I've been building backend systems for 7 years, starting as a junior developer in Harare and working my way up through Toronto, Oslo, and Seattle. I've learned that senior engineering is about preventing problems, making smart trade-offs, and building systems that actually work for real people.
Today, I'm applying everything I've learned to build systems that work in challenging environments. This is my story and the lessons I've picked up along the way.
I built a multi-tenant SaaS platform that serves bus companies, taxi operators, and corporate transport fleets across Zimbabwe. The backend handles everything from driver authentication to real-time booking updates to automated monthly billing.
Each section shows the business problem, my solution, and the actual implementation with real code and architectural decisions.
How drivers authenticate even when offline for days, with device trust scoring and geographic validation
How I serve multiple transport companies on one platform while keeping their data completely separate
Why booking confirmations always get delivered, even when primary SMS providers fail
How passengers, drivers, and dispatchers see live booking status changes instantly
How billing runs nightly, reports generate automatically, and complex workflows execute reliably
How I made dashboard queries 67x faster through strategic indexing and query optimization
How automated reminders, billing schedules, and maintenance tasks execute based on business events
I spent years building production systems across four countries. Here's how each role shaped my approach to backend architecture.
Gain Cash n Carry had security guards manually checking receipts against shopping items. Took forever, customers got annoyed. I built a QR scanning mobile app that turned a 3-minute process into 10 seconds.
After the checkout app worked, they assigned me to the team that was building a full e-commerce site for 'TV Sales and Home'. Inventory management, order processing, payment integration, the works.
Once I proved I could build things, they put me on the big stuff, customizing OpenBravo (An ERP now known as Predictv) for manufacturing companies, retailers, service businesses. Each client needed different workflows, reports, integrations.
I worked on the core backend for Sonity's B2B marketing automation platform. Handled campaign creation, audience targeting, performance analytics, and billing integration.
Marketing teams needed to upload massive video files and assets. Regular uploads kept failing. I designed and built a chunk-based upload system with resumable uploads, virus scanning, CDN integration.
Manually testing marketing campaigns was impossible. Built comprehensive Selenium test suites that could simulate entire user journeys from campaign creation to performance reporting.
Built the backend for Wiv's wine investment platform where users could purchase wine NFTs representing physical wine stored in temperature-controlled facilities.
Creating wine NFT listings took hours of manual work, uploading images, writing metadata, deploying to blockchain. I automated the entire pipeline with smart batch processing.
When a customer reports a bug, you need to trace it back through the entire engineering pipeline. Which story? Which code changes? Which tests? Which deployment? I built the graph database system that captured these relationships across multiple platforms.
Built authentication system supporting multiple tenants with complete data isolation. Each company needed custom RBAC, SSO integration, audit trails. The complexity was balancing security with performance.
Built RESTful endpoints optimized for complex graph queries. Created caching layers, query optimization strategies, and data verification workflows.
Systems I've architected and deployed in production environments across different companies and industries.
Multi-tenant SaaS platform that handles transport operations for bus companies, taxi operators, and corporate fleets. Passengers book rides, drivers accept assignments, dispatchers manage fleets, and companies get automated billing.
Educational platform that adapts to individual student learning patterns. Students work through curriculum-aligned content while the system adjusts difficulty and suggests learning paths based on performance data.
Graph database-powered platform connecting engineering artifacts across Jira, GitLab, Jenkins for complete development traceability.
Interactive property management system for 1,600-plot estate with GIS mapping and sales automation.
I'm always open to discussing new opportunities, projects, or just having a technical chat.
Book a time that works for both of us. Choose from available slots on my calendar.
Prefer to write? Send me a detailed message about your project or opportunity.