Peter Yefi
Postdoctoral Researcher · Principal Cloud Architect

PeterYefi.

Postdoctoral Researcher · PhD in Software Engineering · PMP® · PSM I
Advancing cognitive digital twins at TMU, architecting multi-region cloud infrastructure at Helpmap, and bridging cutting-edge research with real-world engineering impact.

10+
Years experience
$10M+
Funding secured
15+
Team members led
9
Publications

Building technology
that scales.

I'm a Postdoctoral Researcher and Principal Cloud Architect with 10+ years of experience across research, engineering leadership, and cloud infrastructure. Currently at Toronto Metropolitan University (DECODER project), I develop semantic and object-oriented models for portfolio-scale cognitive digital twin platforms targeting building decarbonisation.

I hold a PhD in Software Engineering from Concordia University, where my research focused on metamodeling for IoT and building management systems — enabling interoperability across mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems in smart buildings. I have 9 peer-reviewed publications across IEEE, ACM, and Elsevier venues.

As Independent Technical Advisor & Principal Cloud Architect at Helpmap Global Inc., I design and implement multi-region AWS production architectures for a civic tech disaster reporting platform built to scale to 50 million concurrent users. Previously as CTO at Complete Farmer, I led three SaaS platforms on AWS, secured $10M+ in Series A funding, and built high-velocity engineering cultures across West Africa. I hold a PMP®, PSM I, and a First Class Honours BSc from KNUST.

PhD Thesis

A metamodel for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems: enabling interoperability and control integration in building management.

View project on GitHub →

Core competencies

Team Leadership
Cloud Architecture
Product Strategy
Agile / PMP
Software Arch.
Machine Learning
DevOps / CI/CD
IoT / Metamodeling

Tech stack

Python Java JavaScript React.js Spring Boot Spring Security AWS EKS AWS ECS AWS Amplify Distributed Cache Kubernetes Jenkins SonarQube GitHub Actions OAuth2 / OpenID Keycloak RabbitMQ MongoDB PostgreSQL MySQL Power BI
Gallup® Assessment · 2026
01
Analytical
Strategic Thinking

Searches for reasons and causes. Brings objective, fact-based thinking to complex problems — cutting through noise to find what actually matters.

02
Learner
Strategic Thinking

Driven by a constant desire to improve. The process of mastering new domains — from IoT metamodeling to cloud infrastructure — is what energises the work.

03
Belief
Executing

Guided by enduring values and a strong sense of purpose. Success is measured by meaningful impact, not just metrics — in technology, teams, and community.

04
Achiever
Executing

Hardwired for productivity and tangible results. Every day is a new opportunity to make measurable progress — from sprint velocity to funding milestones.

05
Relator
Relationship Building

Finds deep satisfaction in building close, authentic relationships. The best outcomes come from working hard alongside people you genuinely trust.

Where I've
made impact.

Jul 2026 — Present
Postdoctoral Researcher
Toronto Metropolitan University — Toronto, Canada
  • Conducting postdoctoral research within the DECODER project ($4M Volt-Age CFREF Impact Grant), supervised by Dr. Jenn McArthur
  • Developing semantic and object-oriented models for portfolio-scale cognitive digital twin (CDT) platform middleware targeting building decarbonisation
  • Designing API connectors for heterogeneous building management systems and building data ingestion pipelines for the DECODER CDT platform
  • Partners include NRC, NRCan, Schneider Electric, University of Toronto, and Unity Health Toronto
Digital TwinsIoT SystemsPythonBuilding Management SystemsSoftware Engineering
Aug 2026 — Present
Independent Technical Advisor & Principal Cloud Architect
Helpmap Global Inc. — Montréal, Canada
  • Serving as principal architect and technical advisor for a civic tech disaster reporting platform currently piloting in LA County, designed to scale to 50 million concurrent users
  • Designed a multi-region AWS production architecture: per-bot Lambda functions across regions via Route 53, EKS with Fargate and KEDA autoscaling, SQS-buffered ingestion, Aurora PostgreSQL Serverless v2, SNS fan-out, and real-time WebSocket delivery to a PWA
  • Hands-on delivery of testbed infrastructure using AWS CDK (Python) IaC — Amplify PWA deployment, API Gateway WebSocket configuration, and multi-region Lambda provisioning
AWS CDKEKS + FargateLambdaAPI GatewayAurora ServerlessRoute 53SQSSNS
Jun 2020 — Oct 2025
Chief Technology Officer
Complete Farmer Limited — Accra, Ghana · completefarmer.com ↗
  • Led end-to-end design, implementation, and deployment of Buyer and Grower products serving the full agricultural value chain
  • Secured $10M+ in Series A funding by leading technical due diligence and product demonstrations
  • Spearheaded Agile adoption achieving a 30% measurable improvement in average sprint velocity
  • Boosted project completion by 15% by restructuring cross-functional teams and eliminating operational silos
AWS EKSAWS ECSAWS AmplifyMongoDBDistributed CacheJenkinsSonarQubeSpring BootReact.js
Oct 2022 — Apr 2023
Graduate Research Assistant
NextGen Cities Institute, Concordia University — Montréal, Canada
  • Architected and translated complex academic research into scalable software components
  • Implemented RESTful API endpoints for the NextGen Cities Institute's Hub service
  • Engineered testing infrastructure with unit and integration tests, achieving 75% code coverage
REST APIPythonUnit TestingIntegration Testing
Aug 2019 — Dec 2019
Graduate Teaching Assistant — Applied Machine Learning
Carnegie Mellon University — Pittsburgh, USA
  • Conducted discussions and tutorial sessions with 50+ students; maintained regular office hours
  • Evaluated and graded examinations, assignments, and projects
Jun 2019 — Aug 2019
Machine Learning Intern
IBM Research — Nairobi, Kenya
  • Deployed a cloud-native platform for ML model management with automated metric-based evaluation
  • Architected an AI fairness leaderboard using IBM Watson ML, quantifying performance across 5 distinct fairness metrics
  • Championed Test-Driven Development (TDD), increasing code coverage to 80%
IBM Watson MLPythonTDDCloud
Mar 2017 — Jul 2017
Software Engineer
Inlaks Ghana Limited — Accra, Ghana
  • Configured and deployed the T24 Core Banking System for Consolidated Bank Limited with a 5-person team
  • Engineered custom T24 routines to integrate specialized business logic
Aug 2016 — Mar 2017
Software Developer
Accolm Limited — Accra, Ghana
  • Launched a modernized web platform for Business Ghana, increasing engagement by 15% and reducing bounce rates by 10%
  • Implemented Redis caching achieving a sub-2-second Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Selected
work.

001
Complete Farmer — Buyer & Grower Platforms

Led end-to-end design and deployment of two production agri-tech platforms serving buyers and growers across the agricultural value chain in West Africa.

AWS EKSAWS ECSAmplifyMongoDBJenkinsSonarQube
002
tools4cities-metamenth

PhD research project implementing MetamEnTh — an object-oriented metamodel for MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) systems in buildings, enabling interoperability and control integration in building management systems.

PythonIoTMetamodelingOOPBMS
003
NextGen Cities — Hub Service

Contributed scalable software components and RESTful API infrastructure for the NextGen Cities Institute's Hub service, supporting urban energy simulation research across heterogeneous city data sources.

REST APIPythonUrban EnergyResearch
004
IBM AI Fairness Leaderboard

Cloud-native ML model management platform with an AI fairness leaderboard quantifying model performance across 5 distinct fairness metrics to detect and reduce bias in production models.

IBM Watson MLPythonAI FairnessTDD
005
Urban Energy Data Framework

A research framework for developing data models for energy simulation of heterogeneous urban environments, structuring diverse building and city data into interoperable formats for city-scale analysis.

Data ModelingUrban SystemsEnergy Simulation
006
Talents Empowerment Foundation

Non-profit organization founded to unlock human potential across Africa through technology education, mentorship programs, and skills development initiatives for emerging talent.

Social ImpactEdTechAfrica

Publications.

Full profile on Google Scholar ↗

PhD Research — Concordia University
MetamEnTh: An Object-Oriented Metamodel for IoT Systems in Buildings
Software Engineering & Smart Buildings Research
Research Publication
Building IoT Systems Modeling: An Object-Oriented Metamodeling Approach
IoT Systems & Software Engineering
Research Publication
Structuring Heterogeneous Urban Data: A Framework to Develop the Data Model for Energy Simulation of Cities
Urban Computing & Energy Systems
Research Publication
An Architectural Approach for Enhanced Data Interoperability Across Building Systems
Building Systems & Software Architecture
Research Publication
Evaluation of APIs for Data Exchange with Building Management Systems
API Design & Building Management Systems

Academic
background.

PhD, Software Engineering
Concordia University
May 2021 — Dec 2025 · Montréal, QC
Award: Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence
Thesis: Metamodel for MEP systems — interoperability & control integration in BMS
Courses: Advanced Software Architecture, Software Measurement, Urban Energy Systems
MSc, Information Technology
Carnegie Mellon University
Aug 2018 — May 2020 · Pittsburgh, PA
Awards: MasterCard Foundation Scholar, IBM Great Minds Intern
Courses: Cloud Computing, Data Inference & Applied ML, Design Patterns, Managing Software Development
BSc, Computer Science
KNUST, Kumasi
Aug 2011 — Jul 2015 · Kumasi, Ghana
Honours: First Class Honours
Courses: Data Structures & Algorithms, OOP with Java, Systems Analysis & Design, Operations Research
Certificate in Management Essentials
Harvard Business School Online
May 2024 — Jul 2024
Executive education in strategic management and organizational leadership.

Certifications & Training

Tech Stewardship Practice Program (TSPP)
Coursera: Agile with Atlassian Jira, Agile Meets Design Thinking, Foundations of Everyday Leadership, Designing the Organization, Entrepreneurship I & II, Applications of Everyday Leadership
Udemy: Master Microservices with Spring Boot & Spring Cloud, Spring Security 6 (JWT & OAuth2), AWS EKS Kubernetes Masterclass, Microsoft Power BI Desktop, Modern GraphQL with Node.js, GitHub Actions & Workflows, Being Strategic

Honors & Awards

MasterCard Foundation Scholar IBM Great Minds Intern Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence First Class Honours — KNUST
Let's build
something great.

Open to collaborations, consulting engagements, research partnerships, and speaking opportunities.

Montréal, QC, Canada · +1 (438) 340 2400