AI solutions architect

I build systems that catch confident AI failures.

I turn messy business problems into products, semantic systems, and agent workflows with approval, evidence, and safe failure built in.

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Dan Johnson outdoors in an olive collared shirt
Dan Johnson Lead AI Solutions Engineer Builder of reliable AI delivery systems

Guided presentation | 2 min 42 sec

What I build Chapter 1 of 5 AI-generated narration using Dan's authorized voice.
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What I build

I build systems that catch confident AI failures. The work on this site spans enterprise AI delivery, a shipped iPhone product, and the agents I use every day. I take messy business problems and turn them into working products, semantic systems, and agent workflows. Approval, evidence, and safe failure are built into the way they operate.

Enterprise AI

In my day job, I build the delivery system behind enterprise AI. It starts with discovery and semantic modeling. From there, I build the Claude Code workflows, evaluation, approval gates, reversible writes, rollback, and final browser checks that make the system safe to operate.

Those controls caught two different ways a quality gate could approve the wrong answer. In one case, a query ran successfully but returned the wrong result. In another, a cached response made a failed fix look successful. I fixed both problems and added named regression tests so they stay fixed.

The same platform binds every change to the right target, keeps a person in the approval loop, makes writes reversible, and checks the result in the browser before users inherit the risk.

Ed and Taz

I built Ed on OpenClaw as a persistent personal agent. Ed keeps approved context, uses tools, handles scheduled work, and follows operating rules I defined.

My current agent environment runs on Hermes Agent, an open-source framework from Nous Research. I gave it durable memory and reusable skills. It can delegate coding work to local models, automate browsers and desktop apps, run scheduled tasks, and keep family and business profiles separate.

Taz is the private family coordination agent I built inside that environment. She works within a separate family boundary. She can use approved calendars and school information, create protected family files, and prepare messages. A parent must approve consequential actions before she takes them.

DimeVision

I built DimeVision, an AI-assisted coaching product for iPhone. A welder photographs a weld, and the app evaluates visible surface characteristics and returns practical feedback.

DimeVision is a training aid. It does not replace qualified inspection. I took it from industry discovery, through product development, to a working App Store release.

What I bring

My best work sits where business, data, product, and engineering meet. I take incomplete requirements, find the real problem behind them, and build a system that works in practice. Then I test it against real behavior and stay accountable through delivery.

I add the most value when a promising demonstration has to become something people can actually use and trust.

What are you hiring me to solve?

Select a role lens. The proof below changes with it.

Current brief

Turn ambiguous enterprise problems into working AI systems.

I connect discovery, architecture, implementation, evaluation, and delivery without handing the hard parts to another team.

Wrong answers caught Two false-pass paths found, fixed, and protected by regression tests
Reusable delivery A versioned workflow used across two enterprise engagements and one internal demo
Shipped product DimeVision taken from an industry problem to an iPhone product and App Store release

Proof, not profile copy.

Selected systems that show how I frame problems, build the machinery, and test what matters.

Enterprise AI delivery platform

From raw warehouse to validated natural-language answers.

I own a versioned delivery system that turns business context and warehouse structure into a tested semantic layer, with human approval before live writes.

Hard decision
Workflow rules are a version-controlled contract the agent cannot skip.
Result
A reusable platform used across two enterprise engagements and one internal demo.
Boundary
Human approval remains required before live writes.
Discover
Profile
Approve
Build
Validate
Improve

AI evaluation

The quality gate said pass. The answer was wrong.

I found two ways my own grader could certify a bad result, rebuilt the signal, and added regression tests for both.

Hard decision
Grade the answer, not whether the query ran.
Result
Two false-pass paths closed with named regression tests.
Boundary
An unverified result does not pass.

Agent reliability

Autonomy that has to earn permission.

A closed control loop with reversible writes, an isolated test environment, and an autonomy ladder gated on agreement with human judgment.

Hard decision
Make false-pass rate the binding constraint before autonomy expands.
Result
A working control-loop spine with reversible writes and certification gates.
Boundary
The live seam remains deliberately gated.
DimeVision, a shipped AI weld-analysis and coaching product for iPhone

DimeVision

From weld photo to practical coaching.

AI-assisted coaching for visible weld surface characteristics, taken from an industry problem to a working iPhone product and App Store release.

Result
Discovery, product design, implementation, and release owned end to end.
Boundary
A coaching aid, not a certified inspection.
Visit DimeVision

Built in my spare time

I build agents I actually depend on.

Ed and Taz are working agent products with different jobs, identities, and operating boundaries.

01

Built on OpenClaw

Ed

A persistent personal operating agent I built with memory, tools, scheduled work, safety rules, and production workflows.

  • Persistent context
  • Tool-driven execution
  • Scheduled operations
02

Built on Hermes Agent

Taz

A private family coordination agent with isolated context, approved calendars and school sources, protected files, and fresh parent approval before outbound messages.

  • Isolated family identity
  • Approved information sources
  • Parent-approved outbound actions

Platform architecture: Ed runs on OpenClaw. Taz runs inside the Hermes Agent environment I configured and extended with specialist skills, durable memory, local model delegation, computer use, scheduled work, and isolated profiles.

Evidence for the work.

Each item separates what I built, what I measured, and what still requires approval.

01

Agent decision records

Automatic, tamper-evident capture through editor hooks. One portable record that humans can read and machines can verify.

108 tests
02

Build-versus-design grader

An offline grader that reports both error and uncertainty, then names the exact repair instead of hiding behind a letter grade.

55 tests
03

Render-level verification

Three layers of checks ending in a live browser test, because configuration-valid is not the same as working.

24 chart types

How I operate

“The hard part is not getting AI to produce an answer. It is building a system that knows when the answer is wrong.”

Human approval is architecture.

Approval markers, frozen naming hashes, and review surfaces make the boundary mechanical rather than ceremonial.

Fail closed, with a way out.

Every hard gate needs a documented stand-down path. Otherwise operators disable the whole safety layer.

Verify the user's reality.

Offline checks catch structure. Platform checks catch deployment. Browser checks catch what the user actually sees.

Built across product, data, and operations.

A career spent translating between business questions and technical systems.

Current

Lead AI Solutions Engineer

App Orchid Inc.

Enterprise semantic layers, Claude Code delivery systems, AI evaluation, and workflow reliability.

Product

Founder and product builder

DimeVision

Built and shipped an AI product for weld analysis, coaching, and workforce training.

2016 - 2024

Magnit

Formerly PRO Unlimited | 7 yrs 7 mos
  1. Analytics Manager | Strategic AdvisoryApr 2023 - Apr 2024
  2. Reporting Solutions ManagerSep 2022 - Apr 2023
  3. Lead - Reporting SolutionsApr 2019 - Sep 2022
  4. Lead Analyst - Financial OperationsDec 2018 - Apr 2019
  5. Financial Operations AnalystOct 2016 - Dec 2018

Progressed from financial operations into analytics management, translating business requirements into reporting systems and decision tools.

Service

Royal Australian Air Force

Australian Defence Medal

Operational discipline and responsibility before software became the medium.

Bring me the messy middle.

The gap between an AI demo and a system people can trust is where I do my best work.

Case study

Case study

The problem

The hard decision

Verification

Result

Public-safe summary. Employer, client, platform, and internal implementation details are intentionally withheld.

Recruiter brief

Dan Johnson in 60 seconds