Resume
nicholas cambre · systems & automation engineer · seattle, wa
// summary
Self-taught systems and automation engineer based in Seattle. Build local-first AI infrastructure, multi-tenant hosting platforms, and resilient self-hosted environments. Currently operate 7 production Next.js sites for content creators on a single server blade, with a path to 15 by year-end. Comfortable across the stack — from C++ inference servers to TypeScript frontends to Linux operational hardening — and biased toward boring, durable infrastructure over impressive-looking complexity.
Skills
// languages
- TypeScript
- Python
- C++
- JavaScript
- Bash
// frameworks & runtimes
- Next.js (App Router)
- React
- Node.js
- TailwindCSS
- PyTorch
- llama.cpp
// infrastructure
- Linux
- Docker
- NGINX
- PM2
- Cloudflare
- Tailscale
- Home Assistant
// data & real-time
- MQTT
- Server-Sent Events
- WebSockets
- Node-RED
- MDX
// ai & audio
- Local LLM inference
- Neural TTS
- Whisper (STT)
- GPU inference
- Tool orchestration
// practices
- Self-hosting
- Multi-tenant deployments
- Observability
- Reverse proxy architecture
- Server hardening
Selected work
Jemma AI
case study →Local-first AI assistant built from scratch — C++ inference, streaming voice, real auth, tool calling.
Managed Self-Hosted Web Platform
case study →Multi-tenant Next.js hosting — 7 production sites for content creators, scaling to 15 by year-end.
Server Hardening
case study →Layered Linux security and operational hardening. Includes a real cryptominer-incident response narrative.
Home Automation Platform
case study →Local-first smart-home infrastructure that keeps working when the cloud doesn't.
Cloudflare + NGINX Edge
case study →Self-hosted edge routing that exposes internal services without giving up control of the stack underneath.
Jemma Voice Pipeline
case study →Local neural text-to-speech, GLaDOS-inspired, 23ms per sentence on a 2080 Ti.
Education
// formal
- ›Associate's degree — currently in progress
- ›Bachelor's degree — planned coursework following the Associate's
// where i actually learned
Everything on this site was built before any formal CS coursework. The real curriculum: YouTube tutorials, Python 3 For Dummies, C++ For Dummies, reading the llama.cpp source code line by line, AI pair-programming where it sped things up, and a lot of breaking things and figuring out why. Now formalizing what I already know.
// available
Open to roles in systems engineering, infrastructure, automation, and AI tooling. Especially interested in teams building self-hosted, local-first, or hybrid systems where operational discipline matters.