Bhekani Khumalo
Senior AI Software Engineer
Summary
Software engineer with 5+ years experience building production systems. Currently focused on AI/ML infrastructure—vector databases, semantic search, and recommendation pipelines processing millions of content items. Previously worked on billing systems, audit logging, and performance optimization. Background in civil engineering brings systems thinking and attention to failure modes.
Experience
Senior AI Software Engineer
Apr 2025 - PresentContentful, London
- Building semantic infrastructure—vector databases, embedding pipelines, and APIs for search and recommendations
- Designing event-driven systems that vectorize millions of content items in real-time
- Developing duplicate detection and content similarity features using ML models
Software Engineer
Sep 2022 - Mar 2025Contentful, London · Business Foundations team
- Led development of billing pipeline handling millions in monthly transactions
- Built audit logging system for compliance and debugging across distributed services
- Optimized API performance, reducing p99 latency by 40%
Software Engineer
Feb 2021 - Aug 2022Anaplan, London (Remote)
Senior Software Engineer
Nov 2019 - Dec 2020Sigma Digital, South Africa (Remote)
Frontend Software Engineer
Sep 2019 - Jan 2021The Spry Group LLC, NY (Remote, Part-time)
Software Developer
2018 - 2019ESRI South Africa
GIS Analyst
2016 - 2018RAMM Technologies, Zimbabwe
Civil Engineer
2014 - 2016City of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
- Designed water distribution networks and managed infrastructure projects
- Volunteered for GIS department, leading to transition into tech
Skills
Languages & Frameworks
TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, React, Node.js, Next.js, Astro
AI/ML & Data
Vector databases (Pinecone, Upstash), OpenAI, embeddings, PostgreSQL, Redis
Infrastructure
AWS (Lambda, S3, SQS, DynamoDB), Terraform, Docker, Vercel
Practices
Event-driven architecture, CI/CD, testing, observability, agile
Education
BEng (Hons) Civil and Water Engineering
2009 - 2014National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Zimbabwe
Side Projects
I build indie products in my spare time. See all projects at /projects .
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