Software Architect

Hi, I’m Marko Koen.

I architect and deliver resilient software systems, turning chaos into calm in complex, high-pressure environments.

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Marko Koen

About

Based in Stellenbosch, I’ve worked across fintech, e-commerce, and on-demand delivery platforms. I’m bilingual in Afrikaans and English, and I’ve performed in high-pressure environments, from trading software to high-volume production systems, solving complex problems while protecting uptime. I enjoy architecting distributed systems, improving developer workflows, and helping teams scale without losing delivery quality.

Work Experience

Feb 2023 - Present

Software Architect @ Zulzi

  • Zulzi develops the technical solutions that power the Checkers Sixty60 platform, South Africa's fastest and largest grocery delivery service.
  • Architected new microservices inside a large distributed, event-driven ecosystem and improved backend deployment stability.
  • Led the transition to trunk-based development, including Bitbucket pipeline design to keep testing and code quality strong as the team scaled.
  • Spearheaded Jaeger distributed tracing across backend services and set up a dedicated environment for developer access and performance monitoring.
  • Integrated SonarCloud into custom Bitbucket pipeline workflows for continuous quality checks and more maintainable, secure codebases.

Dec 2022 - Jan 2023

Technical Lead @ Mara

  • Helped stabilize team delivery and platform reliability during a critical business restructuring period.
  • Selected to lead a new lean team after major layoffs following the FTX collapse.
  • The business later closed after Coinbase Ventures halted funding.

Apr 2022 - Dec 2022

Engineering Team Lead @ TFG Labs (Bash)

  • After TFG acquired Quench, our team became part of TFG Labs (now Bash) as the Last Mile Squad.
  • Supported the existing Quench e-commerce platform, including Dis-Chem DeliverD.
  • Contributed to building out group-wide last-mile technology capabilities.

Apr 2021 - Mar 2022

Chief Technology Officer @ Quench

  • Built and scaled the development team, including hiring and growth conversations.
  • Drove technical strategy and managed third-party integrations and partnerships with organizations such as Woolworths and Dis-Chem.
  • Quench was acquired by TFG in December 2021.

Jul 2020 - Mar 2021

Senior Software Engineer @ Quench

  • Led adoption of cloud infrastructure across GCP, Terraform, and Helm.
  • Developed new microservices in Ruby on Rails and Golang.
  • Delivered and supported e-commerce solutions for major third-party clients.

Jan 2017 - Jun 2020

Software Developer @ Estuary Solutions

  • Integrated the EMAPI gateway into the existing Swordfish platform, with a focus on trade management and commissions.
  • Provided live production support during market hours in high-pressure trading environments.
  • Implemented Telegram API notifications to replace SMS alerts and reduce operational cost.
  • Improved release and platform stability, including auto-release tooling that reduced release cycles from weeks to a single night.
  • Worked client-facing with large corporate banks to onboard and train teams on the software.

Nov 2015

Software Tester (QA Internship) @ Matogen Corporate Web Development

  • Completed internship experience in quality assurance and software testing.

Skills

Turning chaos to calm AI tinkerer Leading development teams Creating developer environments Translating business to devs and devs to business Customer-first product ownership

Technologies

Focused on scalable backend architecture, reliable delivery pipelines, and strong engineering team enablement.

GoLangAWSGCPTerraformHelm Ruby on RailsC#.NET FrameworkSQLDocker PrometheusGrafanaSentrySonarCloudBitbucket Pipelines JavaScriptPythonJavaPHPGit

Education

B.Sc. Mathematical Science (Computer Science Major)

Stellenbosch University

2014 - 2016

Cambridge IGCSE O-Levels & A-Levels

Petra High School, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

2010 - 2013

Contact

I'm always keen to connect. Send me a message.