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RemoteLocal times: Kigali, Nairobi, Dubai

GitHub avatar of Arick Bulakali (NdekoCode)

Arick Bulakali

Roles: Software Engineer, AI Product Engineer, Design Engineer, Full-stack Engineer, Front-end Engineer, Backend Engineer, Mobile Engineer, UX/UI Designer

Hi, I'm Arick, engineer and designer at Ever Technologies

Eight years building products: two in UX/UI design, then six in fullstack development.

On the side, I'm writing a CMS in Rust: Ferrum CMS

Oh, and I write about the work on the blog!

  • web apps
  • UX/UI design
  • AI integrations
  • Rust
  • mobile apps
  • design systems
  • APIs
  • CI/CD
  • open source

Trusted By

  • Ever Technologies
  • Upperz
  • HIÜRD
  • Salicon RDC
  • Zabibu
  • Wikimedia RDC

About

Remote since 2020, moving between Kigali, Nairobi, and Dubai (UTC+2 to UTC+4). At Ever Technologies since October 2023, I'm the principal contributor to the web app of Ever Teams, an open source, AI-powered collaboration platform: UI architecture, shared component libraries and performance work in a Next.js and NestJS monorepo, plus the company's sites on Next.js and Strapi. My work there also covers AI-powered collaboration features and AI training logic for backend features, and I added AI job dictation to the HIÜRD marketplace with Claude, LangChain and LangGraph. I work in French, English and Swahili. I'm open to Rust, full-stack and AI engineering roles: book a 30-minute call.

Work Experience

  1. Senior Product Engineer

    Ever TechnologiesRemoteOct 2023 – Present

    Principal contributor to Ever Teams, an open source, AI-powered collaboration platform, inside a large TypeScript monorepo (Next.js and NestJS). Delivered AI-powered collaboration features and integrated AI training logic into backend features.

    • TypeScript
    • Next.js
    • NestJS
    • React
    • Rust
    • Strapi

  2. UX/UI Designer

    UpperzRemoteOct 2024 – Dec 2024

    Prototyping and web design of Upperz's developer tools and SaaS platforms in Figma, with a user experience built on the values and principles of its products.

    • Figma

  3. UX/UI Designer

    Channzo AlkebulanAug 2023 – Oct 2023

    Prototyping and web design of Channzo Alkebulan's projects and products in Figma.

    • Figma
    • React

  4. Full-Stack Designer

    ZabibuRemoteMar 2023 – Sep 2023

    Built a tutoring platform with Angular and NestJS, with a focus on modular and maintainable design, and also worked in Figma.

    • Angular
    • NestJS
    • Figma

  5. Software Engineer

    Salicon RDCRemoteJul 2022 – Aug 2023

    Designed the saliconrdc.org interface in Figma around member and donation management, then built the donation flow and member experience with Laravel and Tailwind, and initiated the transition of backend features to Rust for critical performance.

    • Figma
    • Laravel
    • Tailwind CSS
    • Rust

  6. UX/UI Designer

    Wikimedia RDCJan 2023 – Mar 2023

    Prototyping and web design of the website of Wikimedia RDC, an association that promotes free culture around Wikipedia and its sister projects, in Figma.

    • Figma
    • WordPress

  7. Full-Stack Developer

    CryptnailGoma, DR CongoAug 2021 – Mar 2023

    Built fullstack features with React and Laravel and created internal CLI tools in Rust.

    • React
    • Laravel
    • Rust

  8. Web Developer

    BongobTrustRemoteApr 2020 – Dec 2021

    Designed the bongobtrust.org website in Figma, then built it with Laravel and Tailwind CSS, with its admin platform, CMS management and multilingual features, for an NGO.

    • Figma
    • Laravel
    • Tailwind CSS
    • CMS

Education

  • Kadea Academy

    Diploma in Web Development

    2021 – 2022

  • ULPGL Goma

    Computer Engineering, three years of study

    2018 – 2021

  • College Saint Paul

    High School Diploma, Chemistry-Biology (physics, mathematics, statistics, probability)

    2012 – 2018

What I build,and what I build it with:

things I build

  • web apps
  • mobile apps on both stores
  • APIs
  • Rust CLI tools
  • shared component libraries
  • AI features in web and mobile apps
  • and more

with

  • TypeScript
  • React and Next.js
  • React Native and Expo
  • NestJS
  • Rust
  • Claude, LangChain and LangGraph
  • and more

shipped using

  • Figma
  • GitHub Actions
  • EAS
  • Maestro
  • Vercel
  • Docker
  • and more

Here's what I've been building

Products I've built or contributed to, with the decisions behind them.

  • The Ever Teams web app sign-in screen

    Ever Teams

    Oct 2023 – Present

    Architecture work on the Next.js web app of an open source work platform: state migration, core reorganisation, React Query, workspace switching.

    • Next.js
    • React
    • TypeScript
    • NestJS
    • React Query
    • Jotai
    Case study
  • HIÜRD share image: the app icon over screens of the job feed

    HIÜRD

    Sep 2025 – Present

    A local services marketplace on iOS, Android and the web, with AI job dictation and the mobile release pipeline I built around EAS, GitHub Actions and Maestro.

    • React Native
    • Expo
    • EAS
    • TypeScript
    • Next.js
    • React Query
    • GitHub Actions
    • Maestro
    • Claude
    • LangChain
    • LangGraph
    Case study
  • Three-way merge sync, TOML schemas, JSON content, a CLI.

    Ferrum CMS

    In progress

    A local-first, file-driven CMS in Rust: three-way merge sync engine, TOML schemas, JSON content and a CLI, on a three-phase, twelve-month roadmap.

    • Rust
    • TOML
    • JSON
  • ui-layouts share image: Your Frontend Universe, over a collage of components

    Contributing to ui-layouts

    Dec 2024

    One merged documentation fix on ui-layouts, a React and Tailwind component library with 3,600+ stars, and what a contributor learns from it.

    • React
    • Next.js
    • TypeScript
    • Tailwind CSS
    • Framer Motion
    • GSAP
    Case study
All projects

Open source contributions

Since October 2023, I have opened pull requests on open source projects that other people use. Here are 10 of them, merged, newest first.

  1. Team manager permissions

    Ever Gauzy

    Two fixes in the Ever Gauzy API: the employee filter bypass stays scoped to the service that opens it, and a team manager can act on a member's data when no team is given.

  2. Time log reports and dashboard speed

    Ever Gauzy

    Five time log reports now await their filters before querying, and the time-tracking dashboard no longer slows the whole API: debug dumps removed, counts summed in SQL.

  3. Global layout refactor

    Ever Teams

    A refactor of the shared layout of the Ever Teams web app.

  4. Workspace switcher

    Ever Teams

    Switching between workspaces from inside the web app.

  5. React Query adoption

    Ever Teams

    A preparation pull request, then a domain-by-domain migration from #3872 to #3915.

  6. apps/web reorganised into a core layer

    Ever Teams

    Four pull requests for the core layer and one for the layout organisation.

  7. Spotlight cards documentation fix

    ui-layouts

    Spelling and TypeScript corrections in one documentation file, merged on 20 December 2024.

  8. State migration from Recoil to Jotai

    Ever Teams

    Then Jotai stores grouped by domain in #3855.

  9. Node.js engine and Strapi dependency update

    strapi-plugin-cookie-manager

    A maintenance contribution to a Strapi plugin, merged in its repository.

  10. Internationalisation with i18next

    Ever Teams

    My first pull request on Ever Teams, dated 25 October 2023.

Blog

6 posts

Notes from product work: Rust, TypeScript and mobile CI/CD.

  1. Internationalising a Next.js app with i18next

  2. Migrating from Recoil to Jotai, one store at a time

  3. Small Rust CLI tools for a web team

  4. Centralizing React Query keys in a growing Next.js codebase

  5. Designing a 3-way merge sync engine for a local-first CMS in Rust

  6. Shipping a React Native app to both stores with EAS, GitHub Actions and Maestro

All posts