Ato Markin
Portrait of Jonathan Ato Markin

Jonathan Ato Markin

PhD Student · Cyber-Physical Systems

Luleå University of Technology · Since January 2026 · View LinkedIn


I am a distributed systems researcher and doctoral student in Cyber-Physical Systems at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, where I started my PhD in January 2026.

My work is increasingly focused on distributed systems, performance, coordination, and reliability, building on my background designing backend platforms and cloud-native services.

  • Distributed systems & coordination
  • Reliability & performance
  • Smart contracts & blockchain
  • HPC-cloud convergence

Elsewhere: GitHub

About

Researching distributed systems that stay reliable, coordinated and fast in cyber-physical environments.

tracks · what I work on3 tracks
0102

Researching

PhD · 2026–
  • Coordination in cyber-physical systemsLTU
  • Reliability & performancedistributed
  • Smart contracts & blockchaininterest
04

Building

2 live
03

Foundation

2019 – 2025
  • Banking & payments backendsAccra
  • HPC-cloud researchPisa
Fig. 1 — Three separate tracks: research, products, and the engineering behind them.
  1. 01

    Distributed Systems

    Coordination, performance, and reliability across networked services.

  2. 02

    Cyber-Physical Systems

    Doctoral research at Luleå University of Technology since January 2026.

  3. 03

    Reliable Infrastructure

    Built on years designing backend platforms and cloud-native services.

  4. 04

    Useful Products

    Building practical tools like Paycycl and PlayChale for people to use every day.

trace · career4 spans · 1 open
years building
7
roles
4
countries
3
  1. Union Systems

    4y 7m

  2. BRIJ Fintech

    1y 4m

  3. Univ. of Pisa

    1y 1m

  4. LTU

    9m

’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26
Fig. 2 — Career as a trace: overlapping spans, one still open.

Experience

Research & Experience

From core banking and payments platforms in Accra, to HPC-cloud research in Pisa, to doctoral research in Cyber-Physical Systems in Luleå.

Roles

  1. Doctoral Student

    Jan 2026 – Present

    Luleå University of Technology · Luleå, Norrbotten County, Sweden

    Researching distributed systems for cyber-physical environments, with interests spanning reliable infrastructure, smart contracts, and blockchain systems.

    Distributed Systems · Cyber-Physical Systems · Smart Contracts · Blockchain · HPC · Reliability

  2. HPC-Cloud Researcher

    Oct 2024 – Oct 2025

    Università di Pisa · Pisa, Tuscany, Italy

    Designed and developed prototypes and tools for workflows, I/O, HPC-cloud convergence, and distributed computing.

    Scientific Computing · Cloud Computing · Distributed Computing · HPC · I/O · Workflows

  3. Software Engineer

    Jun 2019 – Dec 2023

    Union Systems Global · Accra, Ghana

    Developed scalable core backend services and integrations for web and mobile banking platforms.

    Java · Spring · PostgreSQL · REST APIs · CI/CD

  4. Engineer: API & Platforms

    Oct 2021 – Jan 2023

    BRIJ Fintech Ghana Limited · Accra, Ghana

    Owned design and maintenance of frontend and backend microservices for payments and forex.

    Java · Spring Boot · VueJS · Vault · OpenAPI · Microservices

Technical Details

Languages
Java, Python, Go, C++, JavaScript, TypeScript
Systems & Research
Distributed Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems, HPC
Frameworks
Spring Boot, React, Vue, Node.js, PyTorch
Cloud & Infra
AWS, GCP, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes
Data & Messaging
PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ

Selected Work

Built to Run Reliably

Live products and open-source systems: what each one does, the stack behind it, and where to find it.

playchale.com
PlayChale website

01 / 06

PlayChale

Grassroots Sports Platform

A platform for grassroots sport in Ghana: find games near you, book pitches, share costs with your squad, and build a verified sports profile with every stat tracked.

Nuxt · Vue · Tailwind CSS · Java · Spring Boot · PostgreSQL

Accra · 2019Pisa · 2022Luleå · 2026

Let's Talk

Research collaborations, systems discussions, and product ideas.

Fig. 3 — Accra → Pisa → Luleå.

Get in Touch

Let's build systems that stay reliable, coordinated and useful.

I'm always interested in research collaborations, distributed systems discussions, and thoughtful product ideas that turn infrastructure into something people can actually use.