Hi, I'm Chris Norton Jr
I Build Systems
Multi-disciplinary engineer specializing in scalable software solutions, intelligent automation, and embedded systems. Transforming complex problems into elegant, production-ready solutions.
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Liquid
HubSpot
Mailchimp
Zapier
Make
Salesforce
Braze
AWS SES
N8N
Figma
Klaviyo
Analytics
Wordpress
Built across every layer
Pick a discipline and explore the projects behind it.
The person behind the code
I'm Christopher Norton, a multi-disciplinary engineer who lives at the intersection of systems thinking and creative problem-solving. I got my B.S. in Engineering and since then I've been obsessed with building things that actually work at scale. I'm working on something from cloud pipelines, an embedded hardware solution, or a fully automated funnel. When I'm not shipping code I'm probably deep in an anime arc, tinkering with electronics, or traveling with family.
Education & Certifications
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Latest Thinking
Strategic perspectives on systems engineering, automation architecture, cloud infrastructure, and the craft of building scalable solutions.
You Shall Not Park: How I Built a Smart Parking Garage on a Chip
TL;DR I built the brain of a two floor, 16 spot parking garage on an FPGA (a chip you can rewire with code). It checks for payment or a permit, decides if the gate opens, and points every driver to the closest open spot on the right floor. When I rewatched the demo, I also caught a bug that would cost a real garage money. The fix is one line. Finding it is the actual skill.
Latest Insights
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DevOpsFrom JWT Hand-Rolled to Federal-Grade: Refactoring the OAOS Auth Layer with Keycloak and OpenFGA
TL;DR The OAOS backend inherited a manual JWT-minting auth system wired to a database that no longer existed. We ripped it out and rebuilt it as a Keycloak + OpenFGA gateway; proper authentication, fine-grained authorization, compliance-ready from the ground up. This post covers the architecture decisions, the refactor, and the debugging gauntlet that stood between us and a green system.
DevOpsHardwareCloudBuilding a Firmware CI/CD Pipeline from Scratch — Phase 1: The Foundation
TL;DR: Most embedded teams still ship firmware by hand , a developer builds locally, flashes a board, pokes around, and calls it tested. This series documents building a complete automated firmware pipeline from nothing: reproducible builds, GitHub Actions, Python hardware test scripts, and eventually a self-hosted runner with a physical dev board wired directly into the CI system.
AIWhat is AI?
AI stands for artificial intelligence and by the end of this article it will be more than just another buzzword.
DevOpsThe DevOps Engineer's Guide to Networking Devices
This is the stuff you'll actually touch, configure, and troubleshoot daily.
DevOpsCloudDeploying a Full-Stack Java App on AWS — EC2, S3, Route 53, and Actually Understanding What I Built
TL;DR: I spun up 4 EC2 instances, deployed a full-stack Java application using Maven and the AWS CLI, wired up auto-scaling and load balancing, and connected everything with Route 53. This post breaks down what each piece does and why the architecture is set up the way it is because passing an AWS cert and actually building something with it are two very different things.
HardwarePower Pulse: How We Built an IoT Home Energy Monitoring System
We built Power Pulse - a non-invasive home energy monitoring system using ESP32, AWS, and React Native. Here's how it works and why we built it.
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