Emmanuel Joseph
Engineering Lead at Pouchfi · Ex-Wikipedia — Backend, Web2/3, Security, AI
8+ years shipping production systems, from Wikipedia search infrastructure to DeFi protocols handling real user funds.
About
I lead engineering at Pouchfi, a DeFi platform on Binance Smart Chain — architected the platform, wrote the on-chain contracts, and built the engineering team from scratch (currently leading 7 engineers). Over 8+ years, I've shipped production systems across fintech, web3, e-commerce, and enterprise software, from Wikipedia search infrastructure at Wikimedia Foundation to DeFi protocols handling real user funds.
I take security seriously. A webhook vulnerability I missed while building a payment platform cost a client $10k, and that failure changed how I build. I now run a parallel practice as an independent security auditor — 4 audits, 160+ vulnerabilities surfaced including a forensic recovery case that quantified $7,149 in fraud and traced $5,110 still recoverable in attacker wallets. I distilled the methodology into Code Refinery, an open-source agentic PR review tool.
I target CTO and engineering-lead roles at pre-seed → Series A startups, especially in fintech, web3, AI-native products, or anywhere money and trust meet code.
Experience
Independent Security Auditor · Contract
APR 2025 - Present
Code review and security review across web2 backends and web3 smart contracts (Solidity/EVM, Solana/Rust, Node/TypeScript fintech). 4 audits, 160+ vulnerabilities surfaced including a forensic recovery case ($7,149 in fraud quantified across 42 days, $5,110 traced and recoverable in attacker wallets). Distilled the methodology into Code Refinery, an open-source agentic PR review tool.
Lead Engineer · PouchFI Limited
JUL 2024 - Present
Building Pouchfi, a DeFi platform on BSC. Designed and built the current platform from the ground up: modular monolith backend (Node.js/TypeScript) with event-driven design and async queue processing, plus a Next.js dashboard (< 200ms TTFB). Wrote the on-chain smart contracts on BSC — signature-based withdrawals with cryptographic verification, CREATE2 deterministic deployment, batch operations. Built NestJS services with JWT auth, RBAC, and Redis pub-sub. Integrated debit-card issuance APIs including KYC verification and automated settlement. Partner with the founder on product roadmap, prioritization, and business decisions. Started the engineering team from scratch and recruited all 7 engineers across backend, frontend, and smart contracts, with zero critical post-launch incidents. Platform currently in public beta.
Lead Engineer · Origneum DWTCA
OCT 2022 - SEP 2024
Lead Engineer on a portfolio of fintech, web3, and infrastructure projects for early-stage clients (pre-seed → Series A). Built and shipped a token private sale platform that raised $400K in 2 weeks — pivoted from Solana to EVM mid-build to handle network congestion (Next.js, Wagmi, EthersJS, Solana web3.js, Solidity). Led builds on Openland (fractionalized-NFT real estate on Moonriver) and Qlipit.io (NFT marketplace + academy on BNB Chain). Shipped full-stack web apps and APIs across fintech, web3, and ed-tech, with CI/CD pipelines and container-based deployments on Digital Ocean and AWS. Led a team of 3 engineers, partnering closely with founders/stakeholders, product, and design.
Software Engineer · Search Infrastructure · Wikimedia Foundation
OCT 2021 - OCT 2022
Wikipedia search infrastructure at Wikimedia Foundation — the non-profit behind Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikidata. My work powered search across 300+ Wikipedia language editions used by billions of monthly readers. Upgraded 7 internally-developed Elasticsearch plugins for ES7 compatibility (published to Maven Central) and improved instrumentation across the CirrusSearch frontend and Elasticsearch backend, surfacing a long-standing bug that cut error volume from ~5M errors/month to ~500K. Built a uniform query-dump system across all Search endpoints (full-text, completion, suggestions) so Search Engineers could visualize queries end-to-end to diagnose correctness and relevance issues. Also shipped reliability and recall improvements to CirrusSearch — heuristic recovery mechanisms that cut outages by 30%, and an apostrophe filter that improved possessive-query recall by 25%.
Chief Technology Officer · Decasoft Technologies
OCT 2019 - OCT 2021
Architected and delivered Decafinance, a multi-tenant fintech loan & savings PaaS scaled to 2,000+ ride-hailing drivers and $40K+ in transactions. Built the platform on Node.js (NuxtJS frontend) with banking API integrations (Flutterwave, Paystack) for automated loan disbursement, savings, and withdrawals — reducing manual effort by 70%. Built a Docker-based provisioning service that automated tenant onboarding, cutting customer setup from days to minutes. Architected a cost-effective in-house call center on SIP trunking (replacing legacy telephony) and introduced Zoho Mail and Freshdesk company-wide as early adopters. Led a team of 4 engineers, owned hiring, code review standards, and architecture decisions across backend, frontend, and infra.
Fullstack Engineer · Software Business Solutions Consulting (SBSC)
JUN 2019 - SEPT 2019
Built EMed HMR, a health management system, and scaled the platform to manage 8 local governments with over 30,000 health records. Revamped the accounting module to improve response time by caching responses and restructuring the database to eliminate unnecessary queries.
Fullstack Engineer · AlphaBeta, Ghana
MAY 2017 - DEC 2017
Maintained and supported an Enterprise Tax Collection System for local governments in Ghana.
Case Study
Fintech Security Audit
Identified 24 vulnerabilities, traced an active attack, quantified $7,149 in fraud, and recovered $5,110 for a payments platform.
Solana Prediction Market Audit
Pre-mainnet audit of a prediction market protocol. Found 17 issues including vault insolvency risk in 2,800 lines of Rust.
Fitted.fashion
Platform powering custom and ready to wear apparel production for the fashion industry
Projects
Code Refinery ↗(Open source)
Open-source agentic PR review for GitHub. Two passes (security + code quality) using Claude Code CLI in full agentic mode. Multi-provider (Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Vertex AI, Azure), JSON-schema-constrained output, branded GitHub App via OIDC. Distilled from years of audit work into a tool that drops into any repo.
GreenAfrica (Hedera) ↗($100K Hackathon Winner)
Smart reverse-vending-machine platform on Hedera with on-chain verification of recycling actions and automated token rewards. Users recycle plastics via RVMs; each verified action is recorded on-chain (Hedera HCS) and triggers a reward distributed via Hedera Token Service — redeemable for tokens, airtime, or data bundles. Won the $100K top cross-track champion prize at the 2025 Hedera Africa Hackathon — the largest Web3 hackathon globally (45,000+ participants, 1,300+ projects, 20+ African hubs).
Screen3 ↗
An all-in-one app for recording, organizing knowledge, and sharing video updates
Shuttershow(Building)
A tool for photographers to create galleries, public pages, and let clients select their favorite shots. Competing with Pixieset.