# Jeffrey V. Johnson, Ph.D. **Building foundations for reliable, specification-driven agentic development** Specifications, bounded agent systems, reproducible environments, verification Homer, Alaska · jeffrey@jvjohnson.dev · github.com/verlyn13 · linkedin.com/in/drjeffreyjohnson ## Summary Ph.D. mathematician and systems builder focused on the infrastructure that makes agent-assisted development reliable: typed contracts, explicit permissions, reproducible environments, automated checks, and reviewable evidence. I apply these controls while building applications, data pipelines, evaluation systems, and infrastructure. My strongest fit is research engineering in agent systems, developer infrastructure, model evaluation, and safeguards. ## Agent-development infrastructure ### Host Capability Substrate - typed capability and evidence contracts **TypeScript, Zod, JSON Schema, GitHub Actions** - Built 46 Zod entity schemas compiled to 67 generated JSON Schemas, with about 500 tests. - Modeled host capabilities, operations, execution contexts, policy decisions, provenance-typed evidence, approvals, leases, audit chains, and scoped authorization grants. - Wrote a 19-invariant governance charter and four-ring architecture, enforced by import boundaries and one CI gate for policy, boundary, secret, and schema-drift checks. - The public repository demonstrates the typed model and source boundaries, not universal host-level runtime enforcement. Public proof: https://github.com/jefahnierocks/host-capability-substrate ### Agentic Architecture Audit - specification and drift checks for agent-operated codebases **Specification and Python tooling** - Authored a two-stage `audit-spec` of 2,075 lines that keeps evidence collection separate from judgment. - Defined an 11-dimension rubric, 12 JSON output schemas, and a prioritization model based on severity, confidence, and weight. - Built a stdlib-only Python drift linter with 10 deterministic checks and a 27-case negative self-test in pre-commit and CI. Public proof: https://github.com/verlyn13/agentic-architecture-audit ### Governance and agent-control architecture - federated authority for agent-assisted work **An anonymized private case study; OpenTofu, OPA/Rego, TypeScript, Cloudflare, Hetzner, Proxmox** - Designed a multi-repository architecture that separates human decision rights, agent permissions, identity and authorization, infrastructure enforcement, runtime admission, and repository-local authority. - Modeled agent authority as the intersection of mandate, available capability, and credential reach, with structured, secret-free handbacks for human judgment or privileged work. - Implemented selected controls including 26 OPA/conftest plan rules, repository governance as code, Zero Trust infrastructure, and scheduled drift checks. - Selected controls are operational; runtime admission is source-tested rather than deployed across the organization. This is a single-operator case study, not an enterprise-adoption claim. Public case study: https://jvjohnson.dev/projects/governance-agent-control.html ## Selected applications and evaluations ### Agentic-Coding Evaluation Lab - fail-closed evaluation evidence **Public methodology and verification prototype; Python, Quarto, JSON contracts** - Built and published a model-evaluation methodology and verification prototype that preserves evidence and withholds a recommendation when scientific prerequisites are incomplete. - Built a draft evidence contract and a separate verifier that independently recalculates a synthetic `NOT_EVALUABLE` outcome and rejects missing, inconsistent, or altered evidence. - Current evidence covers framework behavior and synthetic conformance, not a powered real-model result or promotion recommendation. Methodology and evidence: https://jvjohnson.dev/eval-lab-methodology/ ### Budget Triage - financial evidence workbench **Private working prototype; Bun, TypeScript, Hono, PostgreSQL; not deployed to production** - Built a financial evidence workbench for statements, receipts, and connected-account data with deterministic-first processing and human review. - Implemented exact monetary arithmetic, tenant-scoped atomic persistence, append-only decision records, authentication, Plaid, Infisical, and OpenTelemetry. - Built a synthetic known-answer and service-observation harness. Its current result is 6 passing and 9 pending assertions, so it remains incomplete and uncertified. - Prepared a sanitized, MIT-licensed public source candidate that passed its full validation gate on 2026-07-18. It is intended for employer exploration after final operator review; no public source link or contribution policy is available yet. Public-safe project page: https://jvjohnson.dev/projects/budget-triage.html ### ScopeCam - native Android UVC camera application **Private Android/Kotlin/Jetpack Compose/C++20/JNI/NDK/USB/UVC application** - Built a multi-module Android microscope application spanning Compose UI, Kotlin orchestration, a native C++ camera engine, USB lifecycle, persistence, diagnostics, and physical-device verification. - Diagnosed a camera-replug ANR across the JVM/native teardown boundary and implemented a device-verified recovery with the remaining leak tradeoff documented. - Delivered a signed client alpha; the private product is not broadly released. Public-safe project page: https://jvjohnson.dev/projects/scopecam.html ### Dicee - representative delivered software **Rust, WebAssembly, SvelteKit, Cloudflare Durable Objects, WebSockets** - Built and deployed a family multiplayer game with a Rust-to-WebAssembly rules engine, realtime state through Cloudflare Durable Objects and WebSockets, and a SvelteKit client. - Public source and a live deployment demonstrate end-to-end delivery; traffic, performance, bundle-size, and current test-count claims remain withheld. Public project: https://jvjohnson.dev/projects/dicee.html ## Technical skills - **Languages:** Python, TypeScript, SQL, Bash, Kotlin, C/C++, Ruby. - **Contracts and controls:** Zod, JSON Schema, OPA/Rego, OpenTofu, typed authorization, sandboxing, egress policy, provenance, and CI-enforced conformance checks. - **Agent and evaluation systems:** model and harness evaluation, evidence contracts, OpenAI-compatible gateways, provider routing, coding-agent workflows, and trace/provenance pipelines. - **Infrastructure and data:** PostgreSQL, Supabase, TimescaleDB, Redis, pgvector, Cloudflare Zero Trust, Hetzner, Proxmox, Docker, GitHub Actions, self-hosted runners, OpenTelemetry, Infisical, and 1Password. - **Native and application systems:** Android, Jetpack Compose, USB/UVC, JNI/NDK, CMake, and WebAssembly. - **Mathematics and statistics:** functional analysis, applied statistics, Wilson intervals, bootstrap confidence intervals, and paired sign tests. ## Professional experience ### Associate Professor of Mathematics (tenured) - Kenai Peninsula College, University of Alaska Anchorage **Homer, Alaska | August 2017-present** Previously American University in Cairo, 2014-2017; University of Montana, 2008-2014. - Teach undergraduate mathematics and statistics, including calculus and applied statistics; full teaching-and-service appointment; awarded tenure in 2023. - Consult for local non-profit organizations on statistical interpretation and study design. - Communicate technical and mathematical ideas to audiences with widely varying backgrounds. ### Independent systems engineer and researcher (self-directed) **Self-directed; Happy Patterns LLC product entity | Homer, Alaska | 2023-present** - Build and maintain a multi-repository engineering program for reliable, specification-driven agent development across applications, data pipelines, evaluation systems, and infrastructure. - Develop repository contracts, managed human and agent shell environments, typed authority models, and automated verification gates. - Designed and operate selected controls from an anonymized, single-operator governance and agent-control architecture spanning policy-as-code, IaC, Zero Trust networking, local and remote servers, and credential custody. ## Education **Ph.D., Mathematics - University of Montana, Missoula, MT | 2013** Dissertation: *Peripherally-Multiplicative Spectral Preservers Between Function Algebras*. ## Publications - Cadieux, J. M., Pyhala, S. L., & Johnson, J. V. (2023). Pediatric Walking Speed Normal Reference Values in a Local Population. *Pediatric Physical Therapy*, 35(3), 326-331. Led the statistical analysis. - Johnson, J. V., & Tonev, T. (2012). Spectral Conditions for Composition Operators on Algebras of Functions. *Communications in Mathematics and Applications*, 3(1).