Duane Edmonds
~ ❭ whoami
Software & systems engineer and engineering leader with 25+ years of experience building high-consequence products and the teams that ship them — across medical devices, robotics, lab automation, and AI.
I work at the seams: hardware and software, operations and data, and now humans and agents. My focus is making complex systems more reliable, inspectable, and easier to improve.
Currently consulting on a 34-axis ROS2/C++ robotic cell with stereo vision and a React/TypeScript operator GUI. Author of enso, an open-source harness for AI-assisted software engineering that turns one-off agent sessions into persistent, inspectable workflows.
Previously led engineering at SummerBio (128,000 tests/day at $13/test, 3x under market) and Ekso Bionics (first FDA-cleared robotic exoskeleton, 112+ million steps as of end of 2019, 30+ countries).
~ ❭ contact
Oakland, CA | 510.393.4416 | duane.edmonds@gmail.com | dedmonds.co | github.com/usefulmove
~ ❭ cat HIGHLIGHTS.md
– Currently building a 34-axis ROS2/C++ robotic system with 8 stereo cameras and a React/TypeScript operator GUI — defining the interfaces across motion control, vision services, and operator workflows, and using enso in daily engineering to keep context, decisions, and tooling persistent and inspectable.
– Owned EksoNR 0-to-1: NSF proof-of-concept to FDA clearance to global launch (30+ countries, 112+ million steps as of end of 2019). Established telemetry from day one — enabling global usage analytics and rapid root-cause investigation at scale.
– Led engineering at SummerBio’s CLIA-certified diagnostics lab, unifying automation, LIMS, and data architecture to achieve 128,000 tests/day at $13/test (market norm: $38–60). Built Salesforce-to-Snowflake pipeline to reduce transactional load and enable real-time operations visibility.
– Authored enso, an open-source harness for AI-assisted engineering. It makes workflows persistent, inspectable, and self-improving by keeping context, decisions, and tools explicit on disk.
~ ❭ cat INTERESTS.md
– AI-assisted engineering that improves real software work, not just demos.
– Reliable systems at critical seams: motion control, vision, data pipelines, operator tooling, and agent workflows.
– Instrumentation, telemetry, and feedback loops that make complex behavior legible.
– Small, composable tools and workflows that compound over time.
– Technical environments that are ambiguous, high-consequence, and worth structuring well.
~ ❭ strengths --concise
– Makes complex systems legible: clear interfaces, explicit assumptions, strong feedback loops.
– Works across layers — embedded systems, robotics, data pipelines, web software, and AI-assisted workflows.
– Builds durable engineering leverage through tooling, process, and architecture.
– Calm technical leader in ambiguous and high-consequence environments.
– Brings AI into software engineering in ways that are practical, inspectable, and trustworthy.
~ ❭ skills
Systems & Architecture:
Systems engineering, robotics, automation, mechatronics, embedded systems (C, C++, Rust, Linux), ROS2, motion control, WebSocket protocols, real-time camera streaming, Android kiosk / WebView deployment, simulation and system modeling.
AI, Data & Software:
AI-assisted software engineering, LLM context engineering and agentic AI systems, full-stack development (React, Node.js, JavaScript/TypeScript, Figma), data analysis and visualization (SQL, PostgreSQL, DuckDB, Python, Polars, R), machine learning/deep learning (PyTorch), computer vision (Torchvision), analytics-driven operations improvement, CI/CD (Bitbucket Pipelines).
Leadership & Strategy:
Organizational scaling, data-informed decision-making, medical device development, design controls, risk management, regulatory compliance, lab automation, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), program and project management, cross-functional leadership, executive communication, coaching and team development.
Standards & Compliance:
21 CFR 820 (QSR), ISO 13485 (QMS), Medical Device Directive 93/42/EEC, IEC 62304 (Software Development), ISO 14971 (Risk Management), IEC 60601-1 (Safety and Essential Performance), HIPAA, MEDDEV 2.7/1 (Clinical Evaluation).