Daisy NDUNG'U
Senior Software Engineer
Naila
Summary
Innovative and collaborative senior software engineer with a passion for understanding complex systems and solving challenging technical problems. Proven track record of designing and delivering scalable, reliable software that drives meaningful user and business outcomes. Skilled mentor and team player who values diverse perspectives and fosters continuous learning. Committed to balancing technical excellence with pragmatic delivery, prioritizing speed and value without sacrificing quality.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
3
3
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Software Engineer
Microsoft
Nairobi
05.2020 - 05.2025
- Led the design and development of an auto-scaling solution for search shards, leveraging statistical analysis to detect latency and QPM anomalies and trigger well-informed scaling decisions. This initiative significantly reduced query latency and maintained system availability above 99.9%, boosting overall reliability and performance.
- Drove a 20% increase in search API utilization by architecting and exposing internal APIs to third-party developers via Microsoft Graph, successfully onboarding new partners and expanding use cases across Microsoft 365.
- Supported external developers in integrating search capabilities into their products, expanding platform reach and adoption, which contributed to increased revenue growth.
- Redesigned and developed robust people search and suggestions APIs using OpenAPI specifications, enabling seamless integration across the Microsoft O365 ecosystem and enhancing interoperability with other systems.
- Collaborated closely with API governance, security, and privacy review teams to meet SLAs and achieve 100% compliance with policies, ensuring the platform's safety, scalability, and regulatory adherence.
- Led key aspects of the client-side implementation for people search candidate generation and ranking in Outlook, significantly reducing user-perceived latency by leveraging edge caching technologies. Designed and optimized advanced, memory-efficient algorithms-including trie-based spell correction-to improve matching accuracy, delivering faster and more relevant suggestions across Outlook and Bing.
- Led the modernization and migration of O365 People Search API data sync and indexing background jobs to an event-driven architecture, replacing database polling with on-demand processing. This strategic shift reduced operational costs by $3.5K per month and significantly enhanced system scalability and performance.
- Participated in on-call rotation to promptly respond to service outages, prioritizing incidents, conducting root cause analysis, and implementing durable solutions to prevent recurrence and ensure system reliability.
- Actively participated in design reviews by providing thoughtful feedback and sharing innovative ideas. Offered constructive critique on designs from fellow engineers, fostering continuous improvement and elevating the overall quality of the team's solutions.
- Conduct detailed code reviews, providing constructive feedback to maintain high code quality, enforce consistency, and promote best practices across the development team.
- Led onboarding and mentorship for new engineers, ensuring smooth team integration by creating detailed onboarding playbooks, conducting pair programming sessions, and facilitating regular knowledge-sharing workshops to support their professional growth.
Senior Software Engineer
Andela
Nairobi
05.2019 - 11.2020
- Spearheaded the end-to-end design and development of a Payment Gateway Admin portal for I&M Bank Ltd (Kenya). Crafted intuitive UI/UX workflows and implemented robust backend services to enable seamless transaction tracking and automated report generation, enhancing operational visibility and financial control.
- Mentored junior developers and facilitated programming boot camps, accelerating their onboarding and empowering them to confidently tackle complex assignments within the bank.
- Proactively managed live site uptime and designed scalable solutions to efficiently handle load spikes, minimizing downtime and ensuring a seamless user experience.
- Enforced software engineering best practices across all microservices, implementing robust CI/CD pipelines, comprehensive test automation, and standardized API design to ensure reliability and maintainability.
- Collaborated closely with product managers, UX designers, and engineers across teams to plan, define requirements, and deliver well-designed, scalable solutions through Agile methodologies, ensuring alignment with product goals and timely project delivery.
- Championed best practices in software security, including secure coding standards, threat modeling, and vulnerability assessments, ensuring robust protection while meeting product goals and delivery timelines.
Full Stack Software Engineer
Andela
Nairobi
01.2017 - 05.2025
- Led the full migration of our backend data systems from MySQL to Firebase, resulting in better performance, easier scalability, and stronger security. Took ownership of planning, implementation, and optimization, aligning the architecture with modern cloud-native standards.
- Designed and implemented a subscription billing system with Stripe, enabling reliable recurring revenue and delivering a smoother, more user-friendly payment experience.
- Redesigned and rebuilt the UI for Owlet Baby Care's customer service portal, significantly enhancing usability and increasing daily support capacity through a more efficient user experience.
- Developed and maintained Owlet Baby Care's internal customer service portal, equipping support agents with tools to remotely diagnose and troubleshoot smart sock devices for customers.
- Led the end-to-end development of Vivlia, an e-commerce web application for purchasing and reading textbooks, literature, and educational materials. Oversaw system architecture, front- and back-end implementation, and deployment, ensuring a scalable and user-friendly platform.
- Contributed to the development of Reach for a Dream, a socially impactful platform that connects children and teens with terminal illnesses to sponsors who fund their dreams. Implemented key features to improve sponsor matching, data management, and platform performance-helping streamline the donation process and expand the reach of fulfilled wishes.
- Contributed to the development of Sola, a monitoring and reporting software that integrates with the meteo-control API to deliver real-time data and actionable insights for Operations and Maintenance clients, enhancing decision-making and operational efficiency.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
Multimedia University
Kenya 08.2014 - 12.2017
Skills
Microservices Architecture
Multithreading and concurrency
API design and development
Agile Methodologies
Javascript
Typescript
C#
Python
NodeJs
React
Django
Flask
undefinedAccomplishments
Speaker – African Women in Tech Conference
“Building Modern UIs with React and React Hooks” – AkiraChix, November 2019
Presented a technical session on leveraging React and React Hooks to build modern, maintainable user interfaces. Engaged with a diverse audience of developers, sharing best practices and real-world examples.
Technovation Challenge Coach
Technovation Challenge
Mentored and guided young women through the Technovation Challenge, helping them design, develop, and pitch mobile apps that address real-world problems in their communities. Provided technical support, design feedback, and encouragement to foster innovation, confidence, and STEM skills.
Mentor – Teencode Africa
Provided guidance and mentorship to young aspiring technologists across Africa, supporting their growth in software development, problem-solving, and career exploration. Contributed to workshops, coding sessions, and one-on-one mentoring to empower the next generation of African tech talent.
Timeline
Software Engineer
Microsoft
05.2020 - 05.2025
Senior Software Engineer
Andela
05.2019 - 11.2020
Full Stack Software Engineer
Andela
01.2017 - 05.2025
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
Multimedia University
08.2014 - 12.2017
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