# Joseph Okharedia — Product Engineer Software is what I’ve built. Agentic workflows are where I’m headed. Two decades of shipping across industries has taught me that real value comes from moving fast and staying close to the problem. - Location: Berlin, Germany · German work permit - Languages: English (native), German (A1) - Email: joseph@okharedia.com - GitHub: https://github.com/okharedia - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/okharedia/ - PDF: https://okharedia.com/cv.pdf ## Experience ### Staff Software Engineer at [Seen](https://seen.com) Mar 2025 – Present · Berlin, Germany Helping people build or rebuild credit through a mobile-first **unsecured credit card** product. Working on a **credit-building fintech** where customers get an **unsecured credit card** designed to rebuild credit history. Shipping cardholder features in the **React Native** mobile app — card management, account, and engagement flows. Contributing to **underwriting and credit-decisioning flows** that determine eligibility, credit limits, and ongoing risk signals — work that sits at the intersection of mobile UX, backend services, communication services, and regulated consumer finance. Key tech: React, React Native, Node.js, Python, Postgres, Prefect, dbt, GCP, BigQuery, Looker Studio, Braze, Taktile ### Staff Software Engineer at [RepubliK](https://republik.gg) Feb 2023 – Oct 2024 · Berlin, Germany Scaled a **web3 creator platform** past **1M users** by building creator monetization, crypto rewards, wallet infrastructure, AI discovery, and anti-bot systems. Worked on a web3 social platform where creators and communities earn rewards, trade social profiles, monetize exclusive content, and connect **crypto wallets**. Built configurable airdrop algorithms for distributing RPK rewards across contribution criteria and campaign scenarios. Shipped creator monetization — paid chat access, content paywalls, monthly subscriptions — so creators could earn from exclusive interactions. Integrated **Fireblocks custodial wallets** for deposits, withdrawals, and token conversion. Took platform architecture from 10,000+ to over 1M users. Improved discovery at scale with **AI-driven recommendations** and search infrastructure. Strengthened platform integrity with **anti-bot protections** around high-value reward and trading flows. Created reusable abstractions over critical reward, wallet, and trading flows, and **mentored the team** on writing stronger tests so they could change those systems with confidence. Key tech: React, Web3, Node.js, DynamoDB, AWS CDK, AWS Personalize, AWS Lambda, Amazon OpenSearch, Fireblocks, MetaMask, Alchemy Pay, Ethers, Viem, GetStream, Redis ### Staff Software Engineer at [Prosperity](https://prosperity.app) Apr 2021 – Jan 2023 · Berlin, Germany Enabled insurers to launch more engaging, configurable **white-labeled life insurance** products through better onboarding, **experimentation**, and maintainable batch-process architecture. Worked on an **insurtech platform** that helped insurers onboard new clients, bring existing offline customers into the app, and give them access to their portfolio and reports. Ran **A/B testing** experiments on copy variants and gamified onboarding to improve activation. Refactored the customer-import batch process so it was easier to test, change, and reason about — work that paired with training the team on **functional programming patterns** adopted across complex flows. Added **anomaly checks** to scheduled batch processes that caught issues (e.g. duplicate tax-report emails) before they reached more customers. Key tech: Capacitor, Apollo GraphQL, Node.js, Postgres, AWS, IDNow, Calendly, BullMQ, Redis, fp-ts, Effect-TS ### Senior Software Engineer at [Candis](https://candis.io) Dec 2019 – Mar 2021 · Berlin, Germany Hardened an **accounting automation SaaS** by untangling legacy backend services, **expanding test coverage**, and sharing **practical DDD/refactoring patterns**. Worked on accounting software used by finance teams to manage documents, approvals, and bookkeeping workflows. **Decomposed tangled legacy services** into smaller, testable modules so the team could change them with less regression risk. **Expanded automated test coverage** across critical bookkeeping flows. Ran **internal DDD and refactoring workshops** — patterns the team continued applying long after the initial work. Key tech: React, Node.js, Terraform, AWS, Redis, Golang, Python ### Senior Software Engineer at [Spark Networks](https://spark.net) Jun 2019 – Dec 2019 · Berlin, Germany Built reusable consumer product architecture for launching multiple dating brands from a shared app and service foundation. Designed **multi-brand product architecture** where multiple **consumer dating brands** shared core behavior with customizable brand-specific styling, configuration, and workflows. **Consolidated parallel monolith forks** into **shared microservices**, eliminating duplicated engineering across product variants. Key tech: Go, gRPC, Node.js, Helm, AWS ### Senior Software Engineer (Full-stack) at [BMW Group](https://bmw.de) Oct 2018 – May 2019 · Munich, Germany Improved BMW repair workflows with a **knowledge-sharing platform**, faster repair-history data access, and **BDD acceptance-test coverage**. Worked on a **vehicle repair knowledge-sharing platform** that helped repair professionals document cases, reuse past solutions, and resolve issues faster. Unblocked critical repair workflows by **optimizing slow data-retrieval queries** on large repair-history data sets. **Raised release confidence** with **BDD Cucumber acceptance tests** covering customer-facing flows. Key tech: Angular, JavaEE, Postgres, OpenShift, Cucumber, Selenium ### Senior Software Engineer at [Discovery](https://discovery.co.za) Jan 2018 – Sep 2018 · Johannesburg, South Africa Reduced call center pressure by building an **AI-assisted customer chatbot** for health insurance and financial services support. Built **IBM Watson chatbot workflows** so customers could resolve common support requests without waiting for a human agent. Implemented **secure login flows** that enabled **account-specific support** using relevant customer data. Designed customer-facing automation for a regulated environment where security, privacy, and reliability mattered. Key tech: Angular, React, Spring Boot, IBM Watson ### Senior Software Engineer at Perago FSE (SIA S.p.A. Group) Dec 2016 – Dec 2017 · Johannesburg, South Africa Built configurable Central Securities Depository (CSD) systems for **high-volume** national securities markets and **financial messaging workflows**. Worked on configurable CSD platforms that help national markets record securities ownership and settle trades. Built **configuration-driven platform architecture** so the same core CSD system could adapt to different national markets through rules and workflow configuration instead of client-specific forks. Migrated depository data from legacy systems with batch processes. Applied Java EE JTA/XA patterns for **transaction handling across systems**. Produced **analytical reporting for stakeholders** with JasperReports, bringing visibility to market activity data. Supported **time-sensitive, high-volume SWIFT and FIX message flows** that exchange trade and settlement information between financial institutions. Key tech: PrimeFaces, JavaEE, SWIFT, FIX, OracleDB, JTA/XA, JasperReports ### Application Developer at [FNB](https://fnb.co.za) Jan 2011 – Dec 2016 · Johannesburg, South Africa Accelerated digital banking delivery at FNB through **reusable workflow abstractions** and **in-app customer support messaging**. Built a **reusable abstraction** for injecting context-specific data into a custom API data-exchange protocol — cutting bespoke boilerplate and speeding delivery of new banking workflows. **Trained and supported other teams** as they adopted the protocol across additional B2B banking applications. Shipped **Asterisk-based VoIP messaging** so customers could contact support and chat from inside the app. Key tech: JSP, Java, JavaEE, SOAP, MySQL, Asterisk ### Founder & Web Developer at Bytech Technologies Jan 2008 – Dec 2010 · Richards Bay, South Africa Founded a small web development business, owning client communication, delivery, and production website launches for local organizations. Managed client communication, scoped requirements, implemented sites, and delivered production-ready PHP, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS projects. Key tech: HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP ## Education - B.Sc (Hons) Computer Science, University of Zululand (class of 2007) - B.Sc Data Communication Technology, University of Zululand (class of 2004) ## Certificates - [Agentic AI](https://learn.deeplearning.ai/certificates/8234cdbb-3697-4747-a2a2-b4ed5e7d7e90?usp=sharing), DeepLearning.AI (2026)