Benjamin Michael Waters

Privacy-first search orchestrator engineered as an 8-APK suite ("The Pentagon + 7 sidecars"). Features an air-gapped offline core with zero network permissions, strict AIDL IPC signature verification, AES-256-GCM zero-knowledge cloud synchronization, and Google Gemini-assisted intent synthesis.

Architected and maintained a comprehensive self-hosted environment powered by Proxmox VE and Linux. Orchestrates isolated KVM virtual machines, high-density LXC containers, a Caddy reverse proxy, Syncthing file synchronization across local hardware and VPS nodes, automated ZFS snapshotting, and Zero Trust Cloudflare Tunnels.

Free, open-source political contributions transparency engine aggregating millions of FEC financial records in collaboration with a project team. Designed the backend data architecture leveraging Django REST Framework and PostgreSQL trigram search indexes, with a native Android capstone interface built in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.

Free, open-source secure coordination engine designed to empower social actions and community organizing. Architected the cross-platform application leveraging Flutter and Android technologies, backed by PostgreSQL for secure, reliable real-time coordination.

Geospatial mobile and web application developed in collaboration with a project team at the University of Vermont. Built to help users find restaurants and dining options tailored to their specific dietary restrictions and allergies, utilizing Django REST Framework and PostGIS spatial queries.

Spearheaded the complete responsive redesign and systems overhaul for Springfield Food Co-op. Engineered a modern, mobile-friendly Drupal CMS platform, significantly improving search engine visibility and social media integration while managing retail IT systems administration and POS infrastructure.

Architected an enterprise catalog and search retrieval engine for 60,000 cartographic maps at Geographic Data Technology (now TomTom). Achieved sub-second (0.2s) query execution through stored procedure optimization and SQL Server profiling, integrated with custom barcode-scanner checkout automation.

Built and administered an internal production workflow system to track and assign GIS editing tasks for Geographic Data Technology Inc. Developed the relational data architecture, task allocation queues, and administrative reporting workflows utilizing Microsoft Access.