Experience

Lepaya

Engineering Manager June 2023 — Present

With Lepaya being an immensely fast growing scale-up, they recruited me as a Principal Engineer to help guide their various tech teams. Primary expectations from me was to leverage my experience to help with software and infrastructure architecture designs that would allow Lepaya to continue to scale indefinitely with the growth of their product, to improve how teams that are dependant on one another can work more efficiently together, implement and refine processes to increase development velocity and to improve the quality of work delivered. Soon after joining Lepaya they recognised my affinity for leadership and promoted me to Engineering Manager.

Key points:

  • Seeking to have a larger impact on the greater organisation, I have been involved in the following initiatives — Works Council, AI Ambassador, Culture Ambassador, I host a technical book club and I run a "meeting cafe" project that helps people from across the organisation to meet, learn more about one another and their involvement at Lepaya.
  • Mentor and coach team members to aid them in their career development goals.
  • Facilitated regular performance reviews and one-on-one meetings, providing constructive feedback and career development planning for team members.
  • Designed and lead the creation of an Observability Platform that gives developers a single pane of glass with which to observe and manage the entire software development lifecycle.
  • Carried out a cost reduction project which reduced our cloud spend by 30%, freeing up capital for new initiatives.
  • Overhauled Lepaya's use of infrastructure-as-code tools and it's management of resources, putting more control into developers hands to break down silos and encourage cross-team collaboration.
  • Introduced and standardized best practices for code quality, architecture, and deployment, significantly reducing the number of production issues.
  • Collaborated with development teams and other stakeholders to align engineering efforts with business goals, ensuring successful product launches and feature rollouts.

OneSpark Insurance

Lead Cloud Engineer May 2022 — May 2023

During my tenure, I have been able to successfully streamline our development processes by optimizing developer velocity, enhancing testing and deployment procedures, and fostering a high-performance culture. With my guidance, I have empowered the development team to excel at all levels and deliver outstanding results, which earned accolades from our stakeholders.

Key points:

  • Built and deployed large-scale, global cloud infrastructure to enable effective scaling across multiple regions.
  • Conducted meticulous planning and facilitated migration from outdated system to new technology to enhance overall capabilities.
  • Streamlined and optimized cloud infrastructure to increase efficiency and reduce cost and complexity of operating and maintaining the infrastructure.
  • Managed complex technical operations effectively and ensured seamless integration with existing systems, implementing industry best practices and standards for cloud architecture and design.
  • Leveraged DevOps methodologies to craft custom CI/CD pipelines for maintaining top-notch code quality while achieving seamless and agile deployment to live environments.
  • Demonstrated subject matter expertise by providing valuable guidance and recommendations to steer the development direction of the product.
  • Collaborated closely with cross-functional teams to drive sustainable and efficient product development, ensuring it aligns with scalability and cost-effectiveness objectives.
  • Acted as a key decision maker on cloud technologies to utilise to improve the method of delivery of the product and creating a more robust platform.

Elenjical Solutions

Lead Cloud Engineer & Murex Engineer April 2019 — May 2022

As a trailblazing leader at this Fintech consultancy, I expanded their technological perspective by advocating for cloud-based solutions to enhance their customer offerings. With mastery in DevOps and Cloud technology, I guided the department into uncharted territory, securing several new clients, driving successful project outcomes and in doing so created many new employment opportunities.

Key points:

  • Provided enterprise end-to-end supoport for Murex (MX.3) for Rand Merchant Bank & Momentum Metropolitan. Acted as the final level of escalation, offering top-tier assistance and solutions for all Momentum Murex environments.
  • Spearheded the execution of proof-of-concepts to evaluate emerging technologies. Successful POC's include adopting Apache Airflow for streamlined workflow management, using AWS managed services to "replatform" and completed revolutionise Murex environments and using the Elastic Stack for advanced data visualisation and insights.
  • Played a key role in evaluating potential candidates through conducting thorough interviews and assessing their technical proficiency.
  • Pursued ongoing education by attending industry seminars and enrolling in technical courses to remain updated on emerging Cloud technologies and their relevance within the financial domain.
  • Headed up a year-long project whereby we did a majour Murex version upgrade (from v3.1.28 to v3.1.41) for Momentum, migrating all Development and Production environments from on-premises into The Cloud making use of AWS Infrastructure. The methods used were first-of-it's-kind and this pioneering achievement garnered global recognition within the international community.
  • Provide day-to-day support for Momentum's Oracle Databases making use of AWS's RDS managed service.
  • Consulted with clients and prospects to optimize leveraging of cloud technologies, facilitating bespoke product solutions through effective solutions architecture. Offered expert-level advice and experience to inform recommendations for customized solutions.

Cruze Control Technologies // Arago GmbH

Lead DevOps Engineer & AI IT Automation Expert November 2018 — March 2019

Led and mentored a team of AI automation experts, bolstering their project delivery and deadline management. By leveraging prior leadership expertise and implementing agile methodologies, our team achieved improved efficiency and increased confidence in their abilities, enabling them to reach new heights.

Key points:

  • I was the South African Support Team Lead, providing Level 2 technical support to major global organizations utilizing HIRO, a high-performing automation engine powered by Java.
  • As a focused specialist in Linux implementation, my responsibilities included overseeing the successful deployment of HIRO and related software on clusters consisting of numerous VMs running either Red Hat or CentOS.
  • I adeptly navigated the intricacies of the cutting edge "Big Data" technologies that powered HIRO to ensure optimal performance and functionality.
  • Coordinated and supervised a team in delivering prompt and effective solutions to complex customer inquiries and issues. Demonstrated outstanding problem-solving skills, ensuring the smooth operation of critical business operations.
  • Responsible for spearheading proof-of-concepts as part of exploratory initiatives aimed at enhancing the performance of HIRO's underlying software (Cassandra, ZooKeeper, Kafka etc) and infrastructure (AWS).
  • Worked closely with clients to develop custom configurations for HIRO, ensuring all requirements were met and delivered exceptional customer service.
  • Made extensive use of Bash and Python to automate processes pertaining to the monitoring and administration of HIRO.
  • Developed detailed documentation for every process, proof-of-concept, and installation to enhance the internal Knowledgebase.
  • Contributed to training efforts by providing thorough Subject Matter Expert information on the configuration and operation of HIRO and related components in various environments.
  • Engaged with development and senior teams to ensure timely resolution of critical issues approaching SLA limits.

Argotek (Pty) Ltd

General Manager & Technology Lead March 2016 — November 2018

Utilising my expertise in emerging technologies, successfully drove the adoption of innovative technology within a young startup in an established industry, resulting in a sustained 50% annual growth rate over three consecutive years, laying the foundation for long lasting success.

Key points:

  • Liaised with clients to understand and fulfill their needs, providing ongoing consultation on projects.
  • Acted as the primary point of contact for incoming work, creating a custom database to manage jobs, deliveries, and invoicing, while performing quality control on all deliverables.
  • Principal PowerMill CAM user, turning either in-house made models or customer supplied models into G-Code for the CNC Milling Machine.
  • Advised customers on leveraging Mechanical Engineering and Design to enhance their products, workflows, and service delivery options, resulting in significant performance improvements such as doubling output and expanding market share for a major food packaging company through the design and implementation of an automated packing robot.
  • Conducted personalized training sessions for each employee, ensuring they mastered technical drawing interpretation, CNC machine programming, manual lathe/milling operation, and welding.
  • Led tender applications for government entities by conducting site visits and ensuring compliance with relevant codes, standards, and regulations, securing profitable tenders for the business.
  • Managed individual employee needs to foster a cohesive team dynamic and ensure smooth company operations.
  • Personally capable of operating every piece of machinery in the workshop so that I could fill any gap that may arise depending on current customer demands.

IntelloHome

Automation Specialist January 2015 — March 2016

As a Team Lead, orchestrated automation and development efforts to optimise and modernise the delivery of automation systems while reducing operational expenses. Proactively refined team processes and protocols to uphold impeccable standards and ensure exceptional quality assurance. Leveraged cutting-edge technologies to drive innovation and deliver enhanced value propositions to stakeholders.

Key points:

  • Led a closely-knit team that managed end-to-end home automation projects from concept to implementation. Oversaw the installation of hardware and programming of home or office automation systems, resulting in successful project delivery.
  • Lead research and development of a wireless controller and software to remotely operate electric motors using RF technology, enabling efficient physical automation.
  • Positioned myself as the only South African developer of bespoke Control4 drivers that run on Linux embedded hardware.
  • Developed and implemented a cloud-based third-party system allowing remote control of Control4 systems, leveraging cutting-edge cloud technologies to improve efficiency and accessibility.

Lumabyte (Pty) Ltd

Founder & CEO January 2013 — Present

Founded and led a cloud technology company that identified and addressed operational inefficiencies for local businesses. Provided customized solutions to address specific client challenges, resulting in accelerated service delivery and reduced IT operational expenses.

Key points:

  • Spearheaded technology adoption in company's, driving the shift towards containerized workloads, automated testing, and just-in-time infrastructure, resulting in faster and more efficient software delivery.
  • Developed unique, fully automated, cloud-native software solutions that effectively mitigated data loss incidents, utilizing the latest cloud technologies.
  • Utilized open-source technologies exclusively and contributed actively to their development, ensuring a more sustainable and collaborative ecosystem.
  • Applied DevOps best practices to automate repetitive and error-prone tasks, resulting in a more reliable and resilient production environment.

Basil Read Rally Team

Technical Consultant February 2014 — July 2014

I undertook the responsibility of providing technical consultancy to the team in assessing and identifying areas of improvement for their systems to enhance team and race performance. In this role, I meticulously analyzed the usage of data and designed innovative solutions utilizing cutting-edge technologies to elevate the overall performance of the team.

Key points:

  • Conceptualised, designed and sourced specialist hardware for a one-of-a-kind machine that could fully simulate track conditions directly on the rally cars suspension in a controlled environment.
  • Analysed data logged by the rally car during tests to pin point areas to improve upon.

Auckland Micro Limited

Second Line Support Technician November 2011 — December 2012

As a Second Line Support Technician, I oversaw the daily IT operations of a large multinational corporation. My responsibilities included managing cloud-based desktop environments, implementing VoIP solutions, fortifying firewall systems, streamlining processes through automation, and enhancing workflows to maximize efficiency.

Key points:

  • Implemented a bespoke fault tracking system which helped identify core issues with their infrastructure that served 150 users across 4 offices.
  • Wrote Python and Bash scripts that actively monitored network resources from printers to hardware firewalls.
  • Reduced daily average fault logs from 300+ to 10 - 20 by targeting core issues.

System Consultants

First Line Support Technician February 2011 — November 2011

Installed, serviced, and maintained complex computer networks for small to medium businesses, ensuring seamless operations and mitigating potential downtime. Proven track record of providing swift, efficient installation, servicing, and maintenance for a diverse range of computer systems and server environments, while serving as the go-to point of contact for organizations' IT support needs.

Key points:

  • Tasked with creating a new avenue of income I designed and implemented System Consultants' first ever web hosting offering based on CentOS which we ran on-prem.
  • Demonstrated expertise in successfully installing long haul wireless links while providing first-line technical support to maintain network integrity for clients.

Education

AWS

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate • 2020

TorqueIT

Architecting on AWS • 2019

UNISA

Bsc. Science in Computing - Year 3 remaining • 2014 — 2016

Varsity College

Diploma in IT Networking • 2009 — 2010

  • CompTIA A+
  • CompTIA N+
  • CCNA
  • CCNP

Kingsway High School

Matriculated with Exemption • 2008

Projects

Primary Developer • 2020 — 2021

Miss Pauling is a Discord bot that provides a variety of tools for the TF2 South Africa community. It is written in Python and uses the Discord.py library. Miss Paulings primary function is to manage the administration and orchestration of a handful of game servers and to organise "pick-up" style games where players can come together to subscribe to play a competitve game together.

Coordinator, Developer, Server Admin • 2020 — 2021

RSA.TF is a community of South African TF2 players. The community is run by a small group of volunteers who organise events, manage servers, and provide a platform for players to meet and play together. I was responsible for the day-to-day running of the community, planning events, administering the game servers, developing the tooling we used and more.

Primary Developer • 2020 — 2021

Serverless TF2 was created to work with Miss Pauling for the rsa.tf community. It would allow us to spin up TF2 servers on demand for use with our pickup games. The programming used Python, Terraform, and the Serverless Framework. The Infrastructure used CloudWatch, DynamoDB, ECS Fargate, ECR, EFS, EventBridge, Lambda and API Gateway.

Skills

Leadership and Team Management

Experienced in guiding and mentoring teams to achieve high performance. Skilled at providing guidance and direction to team members, fostering collaboration, and promoting a positive work environment.

Strategic Planning and Decision-Making

Strong ability in strategic planning, setting goals, and making informed decisions that drive organizational success and efficiency.

Cloud Architect

Proficiency in designing, building, and maintaining stable cloud architectures

DevOps Practitioner

Strong understanding of DevOps principles, tools, and best practices. Proven success using Continuous Integration/Delivery (CI/CD) tools such as Jenkins, Github Actions, Bitbucket Pipelines, Ansible and more

Automation

Skilled at automation through scripting languages (Python, Bash, JS, etc)

AWS

Proficient in AWS services such as EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, EKS, CloudWatch, Route53, IAM, VPC, and more

Versatile

Equally adept at working independently to take initiative to solve problems or collaborate effectively with others as part of a team. Capable of leading and mentoring others, and providing guidance and direction to team members.

Recognition

Best Young Professional

Elenjical Solutions • 2019

Awarded the "Best Young Professional" for my hard work and dedication to the company

Outside Interests

  • Continual learning
  • Open Source
  • Cloud Technologies
  • Coding
  • Reading
  • Gaming
  • Motorsports
  • DIY/Making/Fabrication