About
Ancel Ajanga
Lead Software Engineer & Head of IT
I'm Ancel Ajanga — Lead Software Engineer & Head of IT at Utility Metering Solutions (UMS Kenya). I focus on systems that stay correct under failure: clear service boundaries, explicit failure modes and data you can audit.
I work across software, infrastructure, operations and customer-facing teams to make production systems more durable, secure and useful.
I currently serve as Lead Software Engineer & Head of IT at Utility Metering Solutions (UMS Kenya) and contribute part-time as an AfterQuery Expert Software Engineer.
The problems I enjoy sit at the intersection of product engineering, operations and architecture — financial and utility workflows, real-time collaboration, multi-tenant isolation and infrastructure that can be reasoned about when something breaks.
Engineering toolkit
Frontend
React · Next.js · TypeScript · Flutter · Tailwind CSS
Backend
NestJS · Node.js · Express · Django · REST · WebSockets
Data
PostgreSQL · MongoDB · Redis · Prisma
Infrastructure
Docker · Kubernetes · CI/CD · Cloudflare
Architecture
Multi-tenant SaaS · Event-driven design · Idempotency · Hybrid storage
Reliability
Circuit breakers · Graceful degradation · Audit trails · OPA policy gates
Experience & education
Lead Software Engineer & Head of IT
Utility Metering Solutions (UMS Kenya) · 2026 — Present
Lead software engineering and IT operations for production systems that support financial and utility workflows — including systems that handle millions of KES in daily transactions. Maintain and improve live systems, ship new capabilities, investigate production issues and bridge engineering with customer service and business operations.
Full experience →Previous — Independent Systems Engineer & Fullstack Developer
2024 — 2026
Earlier independent practice shipping production-oriented systems across fintech, messaging and infrastructure guardrails.
- NestFi: Financial coordination with hybrid storage and ledger integrity for asynchronous mobile money flows.
- Aegis: Autonomous infrastructure guardrails with policy-gated remediation.
- LedgerX: Multi-tenant finance engine with audit-oriented ledger design.
Selected systems (contract & project lead)
- OpsFlow: Real-time incident response with WebSocket synchronization and dual-database separation of transactional vs analytical workloads.
- EduManage: Multi-tenant school management with hierarchical RBAC and tenant isolation.
Education
- B.S. in Computer Science — Currently enrolled (part-time)
- Diploma in Software Engineering — Completed
- Full Stack Development Certificate — Moringa School (2022)