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Nsikak Akpan

Senior Full-Stack Engineer · Founder · Uyo, Nigeria

I build whole products.

  1. Schema
  2. API
  3. Interface
  4. Release

Two years holding frontend architecture at Chaindustry, a live Web3 platform that moves real money on chain, where I am the largest single author of the user client. Founder of Xicton Labs and ScholarDeck, co-founder of Bidazk. I take products from an empty repository to production, across web and mobile.

Selected work

4 products, read as architecture.

Each one is broken down by the layer it was built at. The rows line up between projects on purpose, so you can scan down and see where the work actually happened.

Chaindustry

Web3 engagement platform · Live

Senior Full-Stack Engineer

A production platform where users complete sponsored tasks, quests, and academy courses for token rewards, with a separate internal console where staff review payouts and manage access.

Chaindustry home dashboard: total assets balance above shortcuts to Academy, Withdraw, Transfer, and the leaderboard
Client
Two Next.js frontends on different generations: the admin console on 13 with the Pages Router, 66 pages against 228 hand-rolled components; the user client on 16 with the App Router and TypeScript, 137 routes. Tailwind throughout, SCSS modules in the older one.
State
Redux Toolkit with RTK Query. 268 endpoints in the admin console alone, with tag-based invalidation across more than 40 tag types.
API
REST, 639 handlers split across a legacy JavaScript v1 surface and a TypeScript v2 surface that are mounted side by side. Integrations for Paystack, Twitter, Firebase push, Resend, S3, and on-chain disbursement through ethers.
Data
MongoDB with Mongoose, 82 models across three locations. No migration framework; schema changes run as unordered one-shot backfill scripts.
Auth
HttpOnly cookie sessions with a CSRF double-submit token; Bearer headers were removed outright. A money route passes six middleware layers, ending at a 96-permission RBAC gate across 18 namespaces and 6 staff roles.
Infra
cPanel over FTP with standalone Next builds, PM2 running the API and a worker, Bull over Redis, 11 background workers, Sentry, and Socket.IO. CI deploys only; no workflow runs tests or lint.
Read the case study

Baron Stitches

E-commerce storefront · Live

Full-Stack Engineer, client build

A storefront and back office for a Uyo tailoring house, where the same garment can be bought off the rack or commissioned to measurements.

Baron Stitches storefront: 'Premium Tailoring Crafted for Distinction', with View Collection and Book a Fitting alongside a tailored suit
Client
Next.js 16 App Router with React 19: server components render the catalogue and product pages, client components handle the cart and forms. Tailwind CSS v4 on theme tokens, Framer Motion throughout. Dark mode is hand-rolled on useSyncExternalStore rather than a library, so the server and client agree on theme at first paint.
State
Cart in a React context persisted to local storage, keyed by product and size so one garment in two sizes is two lines. React Query backs the admin product CRUD.
API
A server action places orders, holding the payment secret key server-side. Reads go straight to Postgres through PostgREST, including a single nested query that returns a product with its per-size stock in one request.
Data
Supabase Postgres across six entities: products, inventory, customers, orders, order items, and admin users. Stock is its own table keyed by product and size. Garment photography in object storage.
Auth
Two-stage admin sign-in: the account must exist and be active before credentials are checked at all. Session enforcement is server-side in the protected layout. No customer accounts, deliberately, to keep checkout friction low.
Infra
Vercel, with Supabase providing database, auth, and object storage, and Resend for transactional email.
Read the case study

HiveOps

Multi-tenant DBaaS · Archived

Frontend Engineer (part-time)

Frontend for a database-as-a-service platform: provisioning and operating VespaDB instances, with dashboards, data management, and subscription billing.

HiveOps database instance dashboard
Client
Next.js, React, and TypeScript. Dashboards, tables, and modals built to spec from Figma on Mantine UI primitives with Tailwind CSS, and GSAP and Framer Motion for interaction.
State
React Query for server state across the dashboard views: fetching, caching, and invalidation after mutations.
API
REST against the platform backend that provisions VespaDB instances, plus Stripe for subscription and billing flows.
Read the case study

ScholarDeck

Multi-tenant SaaS · In development

Founder & Solo Engineer

A multi-tenant school management platform for private schools in Nigeria, where every school is reached at its own subdomain and tenant resolution is the security boundary.

ScholarDeck marketing site: 'Run your whole school from one place', over a line about registers, results, fees and parent communication for Nigerian schools
Client
Two Next.js 16 applications on the App Router with React 19, kept separate rather than split by route group. No component library: the primitives are hand-written in a shared package, styled with Tailwind CSS 4 against CSS custom properties.
State
Server-rendered throughout, with React state kept local to the components that need it. No client cache layer, because the interface does not fetch at runtime.
Infra
Turborepo and pnpm workspaces. GitHub Actions runs format, lint, typecheck, and build, then three custom guards: WCAG contrast on the design tokens, a dependency-tree check, and a secret-pattern grep over the built bundles. Vercel is configured but not provisioned; Supabase CLI drives the local database that has no migrations in it.
Read the case study

Experience

Where the work happened.

Building for the web since November 2021 and in paid engineering roles since 2023. The instructor years overlap the engineering ones rather than preceding them.

  • Jun 2026 to Present

    3 mos

    Founder & Lead Engineer

    Xicton Labs · Self-employed

    Client engineering across HealthTech, Web3, EdTech, and e-commerce: production web applications and SaaS builds delivered end to end, schema through deployment. Baron Stitches, above, was delivered under this.

    Uyo, Nigeria · Remote

  • Jun 2024 to Present

    2 yrs 3 mos

    Senior Full-Stack Engineer

    Chaindustry · Contract

    Frontend architecture for a live Web3 engagement platform: wallet authentication across EVM networks, automated task verification, and the reward distribution APIs behind them. Largest single author of the user client.

    Uyo, Nigeria · Hybrid

  • Oct 2024 to Oct 2025

    1 yr 1 mo

    Frontend Engineer

    HiveOps · Part-time

    Owned the frontend of a multi-tenant Database-as-a-Service platform: instance management, dashboards, and Stripe subscription flows, with Cypress and Jest coverage on the billing paths.

    Ottawa, Canada · Remote

  • Jul 2024 to Jan 2025

    7 mos

    Technical Lead & Full-Stack Instructor

    Netisens ICT · Part-time

    Designed the full-stack curriculum and ran code review for developer cohorts, from core web technologies through building, testing, and documenting REST APIs.

    Uyo, Nigeria · Hybrid

  • Aug 2023 to Jul 2024

    1 yr

    Frontend Web Development Tutor

    LAskill Training Center · Part-time

    Taught frontend fundamentals through React and TypeScript, authored the learning roadmap and lab exercises, and reviewed student code.

    Uyo, Nigeria · On-site

  • Nov 2023 to Jan 2024

    3 mos

    Frontend Developer

    PopH2 · Internship

    Built and maintained responsive UI for the company web applications, working in an agile cycle alongside senior developers.

    Canada · Remote

Stack

What I reach for, and what it's for.

Grouped by the job it does. Everything here has shipped to production in at least one of the projects above.

Frontend

Interfaces that stay fast as the product grows.

  • React
  • Next.js (App Router, RSC)
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Radix UI
  • Redux Toolkit / RTK Query

Backend & data

Schema first, then the API the product actually needs.

  • Node.js
  • Remix
  • Prisma ORM
  • PostgreSQL
  • MongoDB
  • REST & GraphQL

Mobile

One codebase, shipped to both stores.

  • React Native
  • Expo
  • Offline-first local storage
  • Push notifications
  • App Store / Play Store release

Tools & delivery

Getting it in front of users and keeping it there.

  • AWS (CDK, S3)
  • Vercel
  • Docker
  • Git & GitHub
  • CI pipelines

Contact

Building something end to end?

I'm open to full-stack, product, and mobile engineering roles, and to founding-engineer work. Email is fastest.