Daniel Webala

Built rider and driver apps for a Kenyan ride-hailing platform using React Native and TypeScript (Expo Router, NativeWind). Delivered OTP sign-in, multi-step driver onboarding with document uploads, ride booking, trip tracking, and earnings. Implemented driver KYC with ID/licence/vehicle uploads plus selfie/liveness check and a verification status flow that keeps drivers offline until approval. Integrated Google Maps Platform (Maps SDK, Routes API), Firebase, Google Sign-In, and push notifications via a typed TanStack Query API layer with request throttling. Upgraded apps to Expo SDK 57 / React Native 0.86 and set up GitHub Actions pipelines for PR checks, Jest tests, and signed Android releases.

Led a team of 2–3 engineers as Tech Lead, owning architecture decisions (stack, service design, data model, infrastructure), coding standards, and code reviews. Built and refactored a responsive Next.js/React front end for a sports-betting platform, improving first-quarter user retention by 15%. Delivered near real-time bet updates for 10,000+ concurrent users, reducing update latency by 90%. Implemented Redis caching and asynchronous task processing to reduce page load times by 40% and average API response times by 25%. Set up a CI/CD pipeline that halved deployment time and added Prometheus/Grafana monitoring to cut critical-error detection time by 50%.

Shipped end-to-end product features across a Next.js/React front end (Tailwind CSS) and Node.js microservices supporting 50,000+ users. Optimized component rendering to cut page load times by 40% and increase engagement by 25%. Integrated M-Pesa and Paystack into the Node.js backend with idempotent payment processing (1,000+ transactions in the first month) at a 99.9% success rate with no double charges and 25% fewer transaction errors. Built KYC onboarding with ID uploads and pending/approved/rejected verification flow plus admin review tools. Wrote Jest unit tests and collaborated with QA on automated end-to-end tests, resolving 50+ integration issues and reducing critical production issues by 15%. Designed and delivered new API endpoints and led refactors/tuning to reduce service code complexity and real-time update latency.