About
I'm a software and systems engineer who likes working across the whole stack and going as deep as a problem demands. My range runs from high-level product features down to byte-level cryptographic encoding, and I move between them comfortably.
I started in backend and API engineering, spending several years building production systems in Python and Django — REST APIs, relational data models, auth, and full e-commerce platforms — plus full-stack product work pairing those backends with React / TypeScript frontends. That grounding in shipping real systems still shapes how I work.
Today I write production Rust for digital-identity infrastructure at adorsys: identity-wallet protocols like OpenID for Verifiable Credentials (OID4VCI / OID4VP), ISO 18013-5 mobile documents, SD-JWT, and the OAuth Token Status List - the kind of work where correctness is measured against the specification, line by line, and where I dig into COSE/CBOR, cryptographic signing, and supply-chain security.
Alongside the code, teaching is a core part of what I do. As a 2024 Rust Foundation Fellow, co-founder of Rust Africa, and co-lead of the Rust-Edu revitalization, I build community, mentor engineers, and write and speak about making hard systems approachable. I care a great deal about how the next generation learns to build.
My approach across all of it is consistent: make the smallest change that is structurally correct, back it with tests, review it hard, and ground every decision in evidence rather than guesswork.
Quick facts
- ~4 years shipping production software
- Rust · Python · TypeScript · C / C++
- Backend, APIs, full-stack & systems
- Digital identity & applied cryptography
- 2024 Rust Foundation Fellow
- RustWeek 2026 speaker
- Rust Africa & Rust-Edu lead
- Published technical writer
What I do
Systems & identity engineering
Production Rust for digital-identity infrastructure - verifiable credentials, mobile documents, and cryptographic protocols built strictly to specification. This is where I go deepest.
Backend & API development
Designing and shipping REST APIs, data models, and auth for real products - from e-commerce platforms to launch tooling. Several years of production Python behind me.
Full-stack product work
Building end-to-end features - typed React / TypeScript frontends on top of Rust or Python backends, wired together with clean, documented APIs.
Developer education & community
Growing the Rust community across Africa and academia through workshops, mentorship, and curriculum - as a Rust Foundation Fellow, Rust Africa lead, and Rust-Edu co-lead.
Technical writing & speaking
Turning complex systems into clear explanations - conference talks, documentation, and published articles on Rust, APIs, web3, and how engineers learn.
Experience
- Implement OID4VCI / OID4VP flows, ISO 18013-5 mdoc verification, and SD-JWT.
- Led a spec-compliance audit of an OAuth Token Status List server, catching MUST-level CWT/COSE bugs and authoring a compliance matrix.
- Hardened the Rust supply chain with cargo audit / deny / vet and CI gating.
- Run workshops and training that grew Rust engagement across student and educator communities.
- Partner with university programs to bring Rust into the curriculum.
- Designed RESTful APIs for auth, catalog, cart, and checkout with Django & PostgreSQL.
- Cut response time ~20% through query and schema redesign; added a bulk product-upload feature.
- Built documentation sites and proposed video guides that improved onboarding.
- Translated core docs for a global, non-Chinese-speaking developer audience.
- Teach API design, testing, and documentation using Postman and OpenAPI.
Speaking & Community
Shaping Tomorrow's Software Engineers
A talk at the world's largest Rust conference on developer education and building the next generation of Rust engineers.
RustWeek speakers ↗Rust Africa
Growing the Rust community across the continent through workshops, mentorship, and curriculum work — expanding who gets to build in Rust.
rustafrica.org ↗Rust-Edu
Rebuilding Rust-Edu alongside Bart Massey (Portland State University) to bring Rust into academic settings and support educators teaching it.
rust-edu.org ↗Rust Foundation Fellowship
Recognized for community leadership and education work advancing Rust adoption across universities and developer communities.
rustfoundation.org ↗Projects
Token Status List Server
A server implementing the IETF OAuth Token Status List draft — compliance-audited against the spec (CWT / COSE), with a hardened supply chain and CI security gating.
Fedicore-Edge
An orchestration agent for running self-hosted Fediverse services on edge hardware, packaged as a NixOS flake — with coordinated transactional rollback across system, schema, and data.
Board Task Tracker
A full-stack task board: a Rust (axum / sqlx) backend paired with a typed React / TypeScript frontend.
illusionlang
A tree-walking interpreter for a small language — a hands-on study of lexing, parsing, and evaluation in Rust.
Bible Bot
Generates a daily Bible verse, explanation, and prayer with AI and auto-posts it to X — fully scheduled and containerized.
Waitlist Mailer API
A customizable waitlist API — captures early users and sends templated launch emails when a product goes live, ready for web, mobile, and desktop.
Writing & Talks
Full archive on dev.to/martcpp
Skills
Languages
Rust
Python
TypeScript
C
C++
Bash
SQL
Identity & Security
Backend
FastAPI
Django
Flask
Data
PostgreSQL
MySQL
SQLiteMongoDB
Infra & Tooling
Docker
AWS
GCP
Azure
NixOS
Git
CI/CD
Practices
Technical writing
Mentoring
Education
B.Eng, Marine Engineering
University of Benin — Edo, Nigeria
Diploma, Maritime Studies & ICT
Center for Maritime Studies & ICT, UNIBEN — Edo, Nigeria
Rust Fundamentals — Duke University
API Development — Postman
Introduction to Python — DataCamp§09 — Contact
Let's build something correct.
Open to collaboration on digital identity, Rust systems, and community work. The fastest way to reach me is email.
mordecaiemmanueletukudo@gmail.com