██████╗ ██████╗ ███╗ ██╗ █████╗ ██╗ ██████╗
██╔══██╗██╔═══██╗████╗ ██║██╔══██╗██║ ██╔══██╗
██║ ██║██║ ██║██╔██╗ ██║███████║██║ ██║ ██║
██║ ██║██║ ██║██║╚██╗██║██╔══██║██║ ██║ ██║
██████╔╝╚██████╔╝██║ ╚████║██║ ██║███████╗██████╔╝
╚═════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═╝ ╚═══╝╚═╝ ╚═╝╚══════╝╚═════╝
name: Donald Raphael
handle: donaldraph
role: Cloud / SRE Engineer
location: Anambra State, Southeast Nigeria 🇳🇬
community: Founder @ Day Zero — Southeast Nigeria's tech builders collective
ambassador: Claude Ambassador (Anthropic) · DeepLearning.AI Ambassador
visa: UK Global Talent Visa · Digital Technology · Exceptional Promise
mission: "From Nothing, To Everything"
target: Amazon · Netflix · GoogleI build infrastructure from Southeast Nigeria. Not Lagos. Not Abuja. But here, in Anambra.
I'm a Cloud/SRE engineer on a deliberate path — learning deeply, building publicly, and earning my credentials one shipping at a time. Right now I'm working through all five Kubernetes certifications on the road to Kubestronaut, and I won't stop there — Golden Kubestronaut and beyond
But infrastructure is only half of what I care about.
The other half is people — specifically, the builders right here in Southeast Nigeria who have the talent but not always the exposure, the community, or the roadmap. I see that gap every day and I refuse to just walk past it. That's why I founded Day Zero — a tech builders community rooted in the Southeast, built to change what's possible for engineers who are starting from nothing, the same way I am.
I run workshops. I mentor. I create content on YouTube, Dev.to, and LinkedIn specifically to make tech concepts accessible to people in this region who've never had someone explain it in a way that feels close to home. I believe deeply that world-class engineers can be built anywhere — including right here, in Anambra.
As a DeepLearning.AI Ambassador, I also work to bring AI literacy and builder culture into spaces that don't usually see it — campuses, communities, and emerging tech scenes in Southeast Nigeria.
The UK Global Talent Visa is my next coordinate. Amazon, Netflix, and Google are my long-game destinations. I'm earning every step in public — every repo, every cert, every article.
I don't have to be from somewhere famous to build something great.
I build from Southeast Nigeria.
Not Lagos. Not Abuja. But here, in Anambra.
Why Day Zero exists:
Southeast Nigeria has builders. Real ones. People who can architect systems, ship products, and lead teams — but who are often invisible to the global tech ecosystem because they didn't start in the right city or go to the right school.
Day Zero is my answer to that.
It's not just a community. It's a launchpad — designed to take builders from zero to employable, from local to global, from unknown to undeniable. I run events, build learning infrastructure, create public content, and establish partnerships with programmes across Nigeria and Africa to make this real.
The long-term vision:
Phase 1 → Build the community foundation in Southeast Nigeria
Establish Day Zero as the go-to builders' hub in Anambra
Run consistent events, mentorship, and learning tracks
Phase 2 → Expand across Southeast Nigeria
Bring Day Zero to Enugu, Imo, Abia, Cross River
Build a distributed network of builders/engineers
from the Southeast who are globally competitive
Phase 3 → Create the pipeline
Partner with international programmes and companies
so that talent from the Southeast has direct pathways
to global opportunities — not by leaving who they are,
but by being exactly that, on a global stage
Phase 4 → Give back at scale
As I grow, Day Zero grows with me
The builders I mentor today become the ones
who mentor the next engineers tomorrow
My personal roadmap:
Now → Cloud/SRE engineering · All 5 Kubernetes certs · Build in public
12 months → UK Global Talent Visa (Digital Technology · Exceptional Promise)
24 months → Senior SRE / Platform Engineer at a top-tier company
36–48 mo → FAANG-competitive SRE role · Amazon · Netflix · Google
Long-term → Day Zero as a self-sustaining, regionally significant
tech institution that Southeast Nigeria is proud of
From Nothing, To Everything. This is not just a tagline. It's a plan carved out of pain
NAMESPACE CERT STATUS TRACK
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
foundations GitHub Foundations ✅ EARNED GitHub
cloud AWS Cloud Practitioner Essential ✅ EARNED AWS
database MongoDB Atlas Administrator ✅ EARNED MongoDB
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
kubernetes CKA (Certified K8s Admin) 🔄 IN PROG Kubestronaut
kubernetes CKS (Certified K8s Security) 🔄 IN PROG Kubestronaut
kubernetes CKAD (Certified K8s App Dev) 🔄 IN PROG Kubestronaut
kubernetes KCNA (K8s & Cloud Native Assoc.) 🔄 IN PROG Kubestronaut
kubernetes KCSA (K8s Security Assoc.) 🔄 IN PROG Kubestronaut
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
MILESTONE: Kubestronaut (all 5 complete) → Golden Kubestronaut
NOTE: Potentially first Kubestronaut from Anambra / Southeast Nigeria 🇳🇬
| 🏆 Milestone | Status |
|---|---|
| GitHub Foundations | ✅ Earned |
| AWS Cloud Practitioner Essential | ✅ Earned |
| MongoDB Atlas Administrator | ✅ Earned |
| Kubestronaut — all 5 CNCF certs | 🔄 Actively in progress |
| Golden Kubestronaut | 🎯 The final destination |
☁️ Cloud & Infrastructure
⚙️ Languages & Dev
📡 Observability & SRE
🗄️ Databases
| 🛠 Project | Stack | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| NEXUS | EKS · LLM · React | My Cognitive Simulation Engine — Skill training through AI-powered incident scenarios done with real production scenario |
| ARES | Amazon Nova · K8s · 11 microservices | AI SRE Platform I built for the Amazon Nova AI Hackathon — full tactical ops dashboard |
| PROMETHEUS | Python · Polygon · WebSocket | My autonomous trading bot for Polymarket's CLOB — 20 markets subscribed, live paper trading |
| Day Zero Platform | React · AWS · CloudFront | My community Infrastructure — AWS-native, mobile-first for Nigerian performance |
| Raph's Orbit | FastAPI · Docker · EC2 | My LinkedIn/Twitter monitoring bot with Telegram alerts, deployed on AWS EC2 |
[DAY ZERO] Founder · Southeast Nigeria tech builders collective
[ANTHROPIC] Claude Ambassador
[DEEPLEARNING] DeepLearning.AI Ambassador
[CNCF] All 5 Kubernetes certs in progress → Kubestronaut → Golden Kubestronaut
[GTV] UK Global Talent Visa · Digital Technology · Exceptional Promise
I write about Cloud, SRE, Kubernetes, community building, and building from Southeast Nigeria.
📝 Dev.to → donaldraph 📺 YouTube → donaldraph 🔗 LinkedIn → donaldraph
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ donaldraph @ day-zero
░░██████████████░░░ ─────────────────────────────────────────
░░██░░░░░░░░░░██░░░ Role: Cloud / SRE Engineer
░░██░░░░░░░░░░██░░░ Origin: Anambra, Southeast Nigeria 🇳🇬
░░██░░░████░░░██░░░ Community: Day Zero (Founder)
░░██░░░████░░░██░░░ Earned: GitHub Foundations · AWS CCP · MongoDB Atlas Admin
░░██░░░░░░░░░░██░░░ In Prog: CKA · CKS · CKAD · KCNA · KCSA
░░██████████████░░░ Target: Kubestronaut → Golden Kubestronaut
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ Visa: UK Global Talent (Exceptional Promise)
Endgame: Amazon · Netflix · Google
RAM: Enough to ship
Uptime: Building since Day Zero
$ uptime
Cloud/SRE Engineer · Community Founder · Building in public from Southeast Nigeria.
My Day Zero is the origin. Everything else is the destination.⭐ Star repos that resonate. Connect if you're building from Africa.