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Cadence Stephens

Contact

cadences@unc.edu cadencesystems.dev linkedin.com/in/cadencestephens

Available

Summer 2027 internships, May 10 – Aug 13, 2027

Education

Expected May 2028

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Data Science

  • Relevant Coursework Systems Fundamentals, Computer Organization, Internet Protocols, Theory of Computation
  • UNC Cycling 2026 USA Cycling Collegiate National Champion (Team Time Trial); club Treasurer, 2026–27

Experience

Jun 2026 – Present

RSM& (Retail Sports Marketing) Charlotte, NC

Lead Developer, R.96 (Contract) · Founder, Cadence Solutions LLC

  • Founded Cadence Solutions LLC, signed RSM& as its first client, scoped and planned R.96 with the CEO and COO, and pitched it to the board and majority shareholders.
  • Built R.96 in TypeScript (React, PostgreSQL), the ERP RSM& runs on: 115+ concurrent campaigns and 3,400+ activations in 40+ states for Walmart, Kroger, Celsius, and others.
  • Built RSM Field, on the App Store and web, replacing Formstack and giving RSM& a live link to its 130+ tour managers: each activation's numbers (samples, attendees, units sold) arrive with photos, consumer quotes, and field notes.
  • Shipped R.96 on Azure Container Apps (Docker, GitHub Actions, keyless deploys) with 2,600+ automated tests gating every release; integrated HubSpot, Microsoft Entra ID, Geotab, and Twilio.

Dec 2025 – Present

Prosystance Research Triangle, NC

Platform Engineer

  • Built and run Dentsys Cloud: one control plane for 75+ servers across 50+ dental and medical offices, including monitoring, backup and disaster recovery written in Go, partner security tools, and a client portal.
  • Moved servers from SSH polling to signed Go push agents, with robust alerting (debouncing, fleet-wide fault detection).
  • Built an agentless network scanner in Go with its own SNMP, NetBIOS, and ICMP parsers; a resident sensor mapped a pilot office's 6 subnets and 107 devices without credentials.
  • Designed zero-trust remote access with no inbound connections: SSO, 2FA, passkeys, IP allowlists, and edge firewall rules.
  • Built a private RAG assistant on a self-hosted GPU server so client data never reaches an outside AI vendor; retrieval accuracy rose from 12% to 83% passing, acing 524 of 571 real-world benchmark questions (92%).

May 2024 – Dec 2025

GP Connectivity Research Triangle, NC

IT Systems Technician (Part-time)

  • Supported IT for 50+ HIPAA-regulated dental and medical practices: built and deployed Supermicro servers (BIOS/UEFI, BMC) and VMs (LXC, Windows Server); led Cisco-to-UniFi conversions with segmented VLANs at two practices.
  • Troubleshot production issues across Active Directory, DHCP, and dental software (Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Dexis).

Projects

Nov 2025 – Present

Claude Code Agent Workflow Personal Project

  • Built the guardrails my AI agents work under on client production systems; had other agents try to break them, closed found gaps, and re-evaluated 1,490 real past executions.
  • Run my work through teams of AI agents (1,700+ agent runs in September): builders work to my written specs, a separate agent tries to break each build, and nothing merges until it passes; 4,900+ tests.
  • Gave my AI sessions a shared memory, so each picks up where the last stopped (180+ session logs, 500+ recorded decisions), and test each new safeguard on real past work first.

Skills

Languages
Python, Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL, Bash, C, Java
Frameworks & Data
React, Node.js (Hono), Flask, PostgreSQL, Redis, REST APIs
Cloud & Networking
Cloudflare (Workers, Zero Trust), Azure, AWS, Linux, Proxmox VE, ZFS, WireGuard, Tailscale
AI
Directing AI coding agents (Claude Code) with tests and review gates, context management, RAG, LLM evaluation

Who I am

“I want to learn, work with people I love, and have real positive impacts on my clients.”

Family
Huge on family. It’s where I learned what belonging on a team feels like, and it’s what I look for in one.
Impact
I aim high. I want to be where my work makes an actual difference.
Honest
I’d rather show you real work and who I actually am than a polished pitch.
Off the bike
Coffee, health and wellness, optimizing how I live and work, and travel.

ca·dencenoun

  1. 1The rate a cyclist turns the pedals.
  2. 2The rhythm a system keeps when it runs itself.
  3. 3Cadence Stephens.

Cadence keeps cadence.

2026UNC Cycling

USA Cycling Collegiate National Champion.

Men’s team time trial (club), with the fastest time of the day across club and varsity men’s teams. Treasurer of UNC Cycling, 2026–27, and 20+ hours a week of real work alongside school.

UNC Cycling team time trial: three riders in white and navy on a country road; Cadence is on the left

Team time trial, UNC Cycling. I’m on the left.

Expected May 2028Chapel Hill, NC

UNC Chapel Hill

Computer Science and Data Science, BS. Open to Summer 2027 internships, May 10 – Aug 13.

Coursework

  • Data Structures & Analysis
  • Systems Fundamentals
  • Models of Languages & Computation
  • Probability for Data Science
  • Discrete Math
  • Linear Algebra
  • Multivariable Calculus
  • Intro to Data Science
  • Ethics of AI

Spring 2027

  • Computer Organization
  • Internet Services & Protocols
  • Optimization with Applications in ML

What I’ve studied so far, and what’s next in Spring 2027.

My work

I build the systems real businesses run on, then stay to run them. I scope with the people who use them, orchestrate AI to build fast, and verify everything it writes.

Each project: what it is, and how I built it.

Jun 2026 – nowLead Developer (contract), as founder of Cadence Solutions LLC

R.96 for RSM&

The ERP behind RSM&’s experiential campaigns and pop-ups. Scoped and planned with the CEO and COO, and pitched to the board.

What it is

R.96 · prototypeSynthetic dataOpen
R.96 home screen for a demo user: a morning greeting, the line Ready, Set, Move, and an inbox of briefs

What it is: the ERP RSM& runs on, from a deal won in HubSpot to the field data its tour managers send in. Its prototype, live, on synthetic data.

Who it’s for: RSM&, an experiential marketing agency with 30 years of experience and more than 110,000 retail activations a year. Its own announcement puts R.96 at the center of its strategy: “a proprietary intelligence platform that connects audience insights with strategy, execution, conversion, amplification and measurement.” The press release

Tools for this part

  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Hono
  • PostgreSQL
  • Azure Container Apps
  • Docker
  • GitHub Actions
  • HubSpot API
  • Twilio
  • Microsoft Graph

A decision that mattered

Tests gate every release2,600+ automated tests across 300+ test files gate every release; only a passing build is shipped, as a Docker image, keyless (OIDC), to Azure.

Full case study

Dec 2025 – nowPlatform Engineer, Prosystance

Dentsys Cloud

One control plane for GP Connectivity’s 50+ dental and medical offices. Monitoring, alerting, backup and zero-trust access for 75+ servers, built and run end to end.

What it is

Dentsys Cloud · operator consoleSynthetic data
Dentsys Cloud operator console, the page for one demo office, Alpha Dental: its primary and backup servers and the table of workloads running on themThe demo office Alpha Dental in Dentsys Cloud on a phone: its primary and backup servers and their workloads

What it is: the operator console. One office’s page (synthetic data): its servers and the workloads running on them, from the one control plane.

Tools for this part

  • Python (Flask)
  • Preact
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • AWS
  • Go
  • Proxmox VE
  • ZFS

A decision that mattered

Push, never pollMonitoring moved from SSH polling to signed push agents in Go (PASETO). Pushes carry data, pulls carry commands, and nothing connects in to a client site.

Full case study

What it does

Dentsys Cloud · operator consoleSynthetic data
A remote console into a demo office's server, in the browser, with the keys sheet open

Remote access in the browser: a console into one of the office’s servers, with no inbound connections to the client site.

Tools for this part

  • Teleport
  • Cloudflare
  • SSO
  • 2FA
  • Passkeys
  • IP allowlists
  • Edge firewall rules

What it does

Dentsys Cloud · operator consoleSynthetic data
Configuration, alert routing: for each fleet and infrastructure alert, its level and where it is sent

Alert routing: each check’s alerts go where they should, from the alerting engine I built.

Tools for this part

  • Python
  • Go
  • Debouncing
  • Fleet-wide fault detection
  • Per-check routing

Private AI · What it is

Private AI

A private AI assistant, retrieval with embeddings and a reranker, on a self-hosted GPU server. Client data never reaches an outside AI vendor.

  • 12% → 83%retrieval accuracy, on 42 test queries
  • 524 of 571real-world benchmark questions passed (92%)

Tools for this part

  • RAG
  • Embeddings
  • Reranker
  • Golden-set evaluation
  • llama.cpp
  • RTX 3090
  • WireGuard

A decision that mattered

Kept off CloudflareThe AI server is reached over WireGuard and kept off Cloudflare, so no third party sees prompts.

Full case study

Network discovery · What it is

Network discovery

A sensor that maps an office’s network by itself.

  • 6subnets, mapped by the resident sensor at one pilot office
  • 107devices, found without credentials

Tools for this part

  • Go (standard library)
  • Python
  • masscan
  • nmap
  • SNMP
  • LLDP/CDP
  • mDNS
  • UniFi API
  • Teleport

A decision that mattered

Hand-written parsersSNMP/BER, NetBIOS, DNS and ICMP, written by hand, so the scanner needs nothing beyond Go’s standard library.

Full case study

May 2024 – Dec 2025IT Systems Technician (part-time)

GP Connectivity

What it is: the foundation. Hands-on infrastructure for 50+ medical and dental practices across the NC Triangle.

How I built it

Tools

  • Supermicro
  • BIOS/UEFI
  • BMC
  • LXC
  • Windows Server
  • Active Directory
  • Samba AD
  • DHCP
  • Cisco
  • Ubiquiti UniFi

A decision that mattered

From the metal upSupermicro servers set up from BIOS/UEFI and BMC, hosting LXC containers and Windows Server VMs.

Nov 2025 – nowPersonal Project

Claude Code Agent Workflow

The guard on production, and how it was tested. 11 holes found and fixed; 1,490 real past commands re-run.

The guard on production

Read-only by defaultAgents are read-only on the production monitoring server. One allow-list file is both the agent’s pre-command hook on the work machine and the read-only account’s login shell on the server.
Broken on purposeOther agents tried to break it and found 11 kinds of bypass. The worst: a line break smuggling a second command past both checks.
Re-run on real historyThe fix, re-run on 1,490 real past server commands: 15 newly stopped (12 were sudo lines hidden by line breaks) and 28 real reads that had been wrongly refused now pass.

How the work is checked

Tested on real past work firstNew parts start log-only and are replayed on real history against a pass bar written first; only Cadence switches them on. One redesign went from wrong on 5 of 11 cases to handling 435 of 437, with 0 wrong in 50 checked by hand.
Audited before mergeEach piece of work gets a written contract and one builder agent in its own git worktree; a separate verifier agent replays real history and says “safe to merge” or sends it back. On 2026-10-19: 16 parts, 4,985 automated tests, 0 failing.

Personal and client workdidn’t fit on one page

Also built

An AI study app and a studio’s website, side by side.

StudyLab · Personal project · Apr – Aug 2026

Course materials in, interactive study guides outA multi-user app on an LLM pipeline, with a mastery model and spaced-repetition reviews.
What I learnedBuilding StudyLab challenged how I build systems for actual people. It made me take apart how I think and learn, and then how LLMs do. Building software to bridge that gap rebuilt how I solve problems.

The guide it made for my MATH 233 finalCase study

Studio Ivara · Web Designer & Developer · Jan 2026 – now

A hot yoga and Pilates studio in RaleighDesigned, built and shipped ivara.studio; the staff publish their own updates, 60 edits so far, with no developer in the loop.
What I learnedIvara was one of my first real projects, with 10k+ real visitors. It taught me the fundamentals of cloud deployment (Cloudflare Pages), frontend design, and external integrations (MindBody/HealCode).

Visit ivara.studioCase study

What I want to do

Own whatever I’m handed, end to end, and leave the people it serves better off.

  • My goal: “as close to one with the machine as humanly possible.”
  • “I like being on the forefront.”

Skillsand where each one does the work

What I build with

The skills from the resume, each with the projects that prove it.

Languages
Python, Go, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL, Bash, C, Java
R.96TypeScriptDentsys CloudPython, GoNetwork scannerGoAgent workflowPython, Bash
Frameworks & Data
React, Node.js (Hono), Flask, PostgreSQL, Redis, REST APIs
R.96React, Hono, PostgreSQLDentsys CloudFlask, PostgreSQL, RedisStudyLabReact, Hono
Cloud & Networking
Cloudflare (Workers, Zero Trust), Azure, AWS, Linux, Proxmox VE, ZFS, WireGuard, Tailscale
R.96AzureDentsys CloudAWS, Cloudflare, Proxmox VE, ZFSPrivate RAGWireGuardStudio IvaraCloudflare
Security, not on the one page
SSO, 2FA, passkeys, IP allowlisting, zero-trust access, HIPAA-regulated environments
Zero-trust accessSSO, 2FA, passkeysNetwork discoverydetect, never exploitGP ConnectivityHIPAA-regulated practices
AI
Directing AI coding agents (Claude Code) with tests and review gates, context management, RAG, LLM evaluation
Agent workflowtests and review gatesR.962,600+ tests on AI-written codePrivate RAGretrieval, testedStudyLabLLM pipeline

Each link goes to the part of the story where that skill does the work.

The same page, both ways

Same resume. Every line had a story.

Cadence keeps cadence.

cadences@unc.edu

Open to Summer 2027 internships, May 10 – Aug 13