Rich Kitibwa
Software & Product Engineer · Applied AI · Health Technology
- Kampala, Uganda
- richkitibwa@gmail.com · +256 754 145 656
- linkedin.com/in/kitibwa-rich · github.com/RichKitibwa
- richkitibwa.com
Profile
Software and product engineer with over six years of experience building AI systems, clinical software and digital products, after starting my career as a medical laboratory technologist. I work across frontend, backend, mobile, data and infrastructure, and with clinicians, product owners and business stakeholders, to turn complex requirements into software that works in the real world. Co-author of a published clinical evaluation of AI decision-support software.
Experience
MamaOpe Medicals · Kampala, Uganda
Feb 2021 – Present
Software Engineer — Full-Stack, AI/ML, Signal Processing & QA
- Engineer on HealthNavi, a clinical decision-support system for respiratory illness piloted in Uganda, with a pilot under way in Zambia. Co-authored its published Uganda evaluation: 168 patients across five Kampala facilities, with 92.3% sensitivity for pneumonia and 89.5% for TB against clinicians' final diagnoses.
- Built the retrieval and model service behind Empirico (empirico.ai), a medical knowledge platform: PDF ingestion from AWS S3, Azure OpenAI embeddings, Zilliz/Milvus hybrid search and Gemini generation behind a FastAPI service, with source-diversified retrieval and page-level citations.
- Improved latency, cost and reliability with embedding and response caching, quick vs. deep search modes, streaming responses, rate limiting, concurrency controls and Docker-based deployment.
- Developed HealthNavi features across a React/TypeScript frontend, FastAPI backend and PostgreSQL, integrated it with the Empirico API, and evaluated AI responses against clinical reference answers.
- Worked on the MamaOpe smart auscultation device: hardware prototyping and testing, MATLAB respiratory-rate estimation from chest sounds, and Android (Java/Kotlin) device integration.
Bench Sports Media · benchsports.com
Mar 2026 – Present
Software Engineer
- Implemented pay-per-view and subscriber access, card-driven checkout and Stripe Connect creator flows, and creator channel onboarding for a sports streaming platform.
- Built live-streaming features with Mux (in-app preview, live chat, viewer counts and tipping) and fixed live streams ending early on mobile.
- Built out the Expo/React Native mobile app and met App Store and Google Play requirements (Sign in with Apple, in-app account deletion).
Stack: Next.js · React Native/Expo · TypeScript · Mux · Stripe Connect · Clerk · Vercel
Ascension Services · ascensionservices.net
May 2025 – Present
Software Engineer
- Full-stack engineer on an enterprise procurement platform (suppliers, RFQs, purchase orders, inventory, payments); 700+ commits across the FastAPI backend and Next.js frontend.
- Built purchase-order amendments and cancellations, approval forwarding, quote-integrity checks and printable procurement documents.
- Implemented trial and subscription lifecycle emails, and moved supplier emails to Celery/Redis background queues.
Stack: Python · FastAPI · Next.js · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Alembic · Celery · Redis · Docker
Powem · Nairobi, Kenya (remote) · powem.co
Jun 2019 – May 2020
Software Engineer
- Built, tested and maintained React web applications in a small agile team, working remotely.
Lancet Laboratories · Kampala, Uganda
Aug 2018 – Feb 2021
Medical Laboratory Technologist
- Performed diagnostic testing across clinical chemistry, haematology and microbiology under rigorous quality control.
Skills
- Languages
- Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, Kotlin, MATLAB
- Web & mobile
- React, Next.js, React Native/Expo, Android
- Backend
- FastAPI, Flask, Node.js, Celery; familiar with Spring Boot, Django
- AI & data
- RAG, LLM integration (Gemini, OpenAI), embeddings, vector & hybrid search (Milvus/Zilliz), signal processing
- Data & cloud
- PostgreSQL, Redis, MongoDB, Docker, AWS, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vercel, CI/CD
- Practices
- Requirements analysis, system design, testing & QA, payments (Stripe Connect), HL7 FHIR
Education
BSc Biomedical Laboratory Technology
Makerere University · Jan 2022
Certifications
- Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, MITx (edX), Mar 2024
- Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science, MITx (edX), May 2024
Publication
Babirye S, Turyabagye B, Tigist M, et al. (incl. Kitibwa R). Performance Evaluation of a Clinical Decision Support System (MAMAOPE AI) for Tuberculosis and Pneumonia Diagnosis. VeriXiv 3:147 (preprint), Apr 2026. doi:10.12688/verixiv.2433.1