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Pieter Badenhorst

@pieterbadenhorst

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Solution architect specializing in resilient, cloud-native platforms, Kubernetes, and real-time streaming systems.

Namibia

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What I'm looking for

I seek senior roles building resilient, cloud-native platforms and real-time systems where I can lead architecture, reliability, and automation efforts.

I am a Solution Architect with extensive experience designing, deploying, and operating highly available multi-cluster Kubernetes platforms and mission-critical financial systems across hybrid cloud and on-premises infrastructure.

I have led architecture and platform engineering efforts for banks across southern Africa, built streaming and real-time ingestion platforms (CDC, Kafka, Kafka Connect, Apache Flink), and implemented observability, automation, and secure SDLC practices that improved reliability and operational excellence.

My achievements include designing active-active multi-datacenter Kubernetes platforms, custom tooling for Kafka broker placement, implementing CI/CD pipelines and monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki), and delivering high-availability microservices and online banking platforms that meet strict uptime, performance, and compliance requirements.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Solution Architect

Current

Capricorn Group

Aug 2017 - Present (8 years 3 months)

Group-level architect who designed and deployed multi-cluster Kubernetes platforms, high-availability streaming and online banking systems, and platform automation that improved reliability and operational continuity across multiple banks.

Kubernetes Kafka Azure Go Helm CI CD Prometheus Grafana Observability

Software and Integration Lead

Bank Windhoek Ltd

Sep 2012 - Jul 2017 (4 years 10 months)

Led development and integration teams to build enterprise banking solutions including a statement-generation platform and high-throughput API gateway, improving reconciliation accuracy and operational efficiency.

API Gateway .NET SQL Server ETL SDLC Integration & QA

Systems Development Manager

Simpology

Oct 2011 - Aug 2012 (10 months)

Managed delivery and operations for IT contracts at mining sites, overseeing SLAs, vendor management, and multidisciplinary teams to ensure service continuity and contractual compliance.

Service Management SLA Management Vendor Management Infrastructure Project Delivery Team Leadership

Data Warehousing Lead

Bank Windhoek Ltd

Feb 2010 - Sep 2011 (1 year 7 months)

Led data warehouse migration from Sybase IQ to SQL Server and transitioned reporting to SSRS, improving reporting performance and automating report distribution.

Data Warehousing ETL SSIS SQL Server Data Modeling Report Automation

Senior Software Developer

Bank Windhoek Ltd

Aug 2005 - Jan 2010 (4 years 5 months)

Led development of an in-house EFT payments switch and cheque-processing automation, improving transaction processing accuracy and operational efficiency.

Payments Systems .NET Delphi Database Design

Junior Software Developer

Bank Windhoek Ltd

Jan 2004 - Jul 2005 (1 year 6 months)

Supported development and maintenance of banking applications, resolving defects and contributing to enhancement releases to improve system stability.

Software Development Unit Testing Legacy Systems Team Collaboration

Network and Systems Administrator

Bank Windhoek Ltd

Feb 2002 - Dec 2003 (1 year 10 months)

Administered LAN/WAN and server environments, implemented monitoring and hardening practices that improved network uptime and server performance.

Network Administration Windows Server Monitoring VPN

Customer Information Analyst

Bristol & West

Jan 2001 - Apr 2001 (3 months)

Designed customer data models and optimized queries to improve reporting accuracy and support customer analytics initiatives.

Data Modeling SQL Analytics Query Optimization Reporting Data Quality

Web Developer

Schoemans Office Systems

Oct 1999 - Dec 2000 (1 year 2 months)

Developed and deployed customer websites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and server-side technologies, improving digital presence for corporate and SME clients.