Phoenix, AZ, USA · Remote only
Backend / Systems Engineer — Java · Spring Boot / Spring Cloud Microservices · Kafka · Kubernetes · AI Agent Infrastructure
Backend and systems engineer building Entropa, a tamper-evident audit-trail platform for AI-agent decisions, as a real Java 21 / Spring Boot / Spring Cloud microservices system: Eureka service discovery, a centralized Config Server, an OAuth2/JWT-secured Spring Cloud Gateway, Kafka-driven event flow between an ingest service and a single-writer transparency/hash-chain service, PostgreSQL persistence, Keycloak identity, and a Stripe-integrated demo signup flow — containerized with Docker and deployed on Kubernetes (GKE) via a templated Helm chart, behind a real SSL-terminated load balancer. Built and shipped solo, end to end: service design, security, CI/CD, observability, incident response — real production bugs (Kafka authentication misconfiguration, broken config-server wiring, JVM startup tuning under constrained resources) found and fixed the same session, not hand-waved past.
Prior credential: also designed and built Entropa's original Rust implementation — a production network with real ML-DSA (NIST FIPS-204) post-quantum signatures, verified byte-exact against NIST's own ACVP test vectors, and a beacon-seeded consensus mechanism (Proof of Entropy) — before migrating the system to the current Java/Spring microservices architecture.
I direct AI coding tools for a large share of implementation, and I'm the one setting architecture, reviewing code closely enough to catch real bugs, and driving debugging when production breaks — Entropa's own incident history is the record of that, not just a claim.
Also a data engineer with 12+ years in enterprise IT and security operations (SIEM, EDR, ITIL) plus hands-on HITRUST/HIPAA compliance work, and lakehouse experience across Apache Spark, Iceberg, and Delta Lake.
Intentionally-dirty multi-source retail data through Bronze → Silver → Gold on Apache Iceberg, then ML (churn/fraud with MLflow + GPU XGBoost) and a Streamlit dashboard layer. Runs locally and on GCP.
Apache Spark 3.5 + Delta Lake + object storage + Kafka + automated code-quality gating, real-time event streaming, medallion pipelines. Functional Scala.
Progression from lakehouse data engineering into systems/backend engineering, with AI/ML and AI-agent orchestration integrated throughout. Designed and built two complete lakehouses; directed the design and build of Entropa, first as a Rust consensus engine and cryptographic core, then migrated to its current Java/Spring Cloud microservices architecture on Kubernetes; trained and tracked ML models with MLflow; directed and safety-gated a Claude-driven AI-agent decision pipeline in production.
Governed enterprise EDR across a global fleet; administered PAM for zero-trust credential security; engineered automated OS imaging and patch-management, neutralizing zero-day exposure.
Led rapid remediation during mission-critical outages, restoring 24/7 retail application uptime; authored SOPs and remediation documentation.
Co-authored the enterprise security-policy framework, drove remediation resulting in official HITRUST certification and continuous HIPAA compliance; managed secure PHI chain of custody.
Managed technical escalations for 120+ enterprise accounts; server hardening, VPS security, database optimization on Ubuntu/RHEL.
Coursework toward B.S., Information Technology — network security, systems administration, database management, enterprise architecture. 2008 – 2011.