Technical lead · backend systems · cloud infrastructure

Joseph Kuria

Senior Software EngineerBuilding AI Automation & Cloud-Native Systems

Cost: 25% lower
Incidents: 30% fewer
Cycle: <1wk to ship

AWS/GCP · Technical Lead @ HeadHuntersHQ

7+ years building backend systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure for SaaS products. I work across the stack, focused on backend and infrastructure: Python (FastAPI), PostgreSQL, and containerized deployments on AWS Fargate/ECS.

Get In Touch View My Work

About

About Me

Senior Software Engineer and Technical Lead with 7+ years building and scaling backend systems and cloud infrastructure for full-stack SaaS products. Experienced in redesigning cloud architecture to cut hosting costs and strengthen reliability, and reducing feature release cycles from weeks to days, with deep hands-on expertise in Python, JavaScript/Vue.js, and production security practices. Currently leading a small engineering team while staying hands-on with architecture and code.

I’m a Senior Software Engineer and Technical Lead with 7+ years building backend systems, APIs, and cloud infrastructure for SaaS products. I work across the stack, recently focused on backend and infrastructure: Python (FastAPI), PostgreSQL, and containerized deployments on AWS Fargate/ECS.

I currently lead a small engineering team of 4 at HeadHuntersHQ, and what energizes me day-to-day is staying hands-on: architecting systems and solving backend and infrastructure problems alongside my team.

I take pride in crafting reliable, well-tested systems, redesigning cloud architecture to cut costs and strengthen reliability, and keeping a sharp focus on production security (certificate-based access control, automated backup and disaster recovery). When I’m not coding, you’ll find me bike riding, taking walks, or enjoying anything to do with nature.

$ whoami
joseph_kuria

$ location
GMT+3 (Remote)

$ role
Technical Lead / Senior Backend Engineer

$ experience
7+ years

Here are a few technologies I've been working with recently:

Languages

Python JavaScript Node.js HTML CSS

Frameworks

FastAPI Vue.js Next.js Celery

Databases

PostgreSQL MongoDB Redis SQLite Typesense

Cloud & AI

AWS GCP Docker Nginx Vertex AI

Security & Reliability

Cert-based access Secrets mgmt Backup/DR Cost optimization

Leadership

Architecture Code Review Sprint Planning Mentoring Agile

Experience

Where I've Worked

Technical Lead @ HeadHunters HQ

Apr 2024 – PresentSingapore · Remote

Lead a cross-functional team of 4 engineers (2 backend, 1 frontend, 1 QA), owning technical architecture, sprint planning, and mentorship, while partnering directly with the CEO to align product roadmap with technical strategy.
Directed the rebuild of the core HR technology platform (300K+ job postings, 100K+ applications) using Vue 3, Python, and PostgreSQL on AWS Fargate/ECS, replacing always-on EC2 infrastructure with on-demand containerized compute.
Drove a shift to agentic AI-assisted development workflows and modular system design, reducing major feature release cycles from 3–5 weeks to under 1 week and cutting production incidents by 30%.
Led an AWS infrastructure cost analysis for a new enterprise platform deployment, redesigning the proposed architecture to cut projected hosting costs by 25% while meeting government-grade compliance requirements.
Directed the design and implementation of a production PostgreSQL backup and disaster-recovery strategy with automated backups and point-in-time recovery, establishing a documented, tested restore path for core data.
Led the modernization of SSH access management, replacing static keys with short-lived, certificate-based credentials and machine-identity authentication, and centralizing access auditing.
Directed development of an internal jobs-data integration API (Python), defining eligibility/filter logic and aligning qualification-data schemas across two upstream data sources.
Led design and development of a multi-channel analytics pipeline (Python) processing 1,172+ user sessions across WhatsApp, email, and Telegram touchpoints, surfacing conversion funnels (14.1% conversion) and drop-off patterns to inform product decisions.