SAscholasticstan

StanleyAlu.

Frontend engineer and founder. I ship the interface, the API behind it, the database and the tests.

Available now · remote across EMEA, or Nigeria

Hire me →See the work
LinkBolt, a link shortener with analytics that separate people from bots. Alongside Payroid, the fintech I founded, and the Bethadel Media site.

Things I have built.

A fintech I founded, a client site shipped in a week, a volunteer build for a local business, a product built for this portfolio, and the systems work from ALX that shaped how I build.

FounderLive

Payroid

A fintech I founded and built. Nigerians sell gift cards and crypto for naira at a rate locked the moment they submit, and pay bills from the same wallet. Web app, operator console, Flutter mobile app.

  • Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • PostgreSQL
  • Drizzle
  • Flutter
  • Fintech
Case study →
Contract · Live2026

Bethadel Media

Company website for a Lagos event production and media firm. Contract work, built from scratch and shipped in a week on Astro and Vercel.

  • Astro
  • Tailwind
  • Vercel
  • Serverless
Case study →
Featured2026

LinkBolt

A link shortener with analytics that separate people from bots, custom slugs, QR codes, expiry, and a JSON API. Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres.

  • Next.js
  • TypeScript
  • PostgreSQL
  • Drizzle
  • Vitest
Case study →
  • C
  • Linux
2023

Simple Shell

A Unix shell written from the man pages. fork, execve, PATH lookup, built-ins, chaining.

Case study →
  • Python
  • Flask
  • MySQL
2023

AirBnB Clone

Four versions: console, MySQL storage, REST API, dynamic front end.

Case study →
React2026

Flex Gloss

Booking, shop and back office for a car detailing business in Benin City. Volunteer build. React, Express, Supabase, Paystack.

Case study →
Python2024

Task Schedule App

ALX final project. A web app for scheduling tasks by date, time and priority, with accounts, a REST API and a MySQL database behind SQLAlchemy.

Case study →
C2023

Sorting Algorithms

Bubble, insertion, selection, quick, shell, cocktail shaker, counting, merge, heap and radix sort in C, each with its Big O written down.

Case study →
C2023

printf

A reimplementation of the C standard library's printf, handling the common conversion specifiers, flags, width and precision.

Case study →

Why hire me.

Six things that show up in your codebase when I join. Each one links to the evidence.

  1. 01

    I ship whole products, not just screens

    Payroid is a live fintech I founded and built: customer app, operator console and Flutter app, about 94k lines. The Bethadel Media site went from brief to launch in a week. LinkBolt has a UI, server actions, a Postgres schema and a JSON API.

  2. 02

    Tests and CI from the first commit, every time

    33 tests, unit and integration, run in GitHub Actions on every push with a real Postgres service. Lint, typecheck, build. Nothing merges red.

  3. 03

    Performance decisions I can explain in review

    Redirects answer from a bounded cache and record the click after the response is sent. I can tell you why it is a 302 and not a 301, and what that costs.

  4. 04

    I know what the framework is hiding

    I wrote a Unix shell and printf in C during ALX. When a React abstraction leaks, I know what it is hiding.

  5. 05

    Code and pull requests you can read cold

    Small commits, comments that say why, READMEs that list the trade-offs. The next engineer should not need me in the room.

  6. 06

    I notice what users notice

    Payroid locks the rate at submit and refuses a KYC backdoor for app reviewers. LinkBolt counts bots separately and hashes visitors instead of storing IPs.

Who I am,
and what I am looking for.

I'm Stanley Alu, a frontend engineer in Nigeria. I foundedPayroid, a live gift-card and crypto to naira exchange with a web app, operator console and Flutter app, and I take on contract builds like theBethadel Media site. I am looking for a full-time role.

What I want: a team that ships to real users, reviews code properly, and lets an engineer own a feature from the ticket to production. Frontend-leaning is ideal, full-stack is fine. Remote across EMEA works; so does Lagos or Abuja. Running my own product taught me what it costs when something breaks, which is why I test.

How I got here: the ALX software engineering programme, which starts in C and Linux, then freelance React work for clients, then Payroid. The systems background is the reason my latest project has a README that explains its redirect strategy instead of a list of features.

If you want to see how I think before you book a call, read theLinkBolt case study. It is the closest thing to a work sample I can show without a client's permission.

Based in
Nigeria
Status
Available now
Looking for
Frontend / full-stack · remote (EMEA) or Nigeria
Education
University of Benin · ALX SE

What I work with.

Grouped by layer. Bold means I use it every week; the rest I have shipped with but would still open the docs.

01

Frontend

Where I spend most of my working day.

  • React
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Next.js (App Router, server actions)
  • HTML & CSS
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Astro
  • Flutter / Dart
02

Backend & data

Enough to own a feature end to end.

  • Node.js & Express
  • PostgreSQL & Drizzle
  • MongoDB
  • Python & Flask
  • Firebase
  • REST API design
  • Auth: OTP, passkeys, PIN, sessions
  • Payments & webhooks (Flutterwave, Svix)
03

Systems & fundamentals

From the ALX programme: things I learned by writing them in C.

  • C
  • Linux & shell scripting
  • Processes, fork/exec, signals
  • Data structures & sorting
  • HTTP, redirects, caching
  • MySQL & SQLAlchemy
04

Tooling & delivery

How the work gets out the door.

  • Git & GitHub
  • Vitest & testing
  • GitHub Actions CI
  • Vercel & Netlify
  • Docker & Fly.io
  • SEO & digital marketing
Also VS Code Postman Figma Chrome DevTools Lighthouse Zod Drizzle Kit pnpm workspaces Web Push WebAuthn Resend Vite

Where I have worked.

Most recent first. The ALX entry is there because it is where the systems side of my work comes from.

  1. Founder & Lead Engineer

    Payroid

    May 2026 – Present

    Gift cards and crypto to naira, plus bill payments. My company; I designed and built all of it.

    • Customer web app, operator console and Flutter mobile app from one monorepo: Next.js 16, TypeScript, Postgres via Drizzle. About 94k lines.
    • KYC tiers (BVN, NIN, selfie), passkey and OTP sign-in, transaction PIN, wallet, payouts, bill payments, receipts, push notifications.
    • Three hosts from one deployment through an edge proxy; a Fly.io static-IP proxy for Flutterwave; treasury cron; audit-logged operator desks.

  2. Contract Web Developer

    Bethadel Media Limited

    Sep 2026

    Company website for a Lagos event production firm. Built from scratch and shipped in a week.

    • Astro and Tailwind on Vercel: home, about, services, gallery with albums and a photostream, legal pages, sitemap.
    • Contact form on a serverless function with Resend: validation, honeypot, team notification and an acknowledgment email.
    • Edge middleware that gates launch by hostname and marks preview deployments noindex.

  3. Volunteer Full-Stack Developer

    Flex Gloss

    Mar – Apr 2026

    Car detailing business in Benin City. Built their booking, shop and back office from scratch, unpaid.

    • React, Express and Supabase: bookings with confirmations and reminders, packages, gift cards, product shop with Paystack checkout, referrals, loyalty, reviews, job tracking.
    • Staff portal and admin area with service reports, stock movements and an audit log. Auth by OTP, CSRF, rate limiting, sanitising.
    • Playwright end-to-end tests, CI, and Lighthouse CI on every push. About 25k lines of TypeScript.

  4. Frontend Developer

    ManandMicrobes

    Aug 2023 – Mar 2024

    Freelance, remote. Front end for a science blog with a PHP back end.

    • Built the UI components for the blog in React and tuned re-renders so the reading experience stayed quick.
    • Server-side rendering in PHP for SEO and first-paint speed, working alongside the backend developer.

  5. Web Developer

    Zero Pest NG

    2019 – 2020, then Sep 2021 – Jun 2023

    Pest control company in Nigeria. Hybrid internship, later the site’s developer.

    • Built the company website front end in React: responsive layouts, interactive elements, SEO basics.
    • Worked directly with the owners to turn business requirements into pages.

  6. Software Engineering Student

    ALX Africa

    2022 – 2024

    Twelve-month programme built on the Holberton curriculum. Low-level first, web second.

    • Wrote a Unix shell and a printf implementation in C, with a teammate, from the man pages.
    • Built the AirBnB clone through four versions: console, file and MySQL storage, Flask, REST API, dynamic front end.
2017 – 2021University of BeninBachelor’s degree
2022 – 2024ALX Software EngineeringFull-stack track, project based
Sep 2022The Fundamentals of Digital MarketingGoogle · Credential ID U89 QGD TKT

Hiring?
Let's talk.

hello@scholasticstanley.com

Send the job description, or just the problem you are trying to solve. I reply within a day, and I can do a take-home or a pairing session at short notice.