Matiwos Desalegn
Matiwos Desalegn
Profile

About Me

I'm a passionate Senior Data Engineer & AI/ML Engineer with deep expertise in building scalable data infrastructure and GenAI systems for fintech applications. Currently working at Kifiya Financial Technology PLC, I specialize in cloud-native architectures, RAG / multi-agent AI, and AI-powered solutions for African markets.

My unique value proposition lies at the intersection of data engineering, AI/ML systems, and African market expertise. I've successfully reduced data processing costs by 40% while achieving 99.9% pipeline reliability, processing terabytes of financial data daily.

Beyond technical expertise, I'm committed to building solutions that drive financial inclusion across Africa. From multilingual AI systems supporting local languages to scalable fintech infrastructure, I focus on technology that creates meaningful impact for underserved communities.

Location

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Current Role

Senior Data Engineer & AI/ML Engineer at Kifiya Financial Technology

Specialization

Cloud Data Infrastructure & AI/ML Systems

Focus

African Fintech Markets & Emerging Technologies

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Capabilities

Technical Skills

Comprehensive expertise across modern data engineering and AI/ML technologies

AWS (EMR, Glue, DMS, S3, Athena, Redshift)

5/5

Cloud data platform architecture and management

Apache Spark / PySpark

5/5

Large-scale data processing and analytics

Apache Airflow

4/5

Workflow orchestration and ETL pipeline automation

Mage AI

4/5

Modern data pipeline tool for ETL/ELT

dbt Core

4/5

Data transformation and modeling

Apache Kafka

4/5

Real-time data streaming and messaging

ClickHouse

4/5

Columnar database for analytics

CDC (Change Data Capture)

3/5

Real-time data replication and synchronization

Apache Iceberg

4/5

Open table format for medallion lakehouses and ACID analytics tables

Trino

4/5

Distributed SQL engine for lakehouse and federated analytics

Airbyte

3/5

ELT connectors and CDC ingestion for multi-source pipelines

OpenLineage / OpenMetadata

3/5

Data lineage, cataloging, and governance for lakehouse platforms

LangChain

5/5

Building applications with large language models

LangGraph

5/5

Multi-agent and workflow orchestration for LLMs

CrewAI

5/5

Multi-agent AI system development

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

5/5

Advanced information retrieval and generation systems

Feast (Feature Store)

4/5

ML feature management and serving

TensorFlow

4/5

Deep learning and neural network development

PyTorch

4/5

Deep learning framework for research and production

Ollama

4/5

Local LLM deployment and management

Docker

5/5

Containerization and microservices deployment

Kubernetes (EKS)

4/5

Container orchestration and scaling

GitLab CI/CD

4/5

Continuous integration and deployment

GitHub Actions

4/5

Automated workflows and CI/CD pipelines

AWS Cloud Services

5/5

Comprehensive cloud infrastructure management

PostgreSQL

5/5

Relational database design and optimization

Redis

4/5

In-memory caching and session storage

MongoDB

3/5

NoSQL document database

ChromaDB

4/5

Vector database for AI applications

Python

5/5

Primary language for data engineering and AI/ML

SQL

5/5

Advanced query optimization and database design

JavaScript/TypeScript

4/5

Full-stack web development

Java

3/5

Enterprise application development

Scala

3/5

Functional programming for big data

11
Expert Level
12
Data Engineering Tools
8
AI/ML Technologies

Core Technology Stack

AWSApache SparkLangChainPostgreSQLDockerPythonTypeScriptKubernetes
Experience

Professional Journey

Building expertise through hands-on experience in data engineering and AI systems

Jul 2026 - Present

Senior Data Engineer

Kifiya Financial Technology PLC
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Built an enterprise multi-agent RAG document assistant - LangChain + CrewAI over Llama 3.3 70B (Groq), ChromaDB hybrid retrieval with cross-encoder reranking, Keycloak SSO, and PostgreSQL conversation memory
Built the end-to-end credit-scoring ML pipeline - Feast feature store (S3 registry, Redis online, Aurora offline) with automated feature-refresh across batch domains; FastAPI inference on EKS with <200ms p95 latency
Built an AI data-standardization agent using a provider-agnostic LLM layer (OpenAI / Ollama / HuggingFace), containerized and deployed on AWS
Developed a FastAPI embedding service for Ethiopian-language retrieval (EthioLLM; Amharic/Ge'ez/Afaan Oromo/Tigrinya/Somali) with batch processing and a fallback model
Owns and governs the multi-source S3 medallion lakehouse - Bronze (raw snapshots and CDC), Silver (typed Apache Iceberg tables), Gold (Redshift-ready aggregates); 30+ Airflow DAGs on EKS
Built the lakehouse governance plane: OpenLineage to Marquez lineage, OpenMetadata PII cataloging, Apache Ranger + Trino for role-based access and query-time masking
Leads cross-team knowledge transfer - data-science to data-engineering feature-engineering handoff templates and internal ML enablement for analytics self-service

Technologies:

LangChainCrewAIFeast Feature StoreFastAPIChromaDBApache AirflowApache IcebergTrinoAWS S3Amazon RedshiftAmazon EKSOpenLineageOpenMetadataApache Rangerdbt CoreApache SparkPostgreSQLRedis

Key Achievements:

Credit-scoring inference APIs with <200ms p95 latency on EKS
Multi-agent RAG assistant with hybrid retrieval and SSO
Established lakehouse governance with lineage, cataloging, and policy-based access control
Enabled analytics self-service for data-science colleagues across institutional partner data
Oct 2024 - Jun 2026

Data Engineer

Kifiya Financial Technology PLC
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Built the organization's first AWS-managed lakehouse (Athena + Glue Data Catalog) orchestrated with Mage AI - 6-hour micro-batch ingestion for institutional partners, 300+ tables / 7,000+ columns, high-watermark extraction, and date partitioning
Designed a lightweight real-time CDC pipeline under compute constraints - OLake for MySQL binlog to Apache Iceberg (Polaris catalog), queryable via Trino
Built and deployed the Batch API microservice (FastAPI + EKS) ingesting domain payloads from partner institutions; persists to MongoDB and pushes features to Feast (Redis) for credit-scoring consumption
Built production Firebase Analytics export pipelines - BigQuery to S3 Bronze Parquet to Iceberg Silver via PyIceberg, with partner-isolated Airflow DAGs and Secrets Manager + IRSA
Migrated Mage AI full-snapshot pipelines to Airflow on EKS; scaled to 34 tables across multiple institutional partners (~39M rows/day) with compile-time Redshift schema contracts
Designed Redshift warehouse layers - staging late-binding views, SCD-1/2 dimensions + multi-fact tables, governed semantic mart; 146/146 data-quality assertions
Built Aurora PostgreSQL to Redshift near real-time integration via Federated Query, eliminating multi-hour batch cycles for credit-risk analytics
Built full-snapshot restore pipelines for on-premise sources (S3 dumps to pg_restore to Aurora) with staggered materialized-view refreshes that resolved 95%+ CPU saturation

Technologies:

Apache AirflowMage AIApache SparkApache IcebergTrinoAWS (S3, EMR, Glue, Athena, Redshift, EKS)FastAPIMongoDBFeast Feature StoreAirbytedbt CorePostgreSQLAmazon Aurora PostgreSQLDockerKubernetes

Key Achievements:

Reduced pipeline failures ~60% by migrating Mage AI to Airflow on EKS
Achieved 99.9% pipeline reliability across production data workflows
Reduced data processing costs by 40% through optimization
HPA auto-scaling (5-10 pods) with zero-downtime rolling deployments on AWS EKS
Batch API serving multiple institutional partners with <200ms p95 latency
Nov 2023 - Oct 2024

Software Developer

HST Consulting PLC
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Designed and implemented the frontend of an enterprise HR/payroll (ERP) system, improving usability and operational efficiency
Integrated RESTful APIs with backend teams for reliable, end-to-end data flow
Achieved a 40% reduction in payroll processing time through optimized data handling and a responsive interface

Technologies:

JavaScriptHTMLGitREST APIsERP systems

Key Achievements:

40% reduction in payroll processing time through optimized data handling and responsive UI
Apr 2024 - Jul 2024

Data Science Fellow

10 Academy
Remote
Intensive 12-week data science and machine learning fellowship program
Worked on real-world data science projects with industry mentors
Specialized in MLOps, feature engineering, and model deployment
Collaborated in agile teams on end-to-end ML projects

Technologies:

PythonTensorFlowScikit-learnMLflowApache AirflowDockerGitJupyter

Key Achievements:

Completed 5 industry-grade ML projects with 90%+ accuracy
Implemented MLOps best practices for model lifecycle management
Graduated in top 10% of fellowship cohort
Sep 2023 - Jun 2024

Google Developer Student Clubs (GDSC) Lead

Wolaita Sodo University
Wolaita Sodo, Ethiopia
Led a community of 200+ developer students in learning cutting-edge technologies
Organized workshops and events on cloud computing, AI/ML, and web development
Mentored students in building real-world projects and technical skills
Facilitated hackathons and coding competitions

Technologies:

Google Cloud PlatformAndroid DevelopmentFlutterFirebaseJavaScriptPython

Key Achievements:

Grew GDSC membership from 50 to 200+ active members
Organized 12 technical workshops with 95% satisfaction rate
Led 3 successful hackathons with 100+ participants each
Mentored 15 students who secured internships at tech companies

Ready to Work Together?

Looking for a data engineer who combines technical expertise with business impact? Let's discuss how I can help scale your data infrastructure.

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Credentials

Certifications & Continuous Learning

Industry-verified Associate DE credentials, formal assessments, and advanced upskilling - layered on production Senior Data Engineer experience.

2 Certified3 Verified1 In Progress16+ courses

Verified Credentials

DataCamp

Industry-verified Associate Data Engineer credentials

DataCamp Premium - Data Community Africa Scholarship
Career TracksView Profile
  • Associate Data Engineer in SQLCertified

    Issued Jul 2026

    PostgreSQLSnowflakeData WarehousingDatabase Design
    View credential
  • Associate Data Engineer in SnowflakeCertified

    Issued Jul 2026

    Snowflake SQLTransformationModeling
    View credential
  • Associate Data Engineer in DatabricksCertification 74% complete
    DatabricksSparkPythonSQL

CodeSignal Learn

Third-party data-engineering skill verification

Multi-format ingestion path verified
View Profile
  • Multi-format data ingestion (Python)Verified

    Issued Sep 2025

    File-based ETLPandasIngestion patterns

Tools

PandasPython

Credly Verified

Credly-verified cloud ML badges and AWS Educate generative AI coursework

2 Credly badges plus AWS Educate coursework
View Profile
  • AWS Educate Machine Learning FoundationsVerified

    Issued Jun 2025

    AWSMachine LearningAmazon SageMaker
    View credential
  • LFC102: Inclusive Open Source Community OrientationVerified

    Issued Aug 2026

    Open SourceCommunity
    View credential
  • Introducing Generative AI with AWSCoursework
    Generative AIAWSBedrock

Continuous Learning

LinkedIn Learning

Advanced production DE, orchestration, and architecture coursework

16+ advanced courses completed
View Profile
Apache Airflow - Production Best Practices
Apache Airflow - Advanced DAGs
Data Engineering Pipeline Management
Enterprise Architecture
Amazon Redshift Essentials
Highly Scalable SQL Databases
Advanced SQL
Advanced NoSQL