Joseph Austin Chasar

Linux Engineer — self-taught, system-level

Broadview Heights, OH  ·  jac-76@live.com  ·  github.com/jac-76  ·  linkedin.com/in/joseph-chasar-802536433

Summary

Self-taught Linux engineer who deployed Whisper ASR and LLMs on an AMD Ryzen AI NPU end-to-end — kernel driver stack (amdxdna / XRT) through runtime to an OpenAI-compatible API — on Arch Linux, then shipped it as three public tools, a benchmark harness, and a technical write-up. Works at the layer where userspace meets hardware: kernel modules, DKMS, systemd, udev, core-dump debugging. Twenty-plus years building and repairing PCs; prior careers in regulated mortgage lending and running a solo business. Seeking a junior MLOps / DevOps / Linux or backend-Python role.

Technical Skills

• Linux internals: systemd (services, --user units, environment.d), udev rules, polkit, DKMS out-of-tree modules, /sys & /proc, rlimits (memlock), RAPL power counters, coredumpctl / core-dump backtrace analysis, ACPI/EC platform drivers, PipeWire, Wayland, Arch + AUR (makepkg)
• AI / ML runtime: AMD Ryzen AI NPU (XDNA2), FastFlowLM, Whisper (large-v3-turbo), local LLM serving (gemma3, qwen3, llama3 class), OpenAI-compatible /v1 APIs, piper TTS, RTF & energy benchmarking
• Languages: Python (stdlib-first: argparse, urllib, subprocess, unittest), Bash (strict-mode scripting), basic SQL
• Tooling & ops: Git / GitHub (gh CLI, GitHub Pages, daily commits), curl / HTTP debugging, ffmpeg/ffprobe, cmake, pytest
• Learning now: Docker, GitHub Actions CI, Kubernetes basics, cloud (AWS)

Projects

local-ai-assistant — offline voice assistant on the AMD NPU · Python (stdlib only)

• Chains mic capture (pw-record) → Whisper ASR on the NPU → on-NPU LLM → piper TTS, all local, from a single FastFlowLM server on one port.
• Clean CLI; conversation history persists across runs as JSON under XDG state. Found and fixed a silent-audio bug; test suite grown to 11 mock-based cases.

npu-whisper — one-shot Whisper transcription on the NPU · Bash, zero deps

• Auto-starts the FastFlowLM ASR server if down, waits for readiness, posts the audio, prints text or --json; --status / --stop lifecycle control.
• Ships bench.py / bench_cpu.py (stdlib): time real runs, take audio length from ffprobe, read RAPL energy counters. Measured: 30 s clip in ~5.2 s on the NPU (RTF ≈ 0.17) at ~10× lower energy than the same model on CPU.

“Running Whisper + LLMs on an AMD NPU under Linux” — technical write-up

• End-to-end guide to a Windows-documented workflow on Linux: the amdxdna + XRT driver stack, the memlock gotcha, FastFlowLM as the shortcut past the Ryzen AI SDK, and reproducible benchmarks.

Experience

Independent Linux / ML-Infrastructure Engineering — Self-directed — 2026–Present

Personal MSI Stealth A16 AI+ (Ryzen AI 9 365) Arch workstation.

• Brought Whisper ASR and small LLMs up on an AMD Ryzen AI NPU end-to-end (kernel driver stack → FastFlowLM runtime → OpenAI-compatible API); shipped it as three public repos with tests and daily commits.
• Built a reproducible benchmark + RAPL power-measurement harness — quantified the NPU at RTF ≈ 0.17 and ~10× lower energy per transcription than CPU — plus a technical write-up of the whole stack.
• Root-caused a recurring third-party SIGSEGV from a systemd-coredump core dump to a tokio / PyO3 teardown race; shipped an idempotent launcher guard as the fix.
• Stood up an out-of-tree DKMS EC driver and reverse-engineered a vendor HID protocol (SteelSeries 1038:1122) for keyboard control; isolated a kernel-level input-drop bug with evtest on raw /dev/input.

Barber — Self-Employed — Broadview Heights, OH — 2021–Present

• Run a solo appointment-based service business end to end: online booking, scheduling, client retention, and bookkeeping, with minimal no-shows.
• Third-generation barber, Ohio-licensed since 2012; keep current on state licensure and continuing-education requirements.

Mortgage Loan Originator — CrossCountry Mortgage (remote) — 2020–2021

• Took residential-mortgage clients through the full regulated process: pulled credit, verified income and assets, priced loan programs, guided applicants through underwriting to close.
• Ran a high-volume pipeline entirely remotely, coordinating with processors and underwriters through CRM and digital document systems.

Barber — Self-Employed — Broadview Heights, OH — 2016–2020

• Ran the same solo barbering practice between mortgage-origination roles: appointment booking, scheduling, client retention, and bookkeeping.
• Maintained Ohio licensure and continuing-education requirements throughout.

Mortgage Loan Originator — Quicken Loans — 2015–2016

• Licensed MLO (passed the NMLS national SAFE exam, 84th percentile); originated residential loans by phone against volume targets.

Independent Computer Repair & Support — Word-of-mouth — 2003–2015

• Data recovery, hardware diagnosis and component-level repair, malware removal, and laptop repair (display, keyboard, thermal, storage) for individuals and small offices.
• OS imaging and deployment; new-system builds and upgrades.

Warehouse & Inside Sales — GE Supply (General Electric) — Cleveland, OH — 2002–2003

• Filled and shipped orders for industrial accounts (Timken, Marconi); operated a forklift to load/unload trucks and stage will-call orders.
• Received and verified incoming inventory, keyed orders into the inventory system, backed up the outside sales team on stock checks and order entry.

Education

• GED
• Allstate Barber College — 2011

Certifications & Licenses

• NMLS Mortgage Loan Originator — passed the national SAFE exam, 84th percentile (NMLS ID 1523002) (inactive)
• Ohio Barber License — #055179 (licensed 2012)

Phone available on request. PDF copy sent with direct applications.