30+ years of experience architecting high-performance, secure software/hardware systems across fintech, energy, and communications. Deep expertise in C++, Rust, Python, distributed systems, cryptography, and full-stack development. Proven track record building and mentoring teams to deliver reliable, production-grade systems through multiple technological shifts—from mainframe to client-server, from on-premise to cloud, and now through the AI-assisted development era. Trusted to lead complex, mission-critical initiatives, prototype future-facing systems, and mentor engineering teams through both technical and organizational challenges. Specialized expertise in AI-assisted development with rigorous validation disciplines, ensuring model outputs are verified before production deployment.
Core Competencies
- Full-Stack Development: Backend APIs, databases, Frontend UIs, mobile support; integrating AI services and automation capabilities
- AI-Assisted Development: Claude Code, Codex, Pi, and other LLM coding assistants with strong validation habits (testing, code review, secure coding) and responsible use (privacy/security)
- AI-Ready Architecture: Design patterns and software architecture considerations for AI-ready and cloud-native solutions
- Cloud Platforms: Cloud services and cloud-hosted AI services/model integrations
- CI/CD Pipelines: Automated deployment and lifecycle management of cloud-based and AI-enabled solutions
- Database Technologies: Relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL) and alternatives (NoSQL, KV, CAS, DHT, …) supporting data needs for AI-enabled features
- Open-Source Ecosystems: PyPi, Node.js/NPM, PHP, Java, JavaScript, Angular, MySQL, MongoDB, Drupal
- Automated Testing: Extensive System simulation Unit testing, integration testing, validating behavior, reliability, and failure handling of AI-driven components
- Source Control: Git in collaborative software development, managing AI-related code, configurations, and prompts
- Command-Line & IDEs: CLI-based tool stacks and IDEs including tools for AI integration, configuration, and troubleshooting
- Human-Centered Design: Working with UX design, service design, design thinking approaches, refining AI-enabled solutions based on user feedback
- Team Mentorship: Guiding development teams through unfamiliar domains, cryptographic/distributed-systems and AI architecture; mentoring engineers through code review and pair programming
Professional Experience
R&D Consultant & Architect - Dominion R&D Corp. (Remote, 2009–Present)
/Architect and operator of production AI, blockchain and industrial systems; retained by energy, fintech and industrial clients to design the parts that have to be right the first time./
AI-Enabled Platform Design & Operation
- Designed, built and operate BUCKy, a public-facing generative-AI assistant grounding a ~100K-token curated knowledge base, serving live at perry.kundert.ca and bucky.kundert.ca
- Architected four interchangeable inference backends (hosted Anthropic API, local Ollama, direct MLX, llama-cpp) behind one stable API contract, ensuring model and hosting decisions stay reversible and avoid vendor lock-in
- Engineered inference economics: hosted path exploits provider prompt caching to reduce per-query cost by roughly an order of magnitude after first call; self-hosted path pre-computes the knowledge-base KV cache once at startup and clones it copy-on-write per session, eliminating ~100K tokens of prefill on every request
- Built the operational surface: per-session concurrency slots with TTL reclamation, streaming NDJSON responses, CORS origin allow-listing, health and throughput telemetry, and warm-start cache persistence cutting a 15-minute cold start to seconds
- Delivered it over Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnels with remotely-managed ingress pushed from version-controlled configuration
- Built a multi-engine generative speech pipeline with per-engine reproducible Nix/venv environments for narrated presentation content
Team Leadership & Mentorship
- Guide client development teams through cryptographic, distributed-systems and AI architecture; review code and mentor engineers through unfamiliar parts
- Establish engineering standards through decision records, test harnesses, and staged deployment pipelines so the next developer inherits the reasoning and not just the code
- Mentor teams on AI-assisted development disciplines: nothing the model writes ships until a test, execution, or review can be defended
Platform Architecture: Alberta Buck
- Designed a complete asset-backed monetary platform (identity, ledger, privacy and settlement): Solidity contracts, on-chain credential registry, zero-knowledge bearer-note layer, implemented and verified on BN254
- Proved it with a deterministic multi-backend simulation harness producing byte-identical results across five simulated years and a ten-configuration experiment matrix
- Wrote a decision record for every architectural ruling, plus threat analysis and a phased roadmap, maintained as a living corpus
Client Architecture & Delivery
- Scope, architect and deliver custom systems directly with client stakeholders: from requirements and solution design through implementation, deployment and long-term support
- Guide client development teams through cryptographic, distributed-systems and AI architecture; review their code and mentor engineers through the unfamiliar parts
- Built datasim, a Docker-based simulation environment (dozens to hundreds of concurrent simulated PLCs, each with its own network stack) with a web API and browser front end
IT/OT Solutions Engineer - Vantage Engineering (Spruce Grove, AB, 2026–Present)
Designing and delivering the boundary itself: unidirectional field-data paths, SCADA deployment automation, and business tooling built on top of the resulting data.
Developed localwebauthn, a self-hosted WebAuthn relying-party library
- Phishing-resistant passkey login with no third-party identity provider
- No central credential store; uptime dependent only on client/server communications
Built dev, staging and production deployment infrastructure for Ignition SCADA
- Automated regression testing of industrial Python scripting: changes validated before production
- Breakthrough industrial testing capability, far exceeding current state of the art
Deliver custom business applications to replace suboptimal SAAS offerings
- Real-time and guaranteed one-time delivery queueing of critical work between multiple remote services
Developed a secure unidirectional (data diode) field-data path
- Safety critical I/O isolation for remote environments under state-level attack
Sr. IT Advisor - Enbridge Pipelines (Edmonton, AB, 2002–2009)
Reduced the risk profile of hydrocarbon pipeline control system by deploying a state-of-the-art cryptographically secure multi-route communications protocol, still in operation today.
- Built fault-tolerant Reed-Solomon encoded multi-route protocol for real-time SCADA
- Developed solid-state RTUs for 24/7 control; maintained <1 defect per 10K LOC
- Deployed hundreds of ruggedized units across critical infrastructure sites
Software Developer - Hewlett-Packard (Calgary, AB, 1989–1996)
Pioneered a radical re-architecture of a core SCADA automation alarm system component.
- Re-engineered RTAP's core alarm system with DFA state machines
- Enabled end-users to configure complex, distributed safety-critical workflows
- Currently deployed in pipeline SCADA systems continent-wide
Education
B.Sc. Computer Science - University of Calgary (Calgary, AB, 1984–1989)
Publications & Open Source
- cpppo: the widely used Python EtherNet/IP and CIP industrial protocol library; the integration layer between analytics platforms and the PLCs on the plant floor.
- ezpwd-reed-solomon: high-throughput C++/JavaScript/Python Reed-Solomon and BCH codecs, used by aerospace and defence developers globally.
- python-slip39: cross-platform SLIP-39 Shamir secret sharing application for secure seed backup and recovery.
- pyhydronic: Implement thermodynamic comfort measurement for dynamic environmental control.
- ikona-style: Modeling, explaining and simulating novel gear reduction technology.
- localwebauthn: TypeScript/NPM library implementing both the browser and relying-party sides of WebAuthn passkey authentication; phishing-resistant login with no dependency on a third-party identity provider, and no credential material leaving the operator's control.
- Technical papers on blockchain architecture, zero-knowledge identity proofs, cryptographic protocol composition, consensus algorithms and monetary system design.