Roland Sawry

Solution Architect with 15+ years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performing technology solutions across AWS and Azure cloud platforms. Currently architecting cloud-native payment systems processing 3–5 million transactions daily, with hands-on Infrastructure as Code delivery using both Terraform and AWS CDK. Proven ability to lead solution design workshops, define architecture standards, build CI/CD pipelines, and guide development and DevOps teams through technical planning and implementation.

Extensive experience in regulated financial services environments with a strong focus on security, compliance, and governance.

Software Engineer Technical Lead & Solutions Architect at IdealSolution (2022-07 – Present)

• Design end-to-end cloud-based solutions on AWS, architecting payment processing systems handling 3–5 million transactions daily across 30,000+ merchants
• Implement Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and AWS CDK, enabling repeatable, version-controlled environment provisioning across dev, staging, and production
• Define architecture standards, frameworks, and best practices for the engineering team; deliver technical masterclass sessions on AWS CDK, coding standards, and SQL performance
• Lead solution design workshops with business and technical stakeholders, translating business requirements into scalable technical solutions
• Build and optimise CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and AWS CodeDeploy, reducing deployment time from all-night releases to minutes through blue/green ECS deployments
• Ensure solutions meet security, compliance, and governance requirements within a regulated financial services environment (Cognito, KMS, IAM, VPC isolation)
• Architect and maintain 9+ microservices on AWS ECS/Fargate achieving 99.9%+ availability, with DynamoDB and Redis for high-performance data access
• Lead a team of 5 engineers, providing technical guidance through design reviews, code reviews, and implementation support
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend improvements; proposed and implemented cost-saving measures after analysing multi-month storage and compute trends across RDS, ECS, and CloudWatch
• Improved PostgreSQL database performance through strategic partitioning, index optimisation, and query barrier/fence implementation
• Implement event-driven architecture using Apache Kafka and AWS SNS for asynchronous transaction processing
• Design cloud networking including VPC architecture, security groups, load balancers, and IAM role-based access control

Lead Integration Developer at BCX (Telkom) (2018-11 – 2022-07)

• Led a team of 6 developers designing and delivering a city-wide ERP integration solution for the City of Ekurhuleni, defining architecture standards and integration patterns
• Designed Azure Logic Apps and API Manager solutions for the City of eThekwini, integrating cloud services with on-premise systems
• Built CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins, Ansible, and Maven; managed WSO2 platform clustering and high-availability configurations
• Led solution design sessions and authored technical documentation including HLDs, detailed designs, and functional specifications
• Architected event-driven integrations using RabbitMQ and WSO2 Message Broker
• Provided technical input for tender proposals and client-facing solution presentations

Technical Specialist at In4Group (contracted to Accenture/Eskom) (2017-09 – 2018-10)

• Led application modernisation: migrated Oracle CC&B from v2.3 to v2.6, converting deprecated XAI services to Inbound Web Services
• Upgraded Java codebase from 1.5/1.6 to Java 1.8, resolving compatibility issues across the integration layer
• Produced position papers, functional specifications, and high-level design documents for stakeholder approval

SOA Developer at In4Group (contracted to BCX/Eskom) (2016-07 – 2017-09)

• Drove cloud migration and modernisation: migrated enterprise integrations from IBM DataPower and JCAPS to Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c, connecting SAP, Maximo, and Service Suite
• Developed OSB, SOA, and MFT components with full SDLC ownership from analysis through production deployment
• Managed code promotion across DEV, QA, PrePROD, and Production environments

SOA Developer at Software Arkitex (subcontracted to Eskom) (2016-02 – 2016-06)

• Built Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c integrations between SAP MDM, SAP MM, Pilog, and Maximo for cost allocation and journal entry workflows
• Created deployment guides, support documentation, and UNIX automation scripts for operations teams

Infrastructure Consultant at Software Arkitex (subcontracted to JSE) (2015-11 – 2016-02)

• Provided infrastructure support for the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, managing compute, storage, networking, Active Directory, and VMware environments

SOA/Java Developer & Middleware Support Specialist (L2/L3) at Software Arkitex (subcontracted to MTN SA) (2014-01 – 2015-11)

• Supported 12+ Oracle SOA/WebLogic instances, providing L2/L3 incident response, root cause analysis, and deployment management
• Developed Java utilities and Python/Bash scripts for automated health checks, instance recovery, and datasource monitoring
• Created SQL scripts for database maintenance, purging, and performance optimisation

Systems Administrator (Kaseya Platform) at Intergr8IT (2011-11 – 2013-12)

• Administered the Kaseya RMM platform for multi-tenant managed services, including patch management, endpoint security, backup configuration, and network monitoring

1st Line Call Coordinator at Intergr8IT (2010-08 – 2011-11)

• Managed incident logging, escalation, and client communication for a managed services helpdesk supporting multiple enterprise clients

Diploma in Business Information Technology – Software Development – University of Johannesburg (2006 – 2010)

Matric – Lenasia South Secondary School (2005)