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I'm Steven Johnson, a senior systems engineer, systems architect, and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing and building complex production systems across distributed infrastructure, backend platforms, embedded environments, and high-availability operations. I have a strong hands-on background in Rust, Go, Python, and C/C++, spanning protocol design, backend services, networking, automation, and performance-sensitive systems. I combine deep engineering capability with architectural judgment and technical leadership, including shaping designs, guiding implementation, mentoring engineers, and driving difficult work through to production. I’m actively developing DNTLS, a decentralized naming and trust layer for autonomous agents and AI systems, and I bring a track record of patented software and systems innovation to every project.…I'm Steven Johnson, a senior systems engineer, systems architect, and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing and building complex production systems across distributed infrastructure, backend platforms, embedded environments, and high-availability operations. I have a strong hands-on background in Rust, Go, Python, and C/C++, spanning protocol design, backend services, networking, automation, and performance-sensitive systems. I combine deep engineering capability with architectural judgment and technical leadership, including shaping designs, guiding implementation, mentoring engineers, and driving difficult work through to production. I’m actively developing DNTLS, a decentralized naming and trust layer for autonomous agents and AI systems, and I bring a track record of patented software and systems innovation to every project.

Steven Johnson

Architect, Developer, Project Manager, +5

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I'm Steven Johnson, a senior systems engineer, systems architect, and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing and building complex production systems across distributed infrastructure, backend platforms, embedded environments, and high-availability operations. I have a strong hands-on background in Rust, Go, Python, and C/C++, spanning protocol design, backend services, networking, automation, and performance-sensitive systems. I combine deep engineering capability with architectural judgment and technical leadership, including shaping designs, guiding implementation, mentoring engineers, and driving difficult work through to production. I’m actively developing DNTLS, a decentralized naming and trust layer for autonomous agents and AI systems, and I bring a track record of patented software and systems innovation to every project.…I'm Steven Johnson, a senior systems engineer, systems architect, and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing and building complex production systems across distributed infrastructure, backend platforms, embedded environments, and high-availability operations. I have a strong hands-on background in Rust, Go, Python, and C/C++, spanning protocol design, backend services, networking, automation, and performance-sensitive systems. I combine deep engineering capability with architectural judgment and technical leadership, including shaping designs, guiding implementation, mentoring engineers, and driving difficult work through to production. I’m actively developing DNTLS, a decentralized naming and trust layer for autonomous agents and AI systems, and I bring a track record of patented software and systems innovation to every project.

Available to hire

I’m Steven Johnson, a senior systems engineer, systems architect, and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing and building complex production systems across distributed infrastructure, backend platforms, embedded environments, and high-availability operations.

I have a strong hands-on background in Rust, Go, Python, and C/C++, spanning protocol design, backend services, networking, automation, and performance-sensitive systems. I combine deep engineering capability with architectural judgment and technical leadership, including shaping designs, guiding implementation, mentoring engineers, and driving difficult work through to production. I’m actively developing DNTLS, a decentralized naming and trust layer for autonomous agents and AI systems, and I bring a track record of patented software and systems innovation to every project.

Skills

Experience Level

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Expert

Intermediate

Intermediate

Language

English

Fluent

Work Experience

Founder & Principal Engineer at Sakura Industries LLC

January 1, 2025 - Present

Founded Sakura Industries LLC to commercialize patented technologies and provide contract engineering, systems architecture, and advisory services. Led the design of DNTLS as a hybrid on-chain/off-chain system, defined protocol, trust, and identity models; architected cryptographic and resolver foundations; implemented reproducible build/delivery pipelines; and guided architectural decision-making across protocol, infrastructure, and integration layers. Wrote production-grade Go, Rust, and Python components and provided technical leadership across distributed systems and production engineering.

Technical Architecture Manager at IOG Singapore (Input Output Global) — Project Catalyst

July 1, 2022 - February 1, 2026

Technical architecture lead for Cardano’s decentralized treasury and innovation fund platform (Project Catalyst), managing $150M+ in community funding. Led distributed systems architecture, protocol design, and engineering pipelines across governance, voting, treasury, and decentralized data systems. Implemented on-chain/off-chain RBAC for secure hybrid participation; stabilized Jörmungandr-based production voting; designed a decentralized proposal and voting database; engineered a high-performance chain indexing/traversal system using PostgreSQL and Scylla/Cassandra; co-developed Hermes, a decentralized application node; designed reproducible CI/CD pipelines around Dagger and GitHub Actions.

Senior Engineer / Technical Lead at Helpon Inc. (Canada)

January 1, 2020 - July 1, 2022

Senior engineer and technical lead for the Privacy Hero secure home router product. Built backend services in Go, Python, and Rust; maintained and extended a large production Go codebase for routing and firewall engines; designed REST and WebSocket APIs with OpenAPI/AsyncAPI; migrated workloads to GCP; developed embedded firmware components, low-level router software, and an unbrickable firmware loader; built an OpenWRT-based build system; led architecture across backend, firmware, and infrastructure.

Managing Director / Technical Lead at Sakura Industries Limited

January 1, 2004 - December 1, 2024

APAC-based technology and IP commercialization company. Directed commercialization of patented and trade secret technology across licensing, product supply, and technical delivery. Managed software maintenance, product supply, engineering delivery, and customer support; delivered Rust, Go, Python, MySQL/PostgreSQL-backed backend services and embedded distributed systems; oversaw manufacturing and licensing relationships.

Managing Director / Lead Systems Designer at Neurizon Pty Ltd

January 1, 2000 - December 1, 2007

Founded hardware and software engineering company delivering gaming, wagering, jackpot, and RGB LED display systems for regulated casino markets. Led end-to-end engineering across embedded software, Linux-based infrastructure, protocol design, hardware/software integration, and production. Engaged with major clients and licensed technology to IGT, Konami, Mikohn, and others; designed gaming, jackpot, and venue communications networks; built real-time, fault-tolerant systems; invented patented jackpot awarding technologies.