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Aric Camarata
Principal AI Engineer
aric.camarata@gmail.comariccamarata.comlinkedin.com/in/ariccamaratagithub.com/acamarataFairfax, VA (Remote)
Summary
Principal AI Engineer with 20+ years building distributed systems, AI infrastructure, and full-stack applications across defense, enterprise, and product companies. Deep expertise in multi-model AI routing, hybrid retrieval (RAG), federated GraphQL, and high-throughput Go backends. Founder of nSelf (self-hosted PaaS) and nClaw (multi-model AI router). Former Lead Developer at Northrop Grumman, TS-cleared (expired). Remote-only.
Skills
Languages:Go, TypeScript, Rust, Python, PHP
AI / ML:Multi-model routing, RAG pipelines, pgvector, BGE-M3 reranking, RRF fusion, Ollama, Claude API, Gemini API
Data:PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, Hadoop, HBase, Cassandra
API:GraphQL, Hasura Federation, REST, gRPC
Infrastructure:Docker, Nginx, Hetzner VPS, Vercel, Cloudflare, Linux
Frontend:Next.js (App Router), React, Tailwind CSS
Experience
Unity
Principal AI Engineer
- Architected nClaw — a privacy-first multi-model AI platform with classifier-driven tier-ladder routing across Claude, GPT-5.4, and local Qwen3 / MLX-LM on Apple Silicon, achieving ~60% inference cost reduction versus single-frontier-model baseline.
- Designed Memory Augmented Retrieval (MAR): PostgreSQL tsvector full-text + pgvector ANN + RRF score fusion + BGE-M3 cross-encoder reranking — sub-100ms semantic search with year-old conversation recall via ltree topic taxonomy and summary pyramids (turn / day / week / month).
- Built privacy-first inference layer: local models handle PII-bearing and sensitive operations; frontier models gated by a PII redaction and secret detection pipeline — full data sovereignty for regulated workloads.
- Open-sourced nSelf CLI (Go, 5,000+ lines, 30+ commands): single-command self-hosted backend stack (PostgreSQL, Hasura, Auth, MinIO, Redis, Nginx) replacing $40–100/mo managed databases with $4/mo Hetzner deployments.
Unity
Principal Software Architect
- Founded and led Unity Platforms for a decade, delivering principal-level software architecture to Credit Karma, Walmart Labs, Cigna, Cambium Networks, Progress Software, and CMD.
- Architected Unity Sites — a multi-tenant Next.js (App Router) platform serving Flock, Veterans, FlockTV, and FlockNAS brands from a single codebase; hostname-based middleware with per-tenant feature flags, Hasura RLS, and JWT custom claims enforcing zero cross-tenant data leakage at the schema level.
- Designed distributed event-driven systems on AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, GraphQL Federation, Kafka, and SNS/SQS for financial services and healthcare clients.
- Built nSelf from an internal 200-line deployment script into a full Go CLI deployed across enterprise clients — groundwork for the AI-native platform built from 2024 onward.
United States Institute of Peace
Senior Developer
- Developed and hardened web applications in C# / .NET / ASP.NET for a federal peace-building institution.
- Led application security hardening — defense-in-depth access controls, credential-stuffing mitigation, and secure session management aligned to federal security standards.
- Delivered full SDLC on compressed government timelines in a zero-tolerance security environment.
Double Prime
Senior Developer
- Built API-first, headless content architecture using decoupled Drupal — an early implementation of platform patterns that have since become industry standard for high-scale editorial systems.
- Integrated Akamai CDN and Alfresco content management into high-traffic global editorial platforms; developed Perl-based data transformation pipelines for large-volume content migration.
Northrop Grumman
Lead Developer / Architect
- Led development on the U.S. Treasury GSOC — national-scale cybersecurity observability platform for the Department of the Treasury. Held active TS clearance (since expired).
- Architected real-time big data pipeline: Hadoop, Hive, HBase, and Cassandra under 24/7 multi-site disaster recovery SLA — large-scale data engineering infrastructure that forms the conceptual foundation of modern ML pipelines.
- Led a team of 6+ engineers through full SDLC; introduced DevOps practices (Git, TDD, CI/CD environments) and reduced deployment cycles at national security scale.
College Board
Senior Developer
- Delivered front-end and application development on the Big Future college search platform (tier-1 national traffic).
- Built feature components on Spring MVC + GWT stack with JSP/JSTL templating.
Able Engineering
Senior Developer
- Built employee evaluation platform on Spring MVC — form workflows, scoring logic, and admin reporting.
- Delivered full feature set from requirements to deployment on compressed timeline.
Capgemini
Senior Developer
- Built internal IT management tools on Zend Framework: ticketing system, helpdesk portal, system monitoring dashboard, and on-call rotation tool.
- Worked alongside enterprise consulting team serving large telecom and insurance clients.
Pearson Education
Senior Developer
- Delivered CMS integrations (Drupal, WordPress, Joomla, Mura) for educational publishing platforms.
- Built Genesys/Avaya call-center tooling for customer support operations.
Apple Inc.
Software Developer
- Built and maintained internal enterprise portal and knowledge base systems on Drupal and the LAMP stack, serving engineering and support teams across Apple divisions.
- Developed tools used daily by thousands of internal users — built to the reliability and maintainability standards of Apple’s internal engineering culture.
AT&T
Software Developer
- Led consolidation of call center support tooling as part of the AT&T / SBC AFSS merger initiative — unified NOC, Engineering, and Customer Support teams onto a single AJAX-based platform.
- Early experience with large-scale systems integration, observability tooling, and reliability engineering in a 24/7 enterprise telecom environment.
Roxbury Group
Manager
- Combined branch management and software development for a regional IT services firm — technical leadership alongside operational responsibility from the start of my career.
- Deployed and administered Windows Server networks for SMB clients; built custom inventory tracking and rental management software (C, TCL, PHP) that replaced manual processes and reduced reconciliation time significantly.
U.S. Army
19D Cavalry Scout
- Served as 19D Combat Cavalry Scout, U.S. Army.
- Service period included September 11, 2001 and the early post-9/11 operational period.
- Foundational experience in mission-critical decision-making, operational discipline, and leading under pressure.
Education
Belltown University
Bachelor of Science, Management Information Systems