Collins Kiptoo
About

The engineer who finishes things.

Collins Kiptoo. Software engineer in Nairobi, Kenya. I've worked with European teams since 2023 and my day runs on their hours.

I've been shipping software since 2020: marketplaces, e-commerce tools, document and image AI, SaaS dashboards, booking apps, and for the last two and a half years a lending platform used by 6,000+ people across four countries.

The hard part of building software isn't the first version. It's the edge cases, the integrations, the data that has to add up, and being the person who can say, with evidence, that it works. Two things make that possible.

What you build: scope that stays honest about edge cases. A workflow that's 98% right is a workflow somebody fixes by hand every morning. I'd rather ship the version that handles every case and explains itself.

How you build: modern tools, including AI, with the judgment kept in human hands. I use agents daily to trace, test and ship faster. I never let them decide what's true; every output is checked against real data before it reaches production.

At Cloover that meant the work nobody else wanted to open: a broken reconciliation, the compliance audit behind a guarantee, corrections made directly against production data. First reviewer on other people's code. The name new engineers were pointed at. The one who inherited systems when their builder left.

Today I build for founders and teams who need a product that works end to end: web apps, backends, integrations and AI features, in whatever industry the product lives in. Remote from Nairobi, European hours, clear scope, no surprises.

Collins Kiptoo

How I operate

CommitmentOwn the outcome, not the task. If something slips, I flagged it early with a fix.
UrgencyDecide with 80% of the information and move. When a process is slow, fix it; don't route around it.
WinningDisagree in the room, commit once decided, put failures on the table so the team learns.
AI, with judgmentUse it first for what it does well, bring people in early for the rest, keep sensitive data out, review every output before it acts.

Background

EducationBSc Actuarial Science with Information Technology, The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi. 2018 to 2021, conferred 2022, Second Class Upper. Actuarial intern, Jubilee Insurance, 2020.
ExperienceCloover (2024 to 2026) · Naviu.tech (2023 to 2024) · Webmastry (2022 to 2023) · Optimal.dev (2022) · freelance since 2021 · Teknospur (2020 to 2021)
Learning nowPython, TypeScript, React, Docker
Codegithub.com/SoiCollins, new work going up as it ships
StackBubble.io, JavaScript and Node.js, SQL, Stripe, SEPA, Buckaroo, Schufa, CRIF, Postmark, DocuGenerate, DocuSign, HubSpot, Zapier, AGiCAP, AWS Textract, PostHog, Google Cloud, Cloudflare, Xano, Supabase, Figma, Jira, Linear, Notion, Claude Code, Buildprint
LanguagesEnglish (C1), Swahili (native). I read enough German to maintain German-language templates.
WhereNairobi, UTC+3. Full overlap with Central European hours; morning overlap with the US East Coast.
EngagementAvailable now. Contract or full-time, remote. A short fixed-price pilot with written acceptance tests is my preferred way to start.
Off the clockFootball, mostly the European club competitions. Chess. Hiking.

Got something to build?

collo060@gmail.com
Collins KiptooNairobi, on European hours.
Contract, full-time, or a short paid pilot.