Platform Engineer · RHCA · Kubestronaut

BLESSING PHIRI _.dev

Self-taught infrastructure architect from Harare, Zimbabwe. Building cloud-native platforms that developers build on — Kubernetes, OpenShift, Ansible, Terraform. Zero to RHCA + Kubestronaut in under two years.

blessing@phiri ~ whoami
cat profile.json
{   "name": "Blessing Phiri",   "role": "Platform Engineer",   "location": "Harare, Zimbabwe 🌍",   "certs": ["RHCA", "Kubestronaut", "AZ-104"],   "stack": ["Kubernetes", "OpenShift", "Ansible", "Terraform"],   "available": true,   "remote": true }
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01

ABOUT

I graduated with a BSc in Accounting in 2023 and pivoted entirely into IT in 2024 — not because I had to, but because infrastructure genuinely fascinates me. No bootcamp. No CS degree. Just a home lab, relentless curiosity, and a refusal to stay stuck.

In under two years I went from zero IT experience to holding both the RHCA and Kubestronaut — a combination very few engineers on the African continent currently hold.

My accounting background isn't a liability — it makes me sharper at cloud cost optimisation, building business cases for tooling, and communicating infrastructure decisions to non-technical stakeholders. Most platform engineers can't do that.

I specialise in building the platforms developers build on. The goal is always the same: make infrastructure invisible enough that developers forget it exists.

<2
Years to RHCA + Kubestronaut
11+
Certifications held
5
CNCF Kubernetes certs
Home lab uptime obsession
02

CERTIFICATIONS

Red Hat

RHCA

  • RHCSA — Systems Administration
  • RHCE — Ansible Automation
  • EX188 — Containers Specialist
  • EX280 — OpenShift Administration
  • EX316 — OpenShift Data Science
  • EX467 — Managing Automation (AAP)
CNCF · Kubestronaut

K8S ×5

  • CKA — Kubernetes Administrator
  • CKAD — Application Developer
  • CKS — Security Specialist
  • KCNA — Cloud Native Associate
  • KCSA — Security Associate
Microsoft Azure

AZ-104

  • Azure Administrator Associate
  • Identity & Governance
  • Storage & Compute
  • Virtual Networks & Security
RHCAKUBESTRONAUT CKACKAD CKSKCNA KCSARHCSA RHCEEX280 EX316EX467 AZ-104 RHCAKUBESTRONAUT CKACKAD CKSKCNA KCSARHCSA RHCEEX280 EX316EX467 AZ-104
03

PROJECTS

04

EXPERIENCE

2024 — PRESENT

Freelance Platform & DevOps Engineer

Self-employed · Remote
  • Designed and deployed containerised infrastructure using Kubernetes and OpenShift for multiple clients
  • Built end-to-end CI/CD pipelines integrating GitHub Actions, Ansible, and Terraform
  • Automated server provisioning and configuration management across dev, staging, and production
  • Implemented monitoring stacks with Prometheus and Grafana for infrastructure visibility
  • Delivered multi-cloud infrastructure projects across AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud
2024 — SELF-DIRECTED

Infrastructure Engineering — Home Lab & Self Study

Independent · Harare, Zimbabwe
  • Built and maintained a home lab running Kubernetes clusters, OpenShift, and RHEL servers
  • Achieved RHCSA, RHCE, and 4 Red Hat specialist certifications en route to RHCA
  • Earned all 5 CNCF Kubernetes certifications — achieving Kubestronaut status
  • Built real-world portfolio projects covering chaos engineering, IaC, CI/CD, and multi-cloud
2019 — 2023

BSc Accounting

University Graduate · Zimbabwe
  • Strong analytical and business communication skills now applied to infrastructure decision-making
  • Financial literacy applied to cloud cost optimisation and FinOps in current engineering work
05

CONTACT

LET'S
BUILD.

Open to remote Platform Engineering and DevOps roles globally. I work well with distributed teams, async-first environments, and organisations that care about infrastructure done properly.

// Current status
AVAILABLE
open_to Full-time remote roles
timezone UTC+2 (Harare)
eu_overlap ✓ Excellent
us_est_overlap ✓ Partial
preferred_stack K8s · OpenShift · Terraform
notice_period Immediate