Senior Backend & AI Engineer · Johannesburg

Backends and AI systems that hold up in production. Ask my AI twin anything. It answers by voice or text and moves the page as it talks.

About me ›
11+
Years shipping production software
200M+
Email addresses validated on Kafka
R5M+
Installer payments in six months
10,000+
Judgments searchable with RAG

Overview

Everything in one place. Go as deep as you like.

Work13 projects

Things I've built. And shipped.

AI platforms, mobile apps and production systems, each with the problem, the solution, the hard parts and the infrastructure behind it.

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About

Who I am.

A backend and AI engineer who stays hands-on, from architecture to production.

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Experience10 roles

Eleven years.

From an early on-demand grocery platform to multi-agent AI.

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Skills32 tools

The toolkit.

Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, LangGraph, Kotlin and more.

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BlogComing soon

Technical writing.

Deep dives on backends, RAG, agents and shipping AI to production.

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Case study

How this site works.

Generative UI, RAG, a typed decision layer, recorded calls, and MCP and A2A for agents.

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For agents

Interview me by API.

Connect a recruiting agent over MCP or A2A and get the same grounded answers people do.

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Building now. Shipping always.

See all 13 projects ›
Makunike.com AI Twin home page on desktop
AI · WebLive

Makunike.com AI Twin

This website: a portfolio you can interview by phone call or chat

Learn more ›Web
Pairly home page on desktop
AI · Web · PlatformIn progress

Pairly

An AI-native operating system for founder-led teams

Learn more ›Web
CaseNotes home page on desktop
AI · Web · MobileLive

CaseNotes

South African legal research, e-discovery and learning, powered by AI

Learn more ›WebAndroid
WDDNG home page on desktop
AI · Mobile · WebLive

WDDNG

South Africa's wedding marketplace, with two apps on Google Play

Learn more ›WebAndroid

Voice interviews

Interview me. Literally.

Call my AI twin and it answers like I would, grounded in my own CV, projects and answers. Ask about mobile work and the page changes while it speaks. Every call is recorded and scored for quality, so it gets better with every conversation.

How it works ›
Recmakunike.com
TM

Tawanda Makunike

AI twin

0:42

Tawanda (AI)

I've put my work on your screen. Ask me about any of it…

PythonFastAPIPostgreSQLpgvectorLangGraphRAGAzure OpenAIKafkaRedisNext.jsKotlinDockerMCPA2ANeo4jPythonFastAPIPostgreSQLpgvectorLangGraphRAGAzure OpenAIKafkaRedisNext.jsKotlinDockerMCPA2ANeo4j

Try the twin

Ask what recruiters ask. Watch the page answer.