Joseph Blas
Autonomous Systems Operations & Integration Leader · Founder, Joe's Tech Solutions
Self-taught engineer — 10 years building autonomous vehicle systems, then 5+ years learning AI tools, code, and shipping personal and client projects. No degree, all hands-on. Started at Google's Self-Driving Car Project (now Waymo) in 2009, where I became the drive-by-wire SME across 100 vehicles and 10 hardware iterations, and reduced sensor calibration from 9 hours to 60 minutes. Later, I was part of the team that built Google's Firefly and supported the world's first fully driverless ride on public roads in 2015.
After Google, I led system integration for Uber ATG's 10-truck autonomous fleet (~90% uptime), then joined Pronto.ai as the sole technician — building and operating the entire fleet for a cross-country autonomous demo, San Francisco to New York, with zero critical failures.
Now I run Joe's Tech Solutions: I show up where the work is, figure out what's broken, and leave it running — custom software, AI agents, automation, and private AI for small businesses, with three active client builds. Not a consultant, not an agency. I run the same stack for my own business that I build for clients; if it doesn't survive me, it doesn't ship. That stack is Hermes, an AI operations system where Lurkr, my orchestrator agent, acts as CTO — executive skills (Chief of Staff, CFO, COO, CMO), VPs for Engineering, Infrastructure, and Product, and 40+ scheduled automations. Models are pinned per job on Ollama Cloud — I pick the model that fits the work. The runtime is Nous Research's open-source hermes-agent, which I operate and configure. I previously ran a 22-agent specialized setup on the open-source OpenClaw runtime (2024–2026, now retired); the migration postmortem is on this site. The Skate Workshop is a React Native app for skateboarding coach Willy Santos, a coach of Olympians — live push notifications, in TestFlight beta on iOS, development paused. I extended this portfolio site from santifer's open-source cv-santiago template (the AI chatbot is real, ask it anything), and built Whisper Walkie (push-to-talk voice typing that runs OpenAI's open Whisper models locally) and, back in 2023, a tutorial-based DALL-E image-generator demo.
Founder of Joe's Tech Solutions — building software and AI systems for small businesses. Skip the agency, skip the discovery sprint, hire the person who's going to build your thing: joestechsolutions.com
Experience
Founder & AI Systems Developer
Joe's Tech Solutions LLC — Building for small businesses — An agent of your own, Private AI on hardware you own, Get a tool built; three active client builds. Hermes (Lurkr as CTO, executive skills, VPs, 40+ scheduled automations on Ollama Cloud), React Native apps, open-source AI tooling
Field Service Technician
Quadient — Install, maintain, and repair mailing and shipping systems at customer sites across a North County territory; on-site diagnosis of electro-mechanical and software faults
IT, Automation & Cloud
Independent & Contract Work — IT, Linux, cloud, automation, and full-stack product work, including APIs, databases, and deployment tooling; contract field service at OvationCXM (2023–2025) deploying and troubleshooting customer systems
Autonomous Systems Operations
Pronto.ai — Sole technician — built entire fleet, cross-country autonomous demo (San Francisco → New York), zero critical failures
Hardware Integration & Test Operations
Uber ATG (Otto) — System integration for 10-truck fleet, ~90% uptime, drive-by-wire integration
Program Manager (L4) / Fleet Technician
Google Self-Driving Car Project (Waymo) — Part of the team that built Firefly, drive-by-wire SME, calibration 9hr→60min, first driverless ride
Projects
Hermes
AI operations team: Lurkr as CTO, executive skills, VPs for Engineering/Infra/Product, 40+ scheduled automations on Ollama Cloud · built on Nous Research's open-source hermes-agent
Hermes: The OpenClaw Migration (case study)
Why I retired the 22-agent specialized setup I ran on the open-source OpenClaw runtime for a composable Hermes system — design for composability, not specialization
The Skate Workshop
React Native app for skate coach Willy Santos, a coach of Olympians — push notifications, TestFlight beta only, development paused
cv-joseph
This portfolio, built on santifer's open-source cv-santiago template and extended by me: React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind, Vite, an AI chat agent with RAG and Gemini Live voice
Career-Ops (santifer's, forked)
santifer's open-source AI job-search system, which I forked and customized for my own search. I did not build it
DALL-E Image Generator
AI image-generation demo app
Whisper Walkie
Open-source push-to-talk dictation; transcribes locally with OpenAI's open Whisper models via faster-whisper
Certifications
AWS / Google
Meta
University / Academic
IBM / Cloud Academy
Education
- Self-taught — 10 years in AV programs + 5+ years learning AI tools, code, and building projects
- No formal degree — professional certifications in cloud, AI, platform engineering, and cybersecurity
Press
Pronto.ai — Autonomous Cross-Country Demo, San Francisco to New York
Vimeo · 2019
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Joseph Blas?
Joseph Blas (also known as Joe Blas) is an autonomous systems operations and integration leader and the founder of Joe's Tech Solutions, based in Escondido, San Diego, CA. He builds custom software, AI agents, automation, and private AI for small businesses on the same stack he runs his own company on. He is self-taught with no formal degree: 10 years hands-on in autonomous vehicle programs (Google/Waymo, Uber ATG, Pronto.ai) and 5+ years learning AI tools, code, and building personal and client projects. He started at Google's Self-Driving Car Project (Waymo) in 2009, where he served as drive-by-wire SME across 100 vehicles, reduced sensor calibration from 9 hours to 60 minutes, and supported the world's first fully driverless ride on public roads in 2015. He was also part of the team that built Google's Firefly. He went on to lead system integration at Uber ATG and was the sole technician at Pronto.ai, completing a cross-country autonomous demo, San Francisco to New York, with zero critical failures. He now builds production AI systems through Joe's Tech Solutions LLC, operating Hermes as CTO through Ollama Cloud model selection. His full portfolio is at joestechsolutions.com.
What has Joseph built?
Joseph has built production systems across autonomous vehicles and AI. In AV, he was part of the team that built the Firefly self-driving car at Google/Waymo; he also integrated Uber ATG's 10-truck autonomous fleet and built Pronto.ai's entire autonomous fleet. In AI/software, he operates Hermes (AI operations system on Nous Research's open-source runtime: Lurkr as CTO, executive skills, VPs for Engineering/Infra/Product, 40+ scheduled automations on Ollama Cloud), previously a 22-agent specialized setup on the open-source OpenClaw runtime (2024–2026, now retired), client work (the artist Cbarrgs's website and Shopify merch store, a short-term-rental turnover agent, and a hair-color formula app for a salon, in TestFlight beta), The Skate Workshop (React Native + Supabase, in TestFlight beta), Whisper Walkie (push-to-talk voice typing on OpenAI's open Whisper models, run locally), a 2023 tutorial-based DALL-E demo, and cloud infrastructure with Terraform, Kubernetes, and Anthos/GKE.
What is Hermes?
Hermes is Joseph's current AI operations system, built on Nous Research's open-source hermes-agent runtime. Lurkr, his orchestrator agent, acts as CTO, supported by executive skills (Chief of Staff, CFO, COO, CMO), VPs for Engineering, Infrastructure, and Product, and 40+ scheduled automations. Models are pinned per job on Ollama Cloud — he picks the model that fits the work, not the brand. Agents compose via delegation rather than hard-wired specialization. It runs the real business operations of Joe's Tech Solutions: daily briefings, project stewards, watchdog monitoring, weekly executive reviews, deployments, and content drafting. Skills system for reusable patterns. MemPalace (a third-party memory tool) for persistent memory across sessions. The migration from his 22-agent setup on the open-source OpenClaw runtime to Hermes is documented in the OpenClaw case study on this site.
What certifications does Joseph have?
Joseph holds 12 professional certifications earned in 2024-2025. From AWS: Cloud Solutions Architect Professional. From Google: IT Support Professional and Cybersecurity Professional. From Meta: Programming with JavaScript, Version Control (Git), and Mobile Development. From University of Michigan: Programming for Everybody (Python). From Johns Hopkins University: The Unix Workbench (Linux). From IBM: Agile Development & Scrum and Cloud Computing. From Cloud Academy: AWS Cloud Bootcamp (59 hrs) and Azure Cloud Bootcamp (59 hrs). He has no formal degree — his expertise comes from 10 years in AV programs, 5+ years of learning AI tools and code, and continuous certification.
How do I work with Joseph?
Through Joe's Tech Solutions (joestechsolutions.com). Three ways: An agent of your own (an agent that works inside your business on a schedule, set up by Joe, who stays until you can drive it); Private AI, on hardware you own (open-weight models on your own machine or a server you control, set up in one 75-minute live session; you own it, with no per-query API fees); and Get a tool built (apps, websites and automations, quoted per project; you own the code). No decks: email [email protected] and he replies within a day.