Peniel Ben | Backend and Systems Engineer

Professional Summary

Backend and systems engineer experienced in government data infrastructure, high-performance trading systems, blockchain applications, and secure developer tooling. Proficient in Rust, Python, Java, and TypeScript, with backend experience across Actix Web, Axum, FastAPI, Django, and Spring Boot.

Professional Experience

Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service (AKIRS), Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

Systems Developer, Contract

Engineered the AKIRS Revenue Data Integrity Platform, a FastAPI application that converts inconsistent bank and taxpayer Excel and CSV files into standardized records using heuristic schema mapping, branch filtering, and TIN, BVN, NUBAN, and contact-data validation.
Implemented configurable deduplication workflows with merge, discard, and manual-review options, enabling revenue officers to resolve identity conflicts and export analysis-ready datasets.
Architected the AKIRS Revenue Intelligence Platform to discover taxable businesses across all 31 local government areas and enrich records through websites, search, social profiles, geocoding, corporate registries, and commercial data providers.
Delivered authenticated administration, tax classification, background jobs, database migrations, live job updates, and a local retrieval-augmented generation assistant for querying revenue and tax knowledge.
Managed Linux and VPS server environments, Docker Compose deployments, databases, health check monitoring, access controls, and operational troubleshooting for internal systems.

Technologies: Python, FastAPI, Playwright, SQLAlchemy, Alembic, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery, ChromaDB, Docker, Docker Compose, Linux

NEAR AI, IronClaw, Remote

Open Source Software Engineer

Developed GitHub and Discord integrations in Rust and WebAssembly for IronClaw, NEAR AI's agentic operating system, covering repositories, issues, pull requests, channels, and messages.
Enforced capability-based security for sandboxed plugins and added event, path, and input validation, safe UTF-8 truncation, and URL encoding for untrusted data.
Delivered a merged contribution spanning 1,756 lines across eight files and resolved 53 review comments through iterative testing and code review.

Technologies: Rust, WebAssembly, wit-bindgen, REST APIs, secure plugin architecture

Contribution: github.com/nearai/ironclaw/pull/34

CAFX, Remote

Development Lead

Built and maintain a low-latency order-processing pipeline in Rust for a high-frequency trading platform, simplifying the critical path to reduce abstraction overhead.
Designed concurrent market-data ingestion across multiple exchanges and integrated Python strategy and analytics services.

Technologies: Rust, Python, concurrent systems, market data processing

Website: cafx.io

SeaQL, SeaORM Pro, Open Source

Software Engineer, Contributor

Implemented native Actix Web integration for the SeaORM Pro administration panel using a feature-gated architecture.
Added JWT authentication, GraphQL Playground support, and custom entity schema handling in a 3,277-line contribution spanning 94 files.

Technologies: Rust, Actix Web, SeaORM, GraphQL, JWT

Contribution: github.com/SeaQL/sea-orm-pro/pull/3

Selected Projects

Veil: Built private Solana payment infrastructure with NFC point-of-sale flows, WhatsApp invoicing, confidential cross-border payroll, Sign In With Solana, and Nigerian fiat off-ramps. Technologies: Rust, Solana.
telegram-rs: Published an asynchronous Telegram Bot API library on crates.io with Mini App validation, a WebAssembly bridge, and TON Connect v2 wallet support. Technologies: Rust, WebAssembly, TON.
Bantr: Developed a Telegram social betting bot that parses natural-language challenges and resolves outcomes from live TxLINE match data. Technologies: Python, Solana.
Sheda Solutions: Implemented NEAR smart contracts for property listings, ownership transfers, and escrow-based real estate transactions. Technologies: Rust, NEAR Protocol.

Technical Skills

Programming Languages: Rust, Python, Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, SQL
Backend Frameworks: Actix Web, Axum, FastAPI, Django, Spring Boot, REST APIs, GraphQL, WebAssembly
Frontend: React, Next.js, HTML, CSS
Data and Databases: PostgreSQL, SQLite, Redis, SQLAlchemy, SeaORM, SQLx, Hibernate, Alembic, ChromaDB, ETL, data pipelines
DevOps & Infrastructure: Linux, Docker, Docker Compose, Kubernetes, Windows Server, IIS, Caddy, Nginx, Traefik, VPS, SSH
CI/CD & Observability: GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Git Webhooks, CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation, rollbacks, Glitchtip, Sentry, health checks, monitoring & logging
Blockchain: Solana, Anchor, NEAR Protocol, TON, smart contracts, wallet integrations
Tools & Systems: Git, Tokio, Hyper, Pingora, Celery, Playwright, pytest, Cargo

Leadership and Recognition

Campus Lead, SuperteamNG, University of Uyo
Blockchain Lead, Google Developer Groups on Campus, University of Uyo
Three-time NEAR Protocol bounty winner
Socrates Interfaculty Debate Champion and Best Speaker, University of Uyo

Education & Certifications

University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, In Progress

Licenses & Certifications

Solana Developer Certification: Cyfrin Updraft (Credential ID: ABK3PXG305TX, Jul 2026)
AI Fundamentals: Foundations for Understanding AI: IBM SkillsBuild (Mar 2026)
AI Literacy: IBM SkillsBuild (Mar 2026)
Backend and Automations: Udemy