Bolaji Yusuf

Engineering Manager | Cloud & DevOps Leader
Naaldwijk, NL.

About

Results-driven Engineering Manager and Cloud & DevOps Leader with 8+ years of experience, specializing in building high-performing software teams and delivering secure, scalable products across fintech, SaaS, and blockchain. Proven ability to lead cross-functional organizations of up to 30 engineers, launch 10+ products for over 100,000 users, and drive significant revenue growth, including generating over $70,000 in six months for a startup. Combines deep technical expertise in cloud architecture and DevOps with a passion for people leadership, process improvement, and strategic alignment of engineering execution with core business objectives.

Work

LightForth
|

Engineering Manager

New York, NY, US

Summary

Managed the transition from outsourced to in-house engineering, leading a 27-person team to increase feature throughput by 50% and launch a successful MVP.

Highlights

Successfully transitioned the company from an outsourced model to a 27-person in-house team, increasing feature throughput by 50% and strengthening team ownership.

Led the launch of an MVP, including AI Resume Builder and Interview Copilot, in under 8 weeks, growing the user base from 1,000 to over 12,000 in the first month.

Established foundational engineering culture, documentation, and review processes, implementing CI/CD and Agile rituals to improve code quality and streamline deployments.

Partnered with product leadership to prioritize high-impact features, reducing backlog by aligning the roadmap with strategic business objectives.

WebuildX
|

Founder & Engineering Manager

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Founded and scaled a B2B engineering firm, delivering cloud-native solutions and launching two enterprise products within six months, which generated over $70,000 in revenue.

Highlights

Led the founding and scaling of a B2B engineering firm, launching two enterprise products within six months and generating over $70,000 in revenue.

Architected and implemented robust cloud infrastructure for monolithic and microservices systems across five client projects, reducing hosting costs by 40% and ensuring 100% uptime.

Recruited, developed, and led a fully remote team of 30+ engineers across three African countries, improving delivery velocity by 40% through a pod-based structure.

Designed and optimized the hiring pipeline, successfully placing 10+ engineers (backend, frontend, DevOps) with a 100% retention rate for a fast-growing client.

Lynkk
|

Engineering Lead

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Directed backend, frontend, and infrastructure teams to deliver a robust DeFi platform, ensuring high-traffic performance and alignment with business objectives.

Highlights

Directed cross-functional teams (backend, frontend, infrastructure) to deliver a robust DeFi platform, meeting high-traffic performance and business objectives.

Developed secure smart contracts for escrow transactions using Solidity and Chainlink, integrating ERC-20 token standards and Uniswap API for seamless swaps.

Architected a scalable platform for crypto-to-fiat conversions, including a virtual card solution, ensuring high performance and secure tokenization.

IpayBTC
|

Senior Cloud Engineer (Blockchain)

San Francisco, CA, US

Summary

Engineered and deployed high-capacity blockchain solutions on AWS, significantly improving transaction throughput and reducing infrastructure costs.

Highlights

Developed ERC-20 and TRC-20 wallet functionalities using Ether.js, TronWeb, and Solidity, deploying a high-capacity Bitcoin SPV node on AWS handling 25,000 transactions and 5,000 wallet requests per minute.

Implemented a Lightning Network node, increasing transaction throughput by 10x and contributing to over N800 million in transaction volume.

Migrated hosting to AWS Fargate with automated deployments, reducing downtime by 80% and cutting infrastructure costs by 50%.

Deployed comprehensive monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana, while enhancing security using AWS Macie, Trusted Advisor, and WAF.

Wehaul
|

Lead Backend & DevOps Engineer

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Led a backend engineering team to design and build a scalable API, improving user experience and orchestrating a significant cloud migration to AWS.

Highlights

Led a team of backend engineers in designing and building a scalable API, significantly reducing response times and enhancing user experience for logistics customers.

Orchestrated a complex migration from Heroku to AWS (ECS, ELB, RDS, S3, CloudFront, Route 53), boosting performance and security while reducing operational costs.

Collaborated cross-functionally with frontend and mobile teams to ensure seamless integration, delivering a consistent customer experience across all platforms.

Implemented comprehensive security measures, including audit logging and encryption, and disaster recovery plans, cutting downtime by 50% and accelerating feature releases.

Landlord Care
|

Lead Backend & DevOps Engineer

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Developed and optimized a high-availability search engine and an AWS Lambda-based image processing pipeline, significantly improving user engagement and system performance.

Highlights

Developed a high-availability search engine using Elasticsearch with auto-complete, fuzzy search, and geo-based filtering, enhancing property search accuracy and speed.

Optimized server load with Redis caching and built an AWS Lambda-based image processing pipeline, improving response times for property photos.

Delivered real-time updates via WebSocket and Firebase Cloud Messaging, increasing user engagement by 40%, and integrated Paystack for secure payments.

Designed and implemented robust CI/CD pipelines using AWS CodePipeline and Docker, streamlining build, test, and deployment processes.

Byte
|

DevOps Engineer

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Designed and managed a microservices infrastructure on AWS using Terraform, enhancing performance and scalability for financial applications serving over 1,000 customers.

Highlights

Designed and managed a microservices infrastructure with Terraform, migrating applications from Heroku to AWS to enhance performance and scalability for 1,000+ financial customers.

Implemented Redis caching and maintained system reliability by resolving critical alerts and adhering to strict DevSecOps standards, safeguarding sensitive financial data.

Built and maintained CI/CD pipelines with Travis CI, enabling continuous integration and faster release cycles, and conducted cost evaluations to optimize cloud spend.

Excel Minds Group
|

Backend Developer

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Developed core features for an educational platform using Node.js, Express.js, and Cloudinary, implementing robust security and data protection measures.

Highlights

Developed key features for tutors to create classes, share materials, and interact with students using Node.js, Express.js, and Cloudinary.

Implemented robust security and data protection measures, designing a MongoDB database to organize and deliver account-specific data securely.

Built the account creation API and established caching mechanisms to support real-time and historical datasets effectively.

Digital Drivers Initiative
|

Backend Engineer & Tutor

Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Summary

Developed a content management system and facilitated backend development sessions for 50-150 students, ensuring consistent learning outcomes.

Highlights

Developed a content management system enabling students to create accounts and access video/PDF resources using Node.js, Express.js, Redis, AWS S3, and MongoDB.

Facilitated backend development sessions for 50-150 students, providing support and creating grading rubrics and syllabi to ensure consistent learning outcomes.

Education

Lagos State University
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Bachelor of Science

Banking and Finance

Favoured Royal Computer Institute
Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria

Diploma

Software Development

Languages

English

Skills

Engineering Leadership

Mentorship, Product Strategy, Technical Strategy, Team Building, Talent Development, Hiring, Performance Management, Culture Building.

Cloud & DevOps

AWS, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Microservices, Monolith, ECS, Fargate, RDS, S3, CloudFront, Lambda, CloudFormation, Ansible, Jenkins, Travis CI, GitLab CI/CD, AWS CodePipeline, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Datadog, Sentry.

Blockchain Technologies

Solidity, Ethereum, Chainlink, Uniswap, Ether.js, TronWeb, Bitcoin Lightning, ERC-20, TRC-20, Smart Contracts, DeFi.

Agile & Lean Methodologies

Scrum, Kanban, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Test-Driven Development.

Programming Languages

Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Golang.

Databases & Caching

PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch.

Development Tools

Git, Jira, Confluence, Slack.

Soft Skills

Leadership, Mentorship, Cross-functional Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Communication, Recruitment, Talent Development, Customer Engagement.