Rich Kitibwa · Software EngineerOpen to work
I'm Rich, a software engineer. At MamaOpe Medicals I work on HealthNavi, clinical decision-support software, and Empirico, a medical knowledge platform. I also build Bench, a sports streaming app, and Ascension, a procurement system. I build with other engineers and own my work end to end: backend, frontend, deployment, CI/CD and debugging.
Currently
Software Engineer at MamaOpe Medicals, Bench and Ascension.
Open to new roles, projects and collaborations, remote or international.
Who I am
In the same week I might tune a retrieval pipeline for clinicians, fix a payment flow for sports fans and model an approval chain for a procurement team. The users and the stakes are different every time. What stays the same is how I start: learn how the people involved actually work, then build the simplest thing that holds up in production.
I came to software from a medical laboratory. It taught me to be careful with evidence and to understand how people really work before I build for them, whether they are doctors, fans or finance teams. It's part of the story, not the whole of it.
What I bring to the table
Each one links to the project where I actually did it.
Breaking big, messy problems into clear requirements and systems that can actually be built, from hospital workflows to purchase approvals.
Evidence: HealthNavi, Ascension
Full-stack web and mobile products: frontends, APIs, databases, payments and releases to the App Store and Google Play.
Evidence: Bench, Ascension, HealthNavi
AI features that answer from real sources: RAG, embeddings, vector and hybrid search, LLM integration, and checking answers against trusted references.
Evidence: Empirico, HealthNavi
Turning approvals, purchase orders, subscriptions and tax rules into software people can rely on and check.
Evidence: Ascension
My lab background, put to work on a medical device, breathing-sound analysis and a published clinical study.
Evidence: MamaOpe Smart Auscultation Device, HealthNavi
Testing, debugging, CI/CD, Docker deployment, rate limiting and caching. Making systems work in real use, not just in demos.
Selected work
Five products in five different fields. Each case study covers the problem, what I did and how it turned out.
MamaOpe Medicals · Digital health · Clinical decision support
Engineering clinical decision-support software for real-world healthcare environments.
A clinician-facing decision-support system that helps health workers assess respiratory illness against evidence-based guidelines at the point of care.
MamaOpe Medicals · Knowledge engineering · Applied AI
Engineering an AI-powered medical knowledge platform.
A medical knowledge platform that turns large collections of clinical guidelines and reference documents into searchable, evidence-backed answers for healthcare professionals.
Acoustic sensors
Four microphones on adjustable probes
Signal acquisition
Simultaneous multi-site recording
Wireless link
Wi-Fi transfer to phone or tablet
Android app
Java / Kotlin · screening history
MamaOpe Medicals · Medical devices · Biomedical signal processing
Bridging hardware, biomedical science and software to build medical technology.
A wireless, four-microphone chest auscultation device and Android app for respiratory assessment and pneumonia screening in children.
Bench Sports Media · Digital media · Video streaming
Building a sports streaming product across mobile, web and payments.
A platform for teams, leagues and creators to stream, monetise and own their sports content, with live streaming, subscriptions, pay-per-view, tips and native mobile apps.
Ascension Services · Enterprise software · Procurement / ERP
Turning complex procurement processes into enterprise software.
An enterprise procurement and operations platform covering suppliers, requests for quotation, purchase orders, inventory and payments.
Experience
MamaOpe Medicals
Software Engineer — Full-Stack, AI/ML, Signal Processing & QA
Feb 2021 – Present
Ascension Services
Software Engineer
May 2025 – Present
Bench Sports Media
Software Engineer
Mar 2026 – Present
Powem
Software Engineer
Jun 2019 – May 2020
Lancet Laboratories
Medical Laboratory Technologist
Aug 2018 – Feb 2021
Background
Education
BSc Biomedical Laboratory Technology
Makerere University · 2022
Plus MITx coursework in computer science with Python and in computational thinking and data science (2024).
Publication
Co-author, clinical evaluation of the MamaOpe CDSS
VeriXiv 3:147 (preprint) · Apr 2026
Let's connect
Whether you're building a product, improving an existing system or exploring an idea that needs someone who can work across disciplines, I'd be glad to hear from you. Open to new roles, projects and collaborations, remote or international.