Software Engineer · Lagos, Nigeria

I work from
the problem
level first.

Before the stack, before the implementation — what's actually broken and what does a good solution look like.

That question drives the engineering work. It drives how I think about markets and systems too.Everything connects back to the same instinct.

See the work Read the writing →

TW

tobiwilliams.tech
in/tobi-williams
github.com/TobiWilliams001

Work

Africa Students Network · Platform

A platform now running across 15 African countries

Contributed to the architecture and product of the ASAP platform — a community connecting African students to global opportunities. I rebuilt the enrollment flow from five steps to one. Drop-off fell by 62%. The design system I put in place is still the foundation for every new feature they build.

Next.jsTypeScriptFirebaseProduct

Elitehands · Engineering

Client products, AI systems, and startup builds

Working across client engagements and product builds — automation systems, AI agents, web applications. Different problems, different industries, different constraints. The process is the same each time: understand what's actually going on before touching anything.

Next.jsTypeScriptAI systemsAutomation

Systems · Private intelligence

Argus — a private document search engine

I wanted to know what serious private search actually looks like — so I built it. Go backend with a concurrent crawler, RAG pipeline using FAISS vector indexing, AES-256 encryption throughout, and real-time SSE streaming. Built to answer one honest question, then built the infrastructure to answer it properly.

GoPythonFAISSAES-256RAG

Client work · Nigeria · UK · US · Canada

Building, fixing, and maintaining software across industries and contexts

Web applications, internal tools, data systems, automations — built from scratch, taken over mid-project, maintained long-term. Clients across Nigeria, the UK, US, and Canada. The work varies. The approach doesn't.

Next.jsPythonNode.jsFull-stack

Writing

Essay · Markets & Engineering

Most tech talent is building
for the wrong market.

The skills are there. The work ethic is there. But without understanding where value is actually created and captured — you end up technically strong and economically stuck. That's not a talent problem.

EngineeringApr 2026

The spec is not the product

Most engineers build what they're told. The ones who keep compounding build what's actually needed. Those two things are rarely the same.

SystemsMar 2026

Why I study markets the same way I study engineering problems

The same process — understand the system, interrogate the data honestly, test what you think you know — applies in both places. Most people treat them as separate disciplines.

Research

Markets as a
research discipline.

Alongside engineering, I study markets and economics the same way I approach any serious technical problem — from first principles, with evidence, and with honesty about what the data actually shows.

Most people approach financial markets the same way they approach problems they don't really understand: by acting before they know what's actually happening.

The work starts with understanding the system first — how markets are structured, what economic forces drive behaviour, what the evidence actually shows versus what people assume it shows. Everything else follows from that foundation.

Layer 01

Market structure and economic foundations

How markets are actually organised. How participants behave and why. The economic mechanisms underneath price discovery. Most people skip this entirely.

Layer 02

What the evidence actually says

Academic research, historical data, quantitative analysis. What holds up under scrutiny versus what people repeat because it sounds right. Honesty about the data matters more than a compelling story.

Layer 03

Quantitative modelling and implementation

Building the infrastructure to test ideas rigorously rather than assuming they work. Statistical methods, model validation, systematic analysis. Engineering applied to financial research.

Layer 04

Running it as a discipline

Documentation, process, intellectual honesty about what results show. The same habits that make good engineering — rigour, patience, willingness to be wrong — applied to research.

About

I'm Tobi. Software engineer, and someone whose curiosity doesn't stay in one lane.

I've worked on platforms used across 15 African countries, built AI systems and automation tools for clients in different industries, and spent a lot of time thinking about why most software doesn't do what it's supposed to.

Alongside that, I study markets and economics — quantitative methods, market structure, how economic systems actually behave versus how people think they behave. The same question runs through both:what's actually happening here, and why?

I'm also writing — about engineering decisions, systems, and things I'm figuring out as I go. This site is where the work and the thinking live.

CurrentlySoftware Engineer · Elitehands

Contributing toAfrica Students Network

Also buildingAurum Haute · Lagos & London

ResearchMarkets, economics & systems

Primary stackNext.js · TypeScript · Go · Python

BasedLagos, Nigeria · Remote

Let's talk about
something worth talking about.

Software projects, consulting, collaborations — or a conversation that goes somewhere useful. Get in touch.

Emailhello@tobiwilliams.tech

ResponseWithin 48hrs

LinkedInin/tobi-williams

GitHubTobiWilliams001

"The best conversations I've had started with someone who had a specific problem and wanted to think through it properly. That's the kind of thing I'm interested in."

hello@tobiwilliams.tech →

Something worth
building together?

See the work →hello@tobiwilliams.tech