Jeanre Swanepoel

Senior Software Engineer & Systems Architect

Engineering Manager · IoT & Cloud · Full-stack

18+ years experience · Cape Town, South Africa

Open to full-time & contract roles · Remote or Cape Town

068 618 3487 jeanre.swanepoel@gmail.com github.com/jeanres 19 Sonop Street · Arauna, Brackenfell · Cape Town

Self-taught systems engineer and engineering leader with 18+ years of hands-on experience designing, building and scaling complex systems. Tech-agnostic by nature — I choose the right tool for the problem rather than being locked into any particular stack. Proven track record of stepping into leadership while remaining deeply technical: microservices, cloud-native architecture, cost optimisation, SDLC transformation and mentoring.

Currently building full-stack IoT solutions end-to-end, from the hardware (device electronics) to the cloud and backend software. Eager to contribute as Engineering Manager, Architect or senior individual contributor in a high-trust environment.

Work Experience

Present · Founder
Founder & Principal Engineer · Vexo Technology
AWS · Azure · Kubernetes · Node.js · React · Python · PostgreSQL · Terraform · IoT · LLMs
  • Founded a consultancy delivering software engineering, cloud & DevOps, IoT hardware-software and AI automation to production.
  • Fractional CTO & architecture consulting for businesses needing senior engineering without enterprise overhead.
  • Custom web applications, cloud platforms and intelligent systems — from strategy through to production.
Present · Part-time
IoT Systems Engineer (Hardware + Software) · Kinektek
  • Designed and built a smart liquid-dispensing product — physical hardware on Raspberry Pi with ultrasonic sensors and device electronics, alongside the software stack that drives it.
  • Developed the backend services, device connectivity, data pipeline and cloud infrastructure behind the product.
  • Bridging hardware and software into a tightly integrated IoT product, currently heading to market.
2020 – Oct 2026
Senior Software Engineer (Contract) · 2U, Inc.
Ruby on Rails · AWS · Kubernetes · Docker · PostgreSQL · Ruby
  • Consulting engagement by design — joined as a senior contractor and grew into a 5+ year partnership owning the core production system.
  • Core systems manage all online enrolments across the platform's Moodle instances — account creation and updates, synced with Salesforce and Moodle at scale.
  • Designed and built core production systems that have run live for 5+ years — sustained by routine patching and steady evolution.
  • Refactored legacy codebases for improved maintainability and performance.
  • Built and evolved event-driven and micro-service architectures on the AWS platform.
Feb 2023 – Nov 2023 · Part-time
Software Engineering Team Lead · Wonderlabz
  • Led a development team building high-traffic consumer web applications.
  • Drove architecture decisions, code quality and delivery across concurrent client projects.
Feb 2022 – Aug 2023 · Part-time
Lead Software Engineer → Engineering Manager · Airlift Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Node.js · NestJS · PostgreSQL · Angular · Docker · AWS (SQS, RDS, ECS, EC2, API Gateway)
  • Engaged part-time alongside contract work to build and scale an engineering team in Cape Town, ~6 members strong at its peak.
  • Hired as Lead Engineer; rapidly stepped up into full Engineering Manager responsibilities — owning delivery and team performance.
  • Overhauled the SDLC and led AWS cost-reduction and architecture efforts, cutting cloud spend by ~10% per month.
  • Role ended when the company ceased operations.
Aug 2018 – Nov 2020
Senior Application Architect · Dimension Data
Node.js · MongoDB · Java · Microsoft SQL Server · Angular · GraphQL
  • Owned architecture of the primary portal application; introduced micro-services to replace the legacy Java service bus.
  • Implemented integrations with ServiceNow.
  • Mentored developers and contributed to CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
Aug 2013 – Jul 2018
Lead Engineer · DigitalFilm Tree
Ruby on Rails · Node.js · PostgreSQL · MongoDB
  • Architected video annotation software used on major productions including Modern Family and NCIS: Los Angeles.
  • Managed remote development teams while owning platform architecture and client delivery.
Nov 2011 – Sep 2013
Lead Developer / Solutions Architect · On The Dot
ASP.NET · C# · Microsoft SQL Server · WCF · MongoDB · Memcached · IIS
  • Architected the MySubs and MyBooks digital platforms; implemented development standards, Scrum, CI, Selenium tests and infrastructure (Windows & Linux).
2005 – 2011
Earlier Career

Senior roles at Forwardslash, Bluegrass Digital, COMPRSA and WEBlife Infochannel. Built high-traffic applications serving 10,000+ concurrent users (Jackpot City Bingo), introduced Umbraco CMS, delivered supplier portals, biometric time-and-attendance systems and asset-tracking tools. Primarily ASP.NET, C# and Microsoft SQL Server.