Berhanu Mequanint - Senior Backend Engineer

Q: Where is Berhanu based?

Berhanu is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia .

Q: What languages does Berhanu speak?

Berhanu speaks the following languages: Amharic (Native), English (Advanced) .

Q: How many years of experience does Berhanu have?

Berhanu has at least 9 years of experience. During this time, Berhanu has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 5 different companies . The average length of individual experience is 2 years and 10 months . Note that Berhanu may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Q: What is Berhanu's latest experience?

Berhanu's most recent position is Senior Backend Engineer at Kifiya .

Q: What companies has Berhanu worked for in recent years?

In recent years, Berhanu has worked for Kifiya , Function Health , Uniken (MMCY Tech) , and Equity Bank .

Q: Which industries is Berhanu most experienced in?

Berhanu is most experienced in industries like Information Technology , Food and Beverage , and Banking and Finance . Berhanu also has some experience in Healthcare .

Q: Which business areas is Berhanu most experienced in?

Berhanu is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology , Product Development , and Quality Assurance .

Q: Which industries has Berhanu worked in recently?

Berhanu has recently worked in industries like Banking and Finance , Healthcare , and Information Technology .

Q: Which business areas has Berhanu worked in recently?

Berhanu has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology , Product Development , and Quality Assurance .

Recommended expert

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Check rate

Experience

Jan 2025 - Present

1 year 8 months

Senior Backend Engineer

Kifiya

Developed 3 critical financial microservices (Loan Disbursement, Merchant Payment, and P2P Transfers) for the high-availability digital wallet platform, utilizing Java and Spring Boot to handle loads of transactions per second
Led the architectural design and implementation of durable, stateful transaction flows using Temporal Workflow, eliminating potential financial inconsistencies and ensuring guaranteed eventual completion for all multi-step processes like loan and P2P settlement
Designed and enforced a database-driven dynamic configuration model to manage transaction rules, Reason Codes, and state transitions, allowing business teams to onboard new payment methods and update limits without requiring code deployment
Reduced payment processing failure rate by introducing idempotent request validation and implementing automatic retry mechanisms within Temporal Workflows for external API dependency calls
Collaborated with front-end teams to define and secure efficient API contracts for wallet functionalities, ensuring compliance with strict financial data handling and security protocols

Aug 2023 - Jan 2025

1 year 6 months

Backend Engineer

Function Health

Developed 2 secure RESTful and GraphQL APIs for critical health data management, ensuring 100% adherence to HIPAA regulations and handling substantial API requests daily
Successfully refactored 20+ core REST endpoints to GraphQL, resulting in a 25% reduction in data over-fetching and a 10% improvement in client application response times
Managed and automated cloud infrastructure on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) using Terraform, reducing manual deployment
Designed and implemented 3 new microservices to decouple monolithic functionalities, improving system modularity and scalability for future feature development
Conducted regular code reviews for a team of 5, enhancing code quality, maintainability, and fostering best practices across the backend codebase

Sep 2021 - Aug 2022

1 year

Senior Java Developer

Uniken (MMCY Tech)

Played a key role in the REL-ID security platform, a SaaS solution for multi-factor authentication
Developed comprehensive unit and integration tests using JUnit 5, increasing code coverage by 20% and reducing production defects significantly
Developed critical components of the web portal, improving user experience and system accessibility

Aug 2021 - Aug 2023

2 years 1 month

Senior Java Developer

Equity Bank

Designed and developed a high-throughput Enterprise Integration Bus (EIB) using Spring Boot and Spring Integration, facilitating seamless integration of bank services with 5+ major telecom operators and processing millions of transactions monthly
Contributed significantly to the development and optimization of 7 key microservices, enhancing core banking functionalities and improving transaction processing speed by 10%

Dec 2016 - Apr 2021

4 years 5 months

Software Engineer

Apposit LLC (now Paga)

Led the design and implementation of backend services for Tangio, a SaaS platform used by 100+ FMCG manufacturers and distributors, significantly improving their sales strategy execution
Developed the Android mobile application for sales teams, resulting in a 30% increase in field data collection efficiency
Implemented Jasper and DevExtreme reporting solutions, providing actionable insights to clients and improving data visualization capabilities
Successfully migrated the core system database from MongoDB to PostgreSQL, enhancing data consistency and query performance by up to 40%
Developed and integrated unit and integration tests, improving overall system reliability
Led a team of 4 engineers through full development cycles, mentoring junior members and ensuring timely delivery of complex features

Developer

East Ohio Regional Hospital

Developed a company portfolio website using Vue.js and integrated with Contentful API to manage news and blog content, improving content update efficiency

Developer

Maya Backend & Telegram Mini App

Implemented comprehensive CRUD operations for user, item, and order management, ensuring data integrity and efficient processing
Designed and developed the Telegram bot integration to provide real-time updates and enable direct user interactions with backend services
Managed database schema evolution using Alembic migrations for smooth and reliable updates
Containerized the application with Docker and configured for deployment to Google Cloud Run, ensuring scalability and ease of deployment

Developer

Method Mill

Developed a robust data collection application with Python/FastAPI and Next.js for restaurant hygiene checks, processing over 100+ submissions daily and providing real-time analytics

Developer

Semantic Book Recommender with LLMs

Implemented advanced text data cleaning pipelines for diverse book datasets
Designed and built a semantic (vector) search engine with a vector database, enabling highly relevant book recommendations
Integrated sentiment analysis and emotion extraction from text reviews to provide richer insights
Applied zero-shot learning for text classification to categorize books without explicit training data, demonstrating efficient LLM utilization
Created an interactive Gradio web application for user-friendly recommendations, processing queries with sub-second latency

Industry Experience

See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time.

Experienced in Information Technology, Food and Beverage, Banking and Finance, and Healthcare.

Information Technology

Food and Beverage

Banking and Finance

Healthcare

Business Area Experience

See which departments and functions this freelancer has contributed to most.

Experienced in Information Technology, Product Development, and Quality Assurance.

Information Technology

Product Development

Quality Assurance

Summary

Highly accomplished Senior Software Engineer with 8+ years of experience in designing, developing, and deploying robust, scalable, and secure software solutions. Possesses a versatile skill set spanning Java (Spring Boot), Python (FastAPI), and modern frontend technologies (Vue.js, React). Proven track record in leading complex development cycles, optimizing system performance, workflow development and ensuring strict adherence to regulatory compliance standards like HIPAA. Eager to leverage expertise in cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure, Terraform) and distributed systems to tackle challenging software development initiatives.

Skills

Programming Languages: Python, Java, Groovy, Javascript & Typescript
Frameworks: Spring Boot, Temporal, Fastapi, Pydantic, Graphql, Hibernate, Microservices, Nodejs, Android, Sqlalechemy, Vuejs, React, Tailwind, Nextjs
Databases: Postgresql, Sqlite, Mongodb, Chroma
Cloud And Devops: Aws, Google Cloud Platform (Gcp), Azure, Terraform, Docker, Github Actions, Git

Languages

Amharic

Native

English

Advanced

Education

Oct 2012 - Jun 2016

BSc, Software Engineering · Software Engineering

Certifications & licenses

Applied Data Science Lab

WorldQuant University

Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals

Udacity

Statistics

Experience

Total positions 9

Experience in Information Technology 5.5 y

Avg length 1 y 2 m

Longest experience 4 y 4 m

Expertise

Recent roles Senior Backend Engineer, Backend Engineer, Senior Java Developer

Main industries Information Technology, Food and Beverage, Banking and Finance

Main business areas Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance

Qualifications

Highest degree Bachelor

Certifications earned 2

Profile

Created

October 2025

Last Update

November 2025

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Frequently asked questions

Have questions? Find more information here.

Berhanu is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Berhanu speaks the following languages: Amharic (Native), English (Advanced).

Berhanu has at least 9 years of experience. During this time, Berhanu has worked in at least 4 different roles and for 5 different companies. The average length of individual experience is 2 years and 10 months. Note that Berhanu may not have shared all experience and actually has more experience.

Based on recent experience, Berhanu would be well-suited for roles such as: Senior Backend Engineer, Backend Engineer, Senior Java Developer.

Berhanu's most recent position is Senior Backend Engineer at Kifiya.

In recent years, Berhanu has worked for Kifiya, Function Health, Uniken (MMCY Tech), and Equity Bank.

Berhanu is most experienced in industries like Information Technology, Food and Beverage, and Banking and Finance. Berhanu also has some experience in Healthcare.

Berhanu is most experienced in business areas like Information Technology, Product Development, and Quality Assurance.

Berhanu has recently worked in industries like Banking and Finance, Healthcare, and Information Technology.

Berhanu has recently worked in business areas like Information Technology, Product Development, and Quality Assurance.

Berhanu holds a Bachelor in Software Engineering.

Berhanu has 2 certificates. These include: Applied Data Science Lab and Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals.

Berhanu is immediately available full-time for suitable projects.

Berhanu's rate depends on the specific project requirements. Please use the Meet button on the profile to schedule a meeting and discuss the details.

To hire Berhanu, click the Meet button on the profile to request a meeting and discuss your project needs.

Daily Rate Distribution

0 1 2 3 4

<€480 €480-640 €640-800 €960-1120 €1120+

The rates shown represent the typical market range for freelancers in this position based on recent contracts on our platform.

Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.

Average rates for similar positions

Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.

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600

400

200

Daily rate avg. 697 €

The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.

800

600

400

200

Median rate 720 €

The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.

Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.