Software Engineer

Hello, I'm
Thomas Okonkwo

Building scalable solutions with precision and innovation

A software engineer with 3+ years of experience building and operating backend systems, distributed data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure. Currently at American Express, designing secure, scalable services in Java/Spring Boot and automating large-scale data workflows in an Agile (SAFe) environment. Proven track record across fintech and big data platforms — from credit transfer middleware at Interswitch serving multiple banks, to real-time streaming systems at Twitter. Strong foundation in distributed systems, REST API design, cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), and CI/CD, backed by an M.Sc. in Computer Science.

Get in Touch View Resume View My Work
class SoftwareEngineer {
def __init__(self):
self.name = "Thomas Okonkwo"
self.role = "Software Engineer"
self.skills = ["Java", "Python", "GCP", "AWS"]
self.passion = "Building scalable systems"
}
3+
Years Experience
3
Major Companies
10+
Technologies
3.90
Graduate GPA
Career Journey

Work Experience

Building innovative solutions at leading technology companies

American Express
Software Engineer
Jun 2023 – Present
  • Design and build a decryption system for RTF-formatted event data ahead of ingestion into Adobe Experience Platform (AEP), and build backend services in Java (Spring Boot) integrating with AEP via WebClient to support customer eligibility and exclusion logic for a High Yield Savings Account product
  • Diagnose and resolve production issues across the network stack, including tracing a failing external API integration to a network egress/firewall restriction rather than an application defect
  • Configure and manage passwordless SSH across test and production Tomcat environments, streamlining secure remote access for the engineering team
  • Build and manage AWS S3 bucket policies for application storage and Glacier-based backup and archival
  • Query and analyze large datasets using Hive and Spark SQL (PySpark) to support business and product decisions
  • Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and delivery within a SAFe Agile framework using Jira
Twitter, Inc. (now X)
Engineering Intern
May 2022 – Aug 2022
  • Built data pre-processing tools for machine learning pipelines in Apache Beam with the Machine Learning Data Framework team
  • Wrote Beam and Dataflow jobs against Google Cloud Storage, and used Notebooks to inspect streaming data behavior
  • Designed and optimized database schemas to support efficient large-scale data storage, retrieval, and pipeline ingestion
  • Debugged and resolved software issues in collaboration with senior engineers to improve system performance
Interswitch Group
Software/Cloud Engineer
Sept 2018 – Jan 2021
  • Developed credit transfer middleware for banks in Java Spring, increasing inward transfer success rates across multiple payment channels, and deployed the service to Kubernetes
  • Built and operated a distributed, highly available microservices architecture, using Docker and Jenkins for containerization and CI/CD
  • Implemented infrastructure as code (IaC) with Terraform and CloudFormation/ARM templates in collaboration with platform engineers
  • Designed and built data pipelines to extract, classify, and merge structured and unstructured datasets into MapR DB, including Spark jobs for real-time streaming ingestion
  • Improved automation of marketing, sales, and solutions workflows by 30% through algorithm refinement
  • Identified and resolved software defects, improving overall processing efficiency by 21% through systematic testing and documentation
Technical Expertise

Skills & Technologies

A comprehensive toolkit for building modern, scalable applications

Languages & Frameworks

Java Python Scala SQL Spring Boot Flask REST APIs Apache Beam

Cloud & DevOps

GCP AWS S3 AWS EC2 AWS VPC AWS Glacier Kubernetes Docker Jenkins Terraform CI/CD

Data & Streaming

Apache Kafka Spark Structured Streaming Spark SQL Hive MapR HBase PostgreSQL MySQL

Tools & Practices

Git Jira Confluence Postman Agile/SAFe Adobe Experience Platform
Featured Work

Projects & Research

Academic and professional projects showcasing technical expertise

Research & Machine Learning

Cerber Malware Detection

Developed a machine learning model for detecting Cerber Ransomware from packet capture (pcap) files. Used TF-IDF methodology to train the model, measuring weight and frequency of occurrence of input parameters.

Machine Learning Python TF-IDF Network Security
Backend Engineering

IoT Cell Tower Monitoring

Designed a centralized IoT-based monitoring system for cell tower sites. Created database architecture with PostgreSQL and built REST endpoints for CRUD operations and report generation with graphical representations.

Python Flask PostgreSQL REST API IoT
Research Assistant

Mobile Genetic Elements Research

Working on accurately locating mobile DNA in genomes to generate phylogenetic trees using machine learning classification and clustering techniques. Also developed models for predicting soil moisture content in geotechnical engineering.

Machine Learning Classification Clustering Data Analysis

Live from GitHub

My latest repositories, updated automatically every time I push code

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Academic Background

Education

Strong academic foundation in computer science and engineering

Master of Science in Computer Science
Prairie View A&M University
Aug 2021 – May 2023 GPA: 3.90/4.00
Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
University of Lagos, Nigeria
Sept 2013 – Jan 2018 GPA: 3.08/4.00

Let's Build Something Amazing Together

I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities, innovative projects, and collaborations. Whether you have a question or just want to say hi, feel free to reach out!

📧
📱
📍
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
🌐
Portfolio
thomasokonkwo.com
# Get in touch
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location: "Phoenix, AZ",
availability: "Open to opportunities",
response_time: "24 hours"
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