Functional Programming, Architecture, Axios, Integration Testing, OWASP, REST, AWS Amplify, Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), APIs, Web Development, UI Components, Design Systems, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), Test Case Development, Web App Development, Online Payments

Lead Software Developer

2020 - 2021
eSoft Response
  • Developed the processes for the software development operations involving every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This enabled the company to secure first paying clients and subsequent clients.
  • Recruited and managed mid-level and junior software developers for the company. Successfully grew the team from three to 10 software developers within 10 months.
  • Designed, developed, deployed, and maintained complex software solutions for clients. Made solution and software architecture decisions that effectively led to quicker turnaround times and better client satisfaction.
  • Migrated existing legacy applications to modern CI/CD pipelines on AWS, leading to more frequent feature releases (1 release per week to 4 – 5 releases per week) and over 50% cost-saving in AWS charges.
  • Implemented complex new features and fixed bugs in the existing application using React on the client side with Redux, Context API, or hooks.
  • Designed, implemented, and maintained complex RESTful API services.
Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, React, Redux, PostgreSQL, Django REST Framework, Celery, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Software Architecture, Agile Project Management, Express.js, CI/CD Pipelines, DevOps, Asana, Docker, Solution Architecture, REST APIs, Figma, Django, CSS3, HTML5, Full-stack, RESTful Web Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase, Jest, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Ant Design, Bootstrap, Material Design, Prisma, React Redux, Formik, Payment APIs, Access Control, Webpack, CSS, HTML, XML, Functional Programming, WebSockets, Architecture, Axios, Integration Testing, OWASP, Databases, REST, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), AWS Amplify, Test-driven Development (TDD), Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Clean Code, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Test Case Development, Web App Development, Online Payments

Full-stack Software Engineer

2020 - 2020
Freelance
  • Designed and built a complex custom in-app messaging system to enable asynchronous communications between admins, support team, and users.
  • Interfaced with the product lead to establish the best product ideas.
  • Detected and closed potential security vulnerabilities in the existing software system.
  • Redesigned and rebuilt parts of the client application to meet market demands and standards.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, Node.js, HTML5, CSS3, Heroku, CI/CD Pipelines, Git, MongoDB, Mongoose, Bootstrap, REST APIs, RESTful Web Services, Full-stack, Figma, Product Design, React Redux, Redux, Webpack, CSS, HTML, Functional Programming, Architecture, Axios, OWASP, Databases, REST, Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Clean Code, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Web App Development

Associate Software Engineer

2018 - 2020
Talent Accelerator Company
  • Developed new features using React of the client and Node.js and Express.js for the server applications while adhering to team standards and conventions. Worked on the Steps bot application owned by IDEO.org.
  • Built the feature on the Steps application that contributes to about 40% cost saving in the cost of operating the entire software application.
  • Handled product demos to the product owner and client and participated in peer review and peer programming sessions with teammates.
  • Mentored trainee software engineers, facilitated coding bootcamps, and participated in tech outreaches.
  • Interviewed candidates and made hiring decisions for the junior technical positions in the company.
Technologies: React, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, Heroku, CI/CD Pipelines, Git, Auth0, Cypress, Express.js, REST APIs, RESTful Web Services, Full-stack, Test-driven Development (TDD), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Jest, Sequelize, Firebase, React Native, Figma, Product Design, React Redux, React Final Form, SCSS, Webpack, CSS, HTML, Serverless Architecture, Functional Programming, Axios, Integration Testing, OWASP, Databases, REST, OAuth 2, Twilio, Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, GitHub, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Clean Code, Accessibility, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, Test Case Development, Web App Development, Data Visualization, Recharts

Lead Software Engineer and Founder

2017 - 2020
Ideosynergy (Self-employed)
  • Designed, developed, and deployed software and solution architecture for worksfair.com, a listing platform for service-oriented businesses in Nigeria. Used Django REST framework to build RESTful APIs and React and Redux for the client application.
  • Designed, developed, and deployed a fully-featured website builder within worksfair.com and enabled users to publish websites to the worksfair.co subdomain.
  • Researched emerging trends within the industry and capitalized on finds to develop new strategies.
  • Conducted pilot launch for the worksfair.com project and successfully listed about 100 works and services within one month.
Technologies: Django REST Framework, React, Python, JavaScript, Node.js, Next.js, Express.js, Celery, Redis, PostgreSQL, Django, Heroku, Agile Project Management, Pivotal Tracker, Git, GitHub, Travis CI, Code Climate, REST APIs, Figma, Jest, CSS3, HTML5, Test-driven Development (TDD), Product Design, Netlify, Material Design, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), SCSS, Sass, Bulma, Redux, React Redux, React Final Form, Webpack, CSS, HTML, Functional Programming, Architecture, Axios, Integration Testing, OWASP, Databases, REST, OAuth 2, Context API, Google Chrome, Front-end, Front-end Development, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Clean Code, Accessibility, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Test Case Development, Web App Development

Above Lending

https://www.abovelending.com
Above Lending is a forward-thinking fintech company with a strong presence in Chicago and Houston. Above Lending is committed to delivering next-generation loan servicing that empowers clients and consumers.

SpecNota Application

https://www.specnota.com
A collaborative SaaS application for product teams. SpecNota enables the users to quickly generate and manage functional specification documents (FSD), rich text documents, and diagrams such as ERDs and flowcharts. SpecNota also has a rich project management feature similar to Asana, providing a similar depth of features and functionalities.

I acted as the technical team lead for the product. I also served as a full-stack software engineer contributing to the application's back end and front end.

MY ROLE
• Designing and developing complex new features, as well as maintaining the existing features.
• Interfacing with the developers and product designers to ensure that excellent design and engineering standards are implemented in the product.
• Managing the legacy deployment pipelines for the project, including the development of strategies for migrating to modern CI/CD setup.
• Implemented complex new features and fixed bugs in the existing application.
• Redesigning parts of the system architecture to support new business needs.
• Designing, implementation, and maintenance of RESTful API services.

Yep!

https://www.getyep.co
Yep! is a fintech application for a Nigeria-based financial technology company, eSettlement group. I was the front-end engineer for the next-generation version. I covered the client-side business logic and architecture, including but not limited to secure client authentication, merchant onboarding, merchant settings, roles, and permissions for the company's next-generation fintech application. I liaised with back-end engineers to build fit-for-purpose RESTful API microservices. I also collaborated with the product designer to develop parts of the application designs.

LSE Generate — Genpool

A UK-based web application for the London School of Economics (LSE) Generate Accelerator Programme. Genpool is a PaaS that helps selected entrepreneurs connect with students and staff of LSE and offer various services. The application was built with Node.js, Express.js, and React for the client side.

I acted as the technical team lead for the project, setting up the application, especially the front-end architecture. I also led the deployment of the application. The front-end and back-end applications were deployed to AWS, AWS Amplify and AWS Elastic Beanstalk, respectively.

Plotpeer — The Project Investment App

Plotpeer was a project investment application. I served as the full-stack software engineer responsible for bug fixes and implementing important new features for the MVP. I worked on both the front-end and the back-end of the application. I designed and built a complex custom in-app messaging system to enable asynchronous communication between admins, support team, and users via RESTful APIs. I interfaced with the product lead to redesign and rebuild parts of the application user interface and experience to match acceptable market standards. I detected and closed potential security vulnerabilities in the front-end and the back-end applications.

Worksfair.com

https://www.worksfair.com
A Nigeria-based marketplace and website builder for services-oriented business. I acted as a full-stack software engineer, designing and developing software. I built everything from scratch, from the RESTful APIs services to the client-side application. I built the fully featured website builder on the platform, capable of supporting 100+ website templates.

Languages

JavaScript, Python, HTML5, CSS3, TypeScript, SCSS, SQL, HTML, CSS, Sass, XML, C++

Frameworks

Express.js, Jest, Redux, Next.js, Django, Bootstrap, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Bulma, Material UI, Django REST Framework, Tailwind CSS, Ant Design, OAuth 2, Cypress, React Native

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, REST APIs, Context API, AWS Amplify, React Redux, React Final Form, Formik, Handlebars, OpenID, Recharts

Tools

Celery, Git, Trello, GitHub, Webpack, Pivotal Tracker, Asana, Travis CI, Code Climate, Figma, Mongoose, Bitbucket, Sequelize, Prisma, Confluence, Jira, Auth0, Jenkins, AWS SDK, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS)

Paradigms

Test-driven Development (TDD), Functional Programming, Agile Project Management, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), REST, Clean Code, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), DevOps, Serverless Architecture

Platforms

Unix, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Ubuntu, MacOS, Heroku, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Chrome, Docker, Firebase, Netlify, Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Azure, AWS ALB, AWS STS, Twilio

Storage

PostgreSQL, JSON, Redis, MongoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Databases

Other

RESTful Web Services, Full-stack, SpecNota, Engineering, Design, Critical Thinking, Research, Programming, Axios, Integration Testing, Front-end, Front-end Development, Accessibility, APIs, Web Development, UI Components, Design Systems, MERN Stack, Web Usability, Web Applications, Responsive Web Apps, User Experience (UX), Test Case Development, Web App Development, CI/CD Pipelines, Software Architecture, Solution Architecture, Product Design, React Query, Material Design, Payment APIs, Access Control, Web Security, Amazon RDS, Software System Architecture Development, Architecture, Storybook, User Interface (UI), Online Payments, Amazon API Gateway, WebSockets, OWASP, Chrome Extensions, Serverless, Cosmos, AWS Cloud Architecture, SOAP, Data Visualization

2011 - 2016

Bachelor's Degree in Automotive Engineering

Federal University of Technology, Owerri - Owerri, Nigeria

FEBRUARY 2022 - PRESENT

Architecting with AWS

QA Ltd

AUGUST 2021 - PRESENT

Software Architecture Foundations

LinkedIn

AUGUST 2021 - PRESENT

Building Serverless Apps on AWS

LinkedIn

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring