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Craig Merry

One-person team building the OpenCastor robotics ecosystem with Claude Code — manifest spec, language SDKs, MCP server, Agent SDK dispatcher, public compliance registry. Day job: systems engineering for municipal utilities. Deaf developer, accessibility-first.

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Based in Sacramento, CA · [email protected] · (916) 996-7105 · craigmerry.com · linkedin.com/in/craigmerry

Snapshot

Building the OpenCastor robotics ecosystem (11 active repos, ~1,981 tests across the three core projects, 5 EU AI Act-aligned registry endpoints live) as a one-person team using Claude Code. April 2026 alone: 1,083 commits and 67 GitHub releases shipped. 15+ years of enterprise systems experience underneath. Translate research into shipping infrastructure with clear documentation developers can trust.

Core Expertise

  • • Product strategy, research, GTM, demo tooling
  • • Computer vision, LLM/RAG, predictive analytics
  • • SharePoint Online, SPFx, Power Platform, governance
  • • Documentation, developer enablement, accessibility reviews

Experience

Systems Engineer

Northern California Power Agency

2022 – Present · Roseville, CA

Lead SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and automation initiatives that keep member utilities collaborating securely while modernizing legacy workflows.

  • Leading Microsoft 365 migrations and SPFx development to modernize legacy workflows.
  • Building Power Platform automation to scale collaboration and governance for member utilities.
  • Driving developer enablement and documentation to improve internal engineering practices.

AI Systems Engineer & Product Partner

Independent AI Projects & Advocacy

Ongoing · Remote / Sacramento, CA

Prototype and deploy AI solutions (computer vision, sensor fusion, accessibility tech) for public safety orgs and deaf/HoH communities.

  • Built OpenCastor, a universal embodied AI runtime spanning providers, channels, safety controls, and robot hardware integration.
  • Designed Dronevade edge AI architecture, including data collection, quantized models, and telemetry pipeline.
  • Built XR captioning demos and accessibility playbooks to help deaf/HoH communities participate in virtual meetings.
  • Advised product and engineering leaders on evaluating risk, scoping pilots, and crafting GTM narratives for AI features.

Application Administrator Lead / Cloud Implementation Specialist

California Earthquake Authority

2018 – 2022 · Sacramento, CA

Led Microsoft 365 modernization for a statewide insurer, covering SharePoint Online, Dynamics, Azure DevOps, and automation.

  • Built PowerShell + Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines; cut release time by ~75% while improving documentation and training.
  • Drove migration strategy, backlog grooming, and stakeholder enablement across IT, compliance, and field teams.
  • Delivered executive dashboards, KPI reporting, and UX research to prioritize collaboration features.

Founder & Product Lead (part-time)

Beacon Safety Co.

2014 – 2016 · Sacramento, CA

Created LiDAR-based hazard detection prototypes, launched safety-focused apps, and managed vendor contracts and pilots.

  • Won Startup Weekend Sacramento (hardware) by demonstrating real-time hazard detection.
  • Incubated MapMe.io and BikeBus.app, running customer discovery, MVP launches, and analytics instrumentation.
  • Coordinated manufacturing, firmware, and design partners while ensuring accessibility remained core to the product brief.

Earlier

  • Apple (Ops Lead) – shipped collaboration tooling and process governance.
  • Purple Communications – analytics dashboards built with Power BI, Python, React.
  • Sutter Health – HRIS / SharePoint lead, Tier 3 support, portal migrations.
  • J4 Systems – SharePoint developer for enterprise client projects.
  • State of California – developer and trainer who automated 1000+ hours of manual work.

Project Highlights

Selected AI work

View portfolio

OpenCastor Ecosystem

Declarative robotics, Anthropic-native — 11 repos

ROBOT.md manifest spec + CLI, MCP server, BYOK Claude Agent SDK dispatcher, Claude Code plugin marketplace, voice pendant, autoresearch eval harness, RCAN protocol with Python and TypeScript SDKs, public registry with 5 EU AI Act-aligned endpoints live. One-person team, Claude Code-paired.

Case study

Robot Registry Foundation

Public registry for AI-driven robots

Founded and operate robotregistryfoundation.org. Five EU AI Act-aligned endpoints live (FRIA, safety benchmarks, IFU, incident reports, EU register). Ed25519-signed registrations, structured RRN URIs.

Case study

OpenCastor (reference runtime)

Tiered-brain embodied AI runtime — peer to robot-md

Reference RCAN runtime: 73+ releases, 3,441 tests, hardware auto-detection, multi-provider routing, swarm orchestration. First-class peer to robot-md against the same ROBOT.md.

Case study

LiveCaptionsXR

Spatial captions for XR collaboration

On-device speech recognition with spatial anchors so deaf/HoH participants can follow conversations inside headsets.

Case study

AI / ML

  • Computer vision (YOLO, OpenCV), LLM/RAG, time-series forecasting
  • Edge deployment: TensorRT, Jetson, Raspberry Pi, quantization + telemetry
  • Data strategy, labeling plans, evaluation metrics, and MLOps handoff

Product & GTM

  • Vision, story-driven roadmaps, research sprints
  • GTM narrative, developer documentation, demo tooling
  • Metrics, instrumentation plans, ethical AI checkpoints

Enterprise Platforms

  • SharePoint Online, SPFx, Microsoft Graph, Power Platform
  • Azure DevOps, Purview governance, Dynamics 365
  • Process automation, security reviews, compliance alignment

Code & Tools

  • Python, TypeScript, React, C++, Bash/PowerShell
  • Docker, GitHub Actions, REST/GraphQL, WebRTC
  • Hardware prototyping: microcontrollers, sensors, robotics SDKs

Education

Academic

  • B.A. Political Science · University of California, Davis

    Focus: conflict, security, and policy analysis.

Certifications

Credentials

  • Scrimba AI Engineer Certificate (2025)
  • Azure AI Engineer Associate – in progress

Let's discuss your roadmap.

I love collaborating on projects that blend AI, accessibility, and enterprise scale. Share a brief, and I will follow up with next steps and prototypes.

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