Going from hawking ice cream on the streets of Nigeria to working as a software engineer at Lloyds Banking Group in the UK isn’t a career story you hear every day. But Wale Ayandiran’s story is no ordinary one. His journey is a masterclass in resilience, self-learning, and the relentless pursuit of growth.
From his humble beginnings in Nigeria to leading impactful projects in the global tech space, Wale’s career is a testament to what’s possible when grit meets opportunity.
Falling in love with technology
After completing secondary school, despite significant challenges, Wale pursued computer science at a polytechnic. Here, his curiosity about technology blossomed. He diligently saved to buy his first laptop, a modest 10-inch device that became his gateway to programming and self-directed learning.
By 2012, while doing his National Diploma, Wale was already building software solutions, tutoring peers, and earning income by developing projects for others. “I was coding in QBasic and Visual Basic, even helping HND students with their projects,” he recalls. However, his skills didn’t stop there; he also started working with Java and building applications using Swing and AWT.
During his SIWES (Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme), while most students sought internships for financial gain, Wale and a small group of like-minded peers made an unconventional choice; they paid to stay back in school and deepen their programming knowledge. “That was when I really fell in love with Java,” he explains. “It was Object-Oriented Programming, and it just clicked for me in a way other languages hadn’t.”
After graduating with his National Diploma, he began his career in IT support, but he quickly realised that fixing hardware wasn’t what he wanted. “I wanted to do more than troubleshoot computers,” he says. Determined to expand his expertise, he taught himself web development—learning PHP, WordPress, and Magento—and soon began building websites and apps for clients.
This self-driven learning opened doors, including a role at Best Mobile, where he worked on e-commerce platforms. “That was when I discovered Magento, a PHP-based e-commerce system. I learnt it on the job and used it to build solutions for clients,” he says.
In 2013, Wale returned to pursue his Higher National Diploma (HND), but this time, he wasn’t just another student; he was actively shaping the tech ecosystem around him. Drawing from his industry experience, he juggled academics with running his consulting firm, Latsil Technologies, where he built software solutions and provided IT services to clients.
Beyond the classroom, Wale made a significant impact on campus. He organised several tech events and conferences, including a landmark event that brought together the Computer Science and Computer Engineering departments—two groups that traditionally didn’t collaborate. “There was always this unspoken divide between the two departments,” he explains. “But I saw an opportunity to bridge the gap and create a space where both sides could learn from each other.” His ability to leverage his industry knowledge and build relationships made this first-of-its-kind event possible.
Wale also became a recognised voice in academic circles, delivering presentations at national tech conferences both within his polytechnic and at LAUTECH (Ladoke Akintola University of Technology). In 2016, he presented a notable research paper on Contactless Payment Systems, exploring the future of NFC-based transactions—well before the technology became mainstream in Nigeria.
His contributions to tech research and innovation are documented in published papers on his Academia.edu profile, which is a testament to his dedication to advancing knowledge in the field.
Training, mentorship, and breaking into Andela
Wale took on a pivotal role at Ekobits, a digital skills training program focused on empowering underprivileged youth with tech skills. As a trainer, he directly impacted over 100 students, equipping them with practical programming knowledge and career guidance. Many of his students went on to build successful careers, with some even working alongside him later when he led a QA team for Tunga.io, a Netherlands-based talent house for engineers across Africa, including Nigeria and Uganda.
His passion for mentorship extended beyond the classroom. While volunteering as a Cloud and Mobile Web Mentor for the Andela Learning Community (ALC) with Google and Microsoft, Wale played a key role in helping aspiring developers navigate technical challenges and smooth their learning journey. “I loved being able to unblock learners and guide them towards solutions,” he says. “Seeing people grow from absolute beginners to confident developers was incredibly rewarding.”
It was during this time that Andela noticed his work. After several mentorship sessions and engagements, a recruiter from Andela reached out, inviting him to apply for a role as a Learning Facilitator in the Talent Development Department, where he would train future Andela fellows.
“The interview process was rigorous,” he recalls. “It pushed me technically and professionally, but in the end, I got the role.” This marked a turning point in his career, allowing him to officially step into the global tech ecosystem as both an educator and a builder.
Wale’s big break came when he joined Andela, a renowned tech company known for nurturing African talent and connecting developers with global opportunities. Initially, he joined as a Learning Facilitator in the Talent Development Department, where he trained incoming fellows in software engineering and helped them sharpen their technical and professional skills.
“It was a huge step up,” he recalls. “I was mentoring others while also learning so much myself. The imposter syndrome was real, but I pushed through it.” His role at Andela allowed him to mentor over 50 fellows, guiding them through the rigorous technical program and preparing them for real-world projects.
Beyond Andela, Wale remained deeply committed to mentorship. While working full-time, he continued mentoring for the Andela Learning Community (ALC), ensuring that learners had the support they needed to navigate complex concepts and complete their training. He also became actively involved in organising ALC activities with ForLoop, a leading developer community in Africa, working alongside Babajide Duroshola and other community leaders to expand the reach of tech education.
As Wale grew within Andela, he transitioned into a software engineering role. In this role, he contributed to internal tools, participated in hackathons, and built solutions that streamlined processes for both Andela’s fellows and its engineering teams.
“Andela was where I really grew as a developer,” he reflects. “It pushed me to think globally, build impactful solutions, and collaborate with world-class engineers.”
Making global impact
After working as a Learning Facilitator at Andela, Wale transitioned into a Senior Software Engineer role, where he took on more complex projects and worked with global companies. One of his major assignments was with Namely, a US-based HR platform. Initially contracted through Andela, Wale played a crucial role in building their HR analytics and ad-hoc report builder feature. This tool significantly improved customer satisfaction by providing deeper insights into workforce data.
His contributions didn’t go unnoticed. Namely recognised his impact and hired him full-time, making him a direct member of their engineering team.
At Namely, Wale led a frontend team of three, himself included, within the Data Team. He worked extensively with React and Redux, focusing on developing data-driven features that enhanced user experience and functionality.
“Working at Namely was a game-changer,” he says. “I was now part of an engineering team of over 100 engineers in the lab, collaborating across multiple teams to build and scale HR solutions.”
While frontend development was his primary focus, Wale also found himself stepping into backend engineering out of necessity. During a critical update, the frontend team needed a specific data format from the backend, but the backend engineers were overwhelmed with other tasks.
“The change was urgent, and the backend team was comfortable with me making it, so I took responsibility,” he explains. Although he wasn’t a Scala engineer, his Java expertise gave him the foundation needed to pick it up quickly and implement the necessary fixes.
“It was one of those moments where you either wait for things to happen or step up and make them happen,” he recalls. “I chose the latter.”
After almost two years at Namely, he joined Intentional Futures, a consulting firm based in Seattle. There, he built collaborative tools, including a Miro-like platform for internal use. “That role taught me how to design user-friendly solutions for large organisations,” he says.
In 2021, Wale moved to the UK to pursue a master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence. While studying, he joined Lloyds Banking Group, where he took on critical engineering responsibilities beyond AI and machine learning.
At Lloyds, he worked on and successfully delivered an FCA-compliant business process within the company’s transport platform, ensuring regulatory compliance while improving operational efficiency.
Beyond product development, Wale has played a key role in transforming engineering best practices, advocating for modern development tools, improved collaboration, and industry-leading engineering philosophies to enhance product delivery across teams.
Currently, he is focused on building public-facing APIs for Lloyds’ customers, helping to create more seamless and scalable digital experiences.
Read also: The most in-demand tech skills for 2025
Entrepreneurial ventures
Beyond his corporate roles, Wale has always been an entrepreneur at heart. Over the years, he has co-founded multiple ventures, each tackling specific challenges.
One of Wale’s early projects was Yutars, a platform designed to improve Nigeria’s credit visibility system by helping lenders assess borrower risk more effectively. As part of its solution, Yutars integrated an Integrated Personnel and Payroll System (IPPS), which enabled financial institutions to better evaluate the creditworthiness of borrowers based on their income and employment data.
“The idea was to aggregate financial data so lenders could identify borrowers who were overleveraged,” he explains. “We onboarded about 13 lenders who used the system, but we faced challenges around scaling and regulatory approvals.”
This laid the groundwork for his current venture, Proteus AI. This AI-driven platform provides businesses with tools like chatbots and automation to enhance their operations.
“Proteus AI started as an experiment,” Wale says. “But now we have paying clients, mostly small businesses, who are using it to solve real problems in their operations.”
Proteus AI helps businesses simplify their employee onboarding process, making it easier to integrate new hires into their systems. Additionally, it provides AI-powered solutions for e-commerce storefronts, with businesses like RetailLoop leveraging the platform to enhance customer experiences and automate workflows.
With Proteus AI, Wale continues to push the boundaries of what AI-driven automation can do for businesses, making advanced technology more accessible and impactful.
