Frank Chinembiri · Systems Ecosystem

Frank (Who I Am) • Lab (How I Work) • Portfolio (What I Build)

Based in Zimbabwe

Frank Tadiwanashe Chinembiri

Platform Engineer · Data & Geospatial Systems

I work across infrastructure, HPC, software, geospatial data and machine learning. My experience includes research computing, server and virtualization environments, Kubernetes platforms, satellite-data workflows and applied ML systems.

I am a generalist systems engineer who has repeatedly worked across different layers depending on project requirements — from bare-metal server configuration and large storage environments to geospatial pipelines and containerized application delivery.

Available for technical consulting and roles across platform engineering, infrastructure, data systems, geospatial analysis and MLOps.

View Selected Work Explore Lab (How I work) Explore Portfolio (What I build) Contact

fchinembiri24@gmail.com • +263 775 611 052 • GitHub • Self-Hosted Git • LinkedIn

Three-Site Architecture System Ecosystem

frank.techarvest.co.zw [Current Site]

Who I am · Career progression · Technical direction

Cloud Lab → How I work · Infrastructure · GitOps Portfolio → What I build · Systems · Case studies

Professional Experience Employment

ZCHPC (2023–2025) · Green Earth (2025–Present)

Systems engineering, 2.5 PB storage, 180+ VMs (XCP-ng), NVIDIA V100 GPUs & PostGIS workflows

Independent Engineering Continuous Practice

Mateere Cloud Lab · Ongoing

Independently built & operated: 4-node K3s cluster, GitOps (ArgoCD), MinIO, Prometheus, Uptime Kuma

↓

Current Engineering Capabilities Infrastructure · HPC · Platform · Data & Geospatial · ML/MLOps

↓

Mateere Lab Infrastructure evidence → Portfolio Project evidence →

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Technical Areas

My background spans systems engineering, infrastructure, software development, geospatial data, and applied machine learning. I operate comfortably across multiple technical layers.

Platform Engineering

Container orchestration, Linux server administration, infrastructure automation, ingress configuration, and GitOps delivery pipelines.

Kubernetes (K3s) Linux Docker CI/CD GitOps (ArgoCD) Networking Server Admin

Infrastructure & HPC

High-performance computing environments, multi-tenant virtualization, enterprise storage arrays, GPU clusters for AI workloads, and research computing support.

HPC Environments XCP-ng / Xen Storage (SAN/NAS) NVIDIA V100 Research Computing Virtualization

Data & Geospatial

Spatial databases, satellite imagery processing (optical and SAR), STAC metadata ingestion, raster windowing, and land-use/land-cover workflows.

PostgreSQL / PostGIS Sentinel-1 / Sentinel-2 STAC Open Data Cube Rasterio GIS Analytics

ML & MLOps

End-to-end machine learning workflows, inference pipeline engineering under constrained resources, computer vision biometric matching, and model evaluation.

Python ML Pipelines Computer Vision Model Inference LightGBM / XGBoost OpenCV

Applications & Systems

Production web applications, REST APIs, domain software (school management, e-health support, eKYC verification pipelines), and backend system integrations.

Web Applications REST APIs eKYC Workflows e-Health Systems Python / FastAPI PHP / Laravel Flutter React

Integration: Applications connect to geospatial and ML pipelines, delivered via container platforms running on robust infrastructure.

See applied implementations in Portfolio

CAREER & PRACTICE

Experience & Engineering Practice

A factual record of my professional employment alongside my continuous independent engineering practice.

Primary Employment Progression Locked Timeline: 2023 – Present

2023                         2025                         Present
│                              │                              │
├──────── ZCHPC ───────────────┤                              │
│   AI Research Scientist      │                              │
│          ↓                   │                              │
│   Systems Engineer           │                              │
│                              │                              │
│                              ├──── Green Earth ─────────────┤
│                              │    Lead GIS & Information    │
│                              │    Systems Expert            │
│                              │                              │
└──────────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘

Ongoing Practice: Mateere Cloud Lab · Independent Engineering Separate from formal employment

Professional Employment History

Lead GIS & Information Systems Expert

2025 – Present

Green Earth Consultants · Full-Time

Work spans infrastructure, geospatial data, software and machine learning depending on project requirements.

Built and deployed web applications on Kubernetes, with remote cloud infrastructure used as a secondary environment.
Managed PostGIS databases for land-use/land-cover (LULC) workflows.
Built machine learning pipelines for LULC classification using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery.
Developed a computer-vision muzzle-identification system for cattle insurance verification.
Set up and maintained server environments, client systems, and email servers.

AI Research Scientist → Systems Engineer

2023 – 2025

Zimbabwe Centre for High Performance Computing (ZCHPC)

Started at ZCHPC as an AI Research Scientist working on plant disease detection, and subsequently transitioned into Systems Engineering supporting national computing infrastructure.

AI Research: Researched and developed machine learning workflows for plant disease detection.
HPC Infrastructure & ZCHPC Phase II: Following HPC training from Huawei, contributed to the setup of ZCHPC Phase II, including networking, server configuration, and a 2.5 PB storage environment serving higher and tertiary institutions.
Virtualization: Managed an XCP-ng/Xen Orchestra environment with 180+ virtual servers, including GPU-enabled systems using NVIDIA V100s for AI workloads.
Research Institutional Support: Supported research institutions including MSU, BUSE, SIRDC, CUT, and NUST with backup infrastructure and HPC workflows.
Impilo Programme (Ministry of Health): Contributed to the setup and testing of the Impilo e-health records programme, including networking, VPS infrastructure, and access APIs intended to support future ML workflows.

Security Systems Software Developer & ICT Support

2022 – 2023

X-sys Security Systems · Harare, Zimbabwe

Designed backend database architecture using SQL for alert management, scheduling, and incident reporting.
Developed RESTful APIs connecting mobile frontends with secure on-premise monitoring systems.
Installed and configured structured cabling, surveillance systems, biometric access controls, and local area networks.

Software & Systems Intern

2021 – 2022

Clencore Studios · Harare, Zimbabwe

Configured and customized Odoo ERP business logic, inventory, CRM, and accounting workflows for clients.
Assisted in web application deployments, backend database setups, and Git version control workflows.

Project Collaborations & Institutional Engagements

EOSTAT Engagements

FAO, MLAFWRD & Surveyor General

Worked on projects involving EOSTAT and its engagements with organisations including FAO, MLAFWRD and the Surveyor General's Office. Included Sen4Stat adaptation, agricultural statistics workflows, satellite imagery (Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2), geospatial data, and land-use/land-cover ML workflows.

Identity Systems

Civil Registry & eKYC Workflows

Worked on eKYC platforms involving Civil Registry data, including work toward establishing a single authoritative source of registry information for identity verification workflows.

Educational Systems

Lesticom School Management

Supported Lesticom on the AfricaAlert school management system (PHP/MySQL) for Zimbabwean educational compliance, student records, and grading, as well as staging Next-Gen platform components on containerized Supabase BaaS.

Regional Collaboration

National University of Lesotho

Collaborated with the National University of Lesotho to build an Agri-advisory system for regional agricultural information and farmer advisory workflows.

Independent Engineering Practice

Continuous Engineering Practice

Mateere Cloud Lab

Independent Engineering · Ongoing

A self-built and operated cloud/platform engineering environment developed from a personal passion for systems engineering. It is used to deploy, operate and experiment with Kubernetes, GitOps, CI/CD, networking, storage, observability, geospatial and ML workloads.

Multi-node K3s cluster running on hybrid nodes

GitOps deployment workflows using ArgoCD & Gitea

MinIO S3 storage, PostGIS spatial databases

Telemetry via Prometheus, Uptime Kuma & Umami

Explore the Cloud Lab → See the infrastructure I build and operate independently.

Engineering Narrative: Professional employment shows where I have applied my skills within organisations. The Cloud Lab demonstrates the infrastructure and workflows I build independently out of genuine technical interest.

TECHNICAL SYSTEMS

Selected Work

Representative systems across infrastructure, machine learning, geospatial processing, and domain applications. Detailed case studies are published on the Portfolio.

Explore full Portfolio

HPC · Infrastructure · Virtualization

ZCHPC Phase II & Virtualization

What it was: High-performance computing cluster and 2.5 PB storage environment serving higher and tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe.

What I did: Contributed to the setup of servers, networking, and a 2.5 PB storage environment. Managed an XCP-ng/Xen Orchestra environment with 180+ virtual servers, including GPU nodes with NVIDIA V100s, and supported research institutions (MSU, BUSE, SIRDC, CUT, NUST).

HPC XCP-ng 2.5 PB Storage NVIDIA V100 Networking

ZCHPC Infrastructure Role

Geospatial · Applied ML · Earth Observation

GeoCrop Classification Platform

What it was: Crop-type classification and monitoring platform for smallholder agriculture in Zimbabwe.

What I did: Developed machine learning inference pipelines consuming multi-temporal Sentinel-2 satellite imagery (DEA STAC) using windowed block processing with Rasterio to execute reliably within strict 1GB RAM CPU worker limits.

Python Sentinel-2 STAC Rasterio LightGBM TiTiler

Case Study Live Engine

EOSTAT · National Agricultural Statistics

Sen4Stat Adaptation & Workflows

What it was: Earth Observation workflow for agricultural statistics and area frame sampling conducted through EOSTAT engagements with FAO and MLAFWRD.

What I did: Adapted processing workflows combining Sentinel-2 optical and Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to generate crop acreage statistics and area frame strata for national agricultural reporting.

Sentinel-1 SAR Sentinel-2 PostGIS Area Frame Python

Case Study Instance

Computer Vision · Livestock Insurance

Cattle Muzzle Biometric Identification

What it was: Biometric verification system using cattle muzzle print patterns for livestock insurance identification and fraud prevention.

What I did: Developed computer vision feature extraction and matching models that use muzzle dermatoglyphic ridge patterns as unique biometric identifiers for individual cattle verification.

Computer Vision OpenCV Python Biometrics REST APIs

Green Earth Consultants Project

Data Systems · Identity Verification

eKYC Platforms & Civil Registry Data

What it was: Digital verification platform and data pipelines utilizing Civil Registry information.

What I did: Worked on eKYC platforms involving Civil Registry data, including work toward establishing a single authoritative source of registry information for identity verification workflows and secure integration.

eKYC Data Validation PostgreSQL REST APIs Security

Identity Systems Project

Health Systems · Infrastructure & APIs

Impilo e-Health Infrastructure Support

What it was: Electronic health records initiative with the Ministry of Health.

What I did: Contributed to the setup and testing of the Impilo programme during my time at ZCHPC, including networking configuration, VPS infrastructure setup, and access APIs intended to support future machine learning workflows.

VPS Hosting Networking Access APIs Linux Health Systems

ZCHPC / Ministry of Health Support

ACADEMIC FOUNDATION

Education

Master of Technology (MTech), Data Science & Analytics

Harare Institute of Technology

2027 (Expected)

Research into distributed data systems, Earth Observation statistics, and analytical workflows.

Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Science

Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE)

2023

Foundations in computer systems, algorithms, database design, software engineering, and networking.

CREDENTIALS

Certifications

Huawei

High-Performance Computing (2024)

ZCHPC

AI & Big Data Analytics (2024)

Digital Earth Africa

Agritech & Food Security

Digital Earth Africa

Water Resources & Urbanisation

EO College

Machine Learning for Earth Observation

Linux Professional

Linux Server Administration

PRACTICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructure & Systems Practice

I specialize in practical, hands-on infrastructure engineering — deploying and operating self-hosted, virtualized, and containerized systems with a focus on reliability, repeatable configuration, and data integrity.

Kubernetes & K3s Deploying multi-node clusters, ingress controllers, SSL automation via cert-manager, and containerized microservices.

GitOps & Automation Continuous delivery via ArgoCD and private Gitea instances, ensuring infrastructure definitions remain auditable.

Virtualization & Linux Host configuration, storage mapping, system hardening, and virtualization management with XCP-ng and Xen Orchestra.

Storage & Observability Object storage with MinIO, PostgreSQL/PostGIS databases, and telemetry with Prometheus, Uptime Kuma, and Umami.

Explore Mateere Cloud Lab for live topology & architectural records

Mateere Cloud Lab Topology 4-Node K3s

Node 01 Control-Plane

Node 02 Worker

Node 03 Worker

Node 04 Inference Worker

Ingress: Ingress-NGINX GitOps: ArgoCD Storage: MinIO

A live demonstration of continuous platform operations, hosted on self-managed infrastructure.

GET IN TOUCH

Contact & Technical Collaboration

If you have questions about my work, would like to discuss platform engineering, geospatial systems, or HPC infrastructure, feel free to reach out directly.

Direct Email

fchinembiri24@gmail.com

GitHub • Self-Hosted Git (git.techarvest.co.zw) • LinkedIn