Derek Armstrong — Software Engineer · AI · Infrastructure

I’ve spent 10+ years working across every layer of the stack — from deploying hardware at 130 locations and managing networks to rewriting legacy payment systems processing millions of daily transactions. I’ve led engineering teams, architected production infrastructure, and built the automation that keeps it all running. Now I’m applying that same depth to AI. I self-host my own inference cluster, build agentic workflows and AI automation, and write about what actually works when you run local models in production. From bare metal to working agent — I build, break, and rebuild the whole thing. This is where I write about it.