About Me
My name is Vuyisile (voo-yee-sea-lay), I’m a Software Developer with a bias towards automation engineering and smooth and efficient software delivery processes. I enjoy building CI/CD infrastructure, managing servers, and automating processes and data pipelines. When not coding, I enjoy writing technical articles, speaking at conferences, and building the occasional DIY project.
My CV/Resume: Resume.
Get in touch with me via email or Twitter.
Skills & Tech stack:
- Python/Django, PowerShell
- CI/CD pipelines
- Docker/Kubernetes
- Infrastructure as Code: Ansible, CloudFormation, Terraform
- AWS, Azure Cloud
- Technical Writing
- Automated Testing.
Certifications:
Work
- The Knowledge Elephant — DevOps Engineer.
- The Migus Group — DevOps Engineer.
- Ideation.AI — Software Developer.
- The Bell Tower — Software Developer.
- Real Python— Author and Editorial Assistant.
Some people I have worked with have this to say:
I would classify him as an excellent developer
Vuyisile has an ability to see the full picture, he always sees the
business logic and writes code not just
by rote but to conform with the application’s (and user’s)
requirements. I would classify him as an
excellent developer, often producing results way beyond
expectations. He has a great working relationship with his team members and leaders, fitting in comfortably with colleagues and management alike.
I am in fact, more than a little envious of whoever hires him next, you’re going to get a cracking new team member!
Fast, efficient, and reliable. Highly recommended!
We needed some work on our Django project. Someone recommended Vuyisile. He is fast, efficient, and reliable. Highly recommended!
Instrumental in getting our Django Rest Framework project completed
Vuyisile was instrumental in getting our Django Rest Framework project completed. He is a diligent coder with a passion for learning and is a pleasure to work with. His work ethic and friendly, positive attitude are true assets. He is unafraid of technical challenges, speaks up when he needs help, and has solid foundations working with Python and Django. I highly recommend Vuyisile for any junior development position with Python.
Helped me deliver several time critical projects
I appreciate Vuyisile’s contributions to realpython.com as a Tutorial Author and Editorial Assistant. He helped me deliver several time-critical projects that improved the experience for our students and advertising customers.
Freelance clients
Divio
I wrote a paid technical article on how to build a Django application with Geolocation support on the Divio Cloud.
End Youth Homelessness
The End Youth Homelessness website is written in Django and django CMS. I built a custom django CMS plugin to allow easy alignment of their media and content within the CMS. In addition, I added a MailChimp integration and Google Analytics to allow users to sign up to their newsletter as well as track user conversions.
Free-Z Parkour & Freerunning
free-z.ch is hosted on the Divio Cloud. The website experienced downtime caused by deployment issues relating to Python and Django configuration in a Docker environment. I resolved the issues and brought the website back online.
Erteno
Erteno is a software development company. I wrote backend API integrations for one of their products that aggregates event and concert information.
Projects
- PyPI In a box -- An offline, Raspberry Pi powered clone of PyPI
- Invoices Generator -- A Django powered web application with a Postgres database running in a Docker environment hosted on the Divio Cloud. It uses CircleCI to run lint checks, unit, and functional (Selenium Webdriver) tests. Work in progress.
- Article on how to deploy a Django + Nginx Web application to AWS Lightsail using Ansible.
Technical Writing
- Real Python -- Multiple articles and tutorials.
- Divio -- Guest blog posts
Open Source work
- Mozilla. Former core contributor. I contribute code, QA, and documentation to a number of Mozilla projects such as Firefox, the Mozilla Developer Network(MDN), Taskcluster, and a bunch of internal tools.
- Oppia.org. A project close to my heart, this is an online learning platform that provides interactive learning to students in underserved communities in Africa and Asia. I wrote some of the user documentation here.
- Whichcraft. A cookiecutter related project that provides cross-platform cross-python shutil.which functionality. I worked on a fix for failing builds.
- Pytest nunit -- A pytest plugin for generating NUnit3 test result XML output. Added locale and uiculture properties.
- Divio -- Contributor to the Divio developer documentation.
Speaking Engagements
I regularly talk about programming, open source, and privacy. I recently spoke at:
- DjangoCon Africa 2023, Zanzibar: Python Debugging: Techniques and tools
- Ubuntu Summit 2022, Prague: PyPI In a box: Using a Raspberry Pi as a portable PyPI server
- Chicaco Python, 2020: PyPI In a box: Using a Raspberry Pi as a portable PyPI server
- PyCon Africa 2020: PyPI In a box: Using a Raspberry Pi as a portable PyPI server
- PyCon Namibia 2020: PyPI In a box: Using a Raspberry Pi as a portable PyPI server
- PyCon Africa 2019 (Lightning talk): Sending Desktop Notifications from Python Scripts.
- PyCon Zimbabwe 2018: A Guide to getting remote work.
- PyCon Zimbabwe: Manipulating Excel Spreadsheets using Python
- Mozilla Privacy Workshop
- Mozilla and the Open Web Challenge
Social Media
GitHub terrameijar.
Twitter: @terrameijar.
Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@terrameijar
LinkedIn: Vuyisile Ndlovu
Features, Interviews & Podcasts
- The Mycelium Network Podcast: Episode 19
- CodeBytes: Techie of the week: Vuyisile Ndlovu
- Python Bytes Podcast: Multi Tenant Python Applications.
- Python Bytes Podcast: PyPI in a box project feature.
- Built in Africa Podcast: Developer Spotlight: Vuyisile Ndlovu
- Built in Africa Blog: Developer Hack: Creating a Portable PyPI Server for Offline Access
- PyDev Of The Week: Mouse Vs Python Blog
- Profitable Python Podcast: Django Freelancing in 2020