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OVERVIEW

Hi, I'm James. Principal Software Engineer.

I design and build resiliency systems for real-time payments, then experiment on the side with ML, analytics, and projects rooted in sport and motion.

Technology — Go • AWS • Observability Finance — Payments • Analytics Sport — Tennis • Motion • Hardware
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WORK

Dashboard of systems & side projects.

Use the filters to view projects through the lens of technology, finance, or sport.

Production System
Go AWS — ECS, Route 53 CloudWatch & New Relic

Resiliency Engine — Card Authorizations

Go-based engine monitoring multi-tenant ECS clusters across regions and availability zones, evaluating health from CloudWatch & New Relic and orchestrating traffic via Route 53 for mission-critical card authorization flows.

  • Cell-based routing across e1a/e1b/e1c and w2a/w2b/w2c.
  • Configurable Learn/Action modes for safe automation.
  • DynamoDB-backed state for visibility and auditability.
Platform & SRE

Kubernetes Platform — Mission-Critical Payments

Management and ownership of Kubernetes infrastructure for Capital One’s mission-critical payment processing systems, including cluster operations, reliability, and deployment workflows across multiple environments.

Kubernetes Terraform Jenkins ArgoCD Splunk · New Relic · OTEL AWS
CI/CD & Validation

Qualcomm — Hardware Validation Pipelines

Built robust enterprise-grade CI/CD pipelines to enable automated hardware farm and operator-initiated validations for Qualcomm system validation engineers.

Python Trace32 Jenkins Splunk Cron Emulation platform
All About Tennis website
Ecommerce & Brand

All About Tennis — Scottsdale

Modern web presence, media, and merchandising for a family-owned tennis & pickleball shop.

Shopify Analytics Tennis
Tesla CNN project
ML / Computer Vision

Tesla CNN — Keras/TensorFlow

Custom convolutional neural network on a curated Tesla dataset with augmentation and careful tuning.

Python Keras TensorFlow
Tello Drone senior project
Computer Vision

Tello Drone — YOLO & OpenCV

DJI Tello controlled via Python APIs, with YOLO & OpenCV for face tracking and motion-aware control.

Python OpenCV YOLO
PoseNet demo
Motion & Web ML

PoseNet — TensorFlow.js

In-browser pose estimation to track human motion in real time via TensorFlow.js.

JavaScript TensorFlow.js
Apple vs Microsoft financial workbook
Finance & Analytics

Apple vs Microsoft — Financial Workbook

Comparative workbook analyzing key performance indicators and long-term trends for two major tech giants.

Excel modeling Fundamentals
Simulation
Python PyTorch PyGame

Self-Driving Car Simulation — PyTorch

Simulation using Python, PyTorch & PyGame to explore navigation, decision-making, and control logic in a constrained environment. A playground for thinking about stability and feedback.

Watch demo video ↗
Knapp Scholars webpage
Storytelling

MIT x USD — Knapp Scholars

Feature page for a computational origami collaboration, blending math, art, and narrative to showcase research.

Content Design
NFT & Creative Coding

Phantom Barons — Cardano NFT Collection

Personal project generating a randomized NFT collection on the Cardano network, with a Python art pipeline and a React front end, storing assets and metadata via IPFS.

Python React Cardano IPFS Generative art
Audio & Hardware

Music Visualizer — Arduino & LED Strips

Side project using Arduino, acoustic sensors, and programmable LED strips to transform music into real-time light patterns — effectively turning a room into a live visualizer.

Arduino C / C++ Acoustic sensors LED strips Real-time visuals
Resy Snipe Bot demo preview
Automation

Resy Snipe Bot — NYC Reservations

Personal Go-based bot that monitors Resy availability and automatically snipes hard-to-get restaurant reservations in New York City when slots open.

Go HTTP / APIs Scheduling Automation Watch demo gif ↗
TECH FINANCE SPORT
ABOUT

Systems thinker with a sports engine.

I'm a systems-minded engineer with a background in competitive tennis and a dual focus on Computer Science and Finance. That mix shapes how I think about risk, reliability, and the stories data can tell.

I care about architectures that stay composed under load: multi-AZ routing, health evaluation, observability, and controlled failure modes. I also enjoy projects that connect code to the physical world—whether that's motion, audio, sport, or people using a product in real time.

FOCUS

Resiliency, SRE, and real-time systems for payments and financial flows.

STACK

Go, Python, AWS (ECS, Route 53, DynamoDB, CloudWatch), New Relic, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions.

Portrait of James Ponwith
Based in New York City. Outside work, you'll usually find me on a tennis court, planning the next trip, or tinkering with side projects that mix tech, sport, and storytelling.
CONTACT

Let’s build something resilient.

Open to new roles, collaborations, and conversations around resiliency engineering, payment systems, analytics, and creative technical projects in tech, finance, and sport.

Email me
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