Building scalable backend systems, cloud-native platforms and AI-powered applications with a focus on clean architecture, distributed systems, production reliability and secure software engineering.
I'm a Software Engineer specialising in backend engineering, platform engineering, cloud-native applications, and AI-powered systems.
I enjoy designing distributed systems that are scalable, secure and observable—from REST APIs and microservices to Kubernetes deployments, CI/CD pipelines and production AI services.
Currently building enterprise-grade platforms within fintech and marketplace domains while continually expanding my expertise in distributed systems, Site Reliability Engineering and cloud infrastructure.
Building cloud-native marketplace infrastructure using:
- Ruby on Rails
- Go
- Laravel
- TypeScript
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- AWS
- gRPC
- PayFast
- 🚀 Reduced backend response times by 45%
- ☁️ Increased platform availability from 97% → 99.8%
- 💰 Reduced cloud infrastructure costs by 35%
- 🛍️ Supporting 600+ active vendors
- 📦 Designed scalable backend services for booking, payments and vendor management
- ASP.NET Core
- Spring Boot
- Ruby on Rails
- Laravel
- Node.js
- Go
- Python
- REST APIs
- Distributed Systems
- Microservices
- Backend Services
- Authentication & Authorization
- Secure APIs
- Payment Platforms
- Event-Driven Systems
- AWS
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- GitHub Actions
- Azure DevOps
- ArgoCD
- PostgreSQL
- SQL Server
- MongoDB
- Redis
- Oracle Database
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Datadog
- AWS CloudWatch
- High Availability
- Monitoring
- Alerting
- Performance Optimisation
- Incident Response
- CI/CD
- Infrastructure Automation
- Production Observability
- OpenAI
- LangChain
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Vector Databases
- Prompt Engineering
- LLM Fine-Tuning
- AI-powered APIs
- Inference Optimisation
Spring Boot • PostgreSQL • Redis • Docker
Designed a secure financial API implementing OAuth2 PKCE, JWT authentication, role-based access control, audit logging and Redis caching for scalable financial services.
Apache Airflow • dbt • Great Expectations • Terraform
Built an auditable data warehouse platform with automated ETL pipelines, data validation, infrastructure-as-code and reliable financial reporting.
Python • OpenAI • MongoDB
Designed Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines using vector databases to reduce query latency by over 50% while improving response accuracy.
WireMock • k6 • Docker • GitHub Actions
Developed a contract-driven API testing framework supporting rate limiting, idempotency, fault injection and integration testing for financial services.
Go • Ruby on Rails • Kubernetes • AWS
Designed scalable backend services supporting bookings, payments and vendor management across a cloud-native marketplace platform serving 600+ vendors.
- 🚀 Built 20+ production applications
- 🤖 Delivered 14+ AI & Machine Learning projects
- ☁️ Multi-cloud experience across AWS, Azure & Oracle Cloud
- ⚡ Reduced backend latency by 45%
- 📉 Reduced infrastructure costs by 35%
- 📈 Increased platform availability to 99.8%
- 🏗️ Designed distributed systems using REST, gRPC and event-driven architectures
- 🏅 C17 Valedictorian graduate, ALX Africa Software Engineering Programme (2024)
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Foundations Associate
- Oracle Data Platform Foundations Associate
- Oracle AI Foundations Associate
- Databricks Fundamentals
- Databricks AI Agent Fundamentals
"Great software isn't measured by the number of technologies it uses, but by how reliably it solves real-world problems."
- 🌐 Portfolio: https://ernie-dev.vercel.app
- 💼 LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ernest-shongwe
- ✍️ Medium: https://medium.com/@shongwe.bhekizwe
- 🏅 Holopin: https://holopin.io/@ernestbshong
- 💻 Codewars: https://www.codewars.com/users/bshongwe
- 📧 Email: shongwe.bhekizwe@gmail.com
