Resume

Michael Valderrama

Senior Engineering Program Manager | AI Agent Architecture, Software and Hardware | USAF Veteran

San Francisco Bay Areamichael@bucketbranch.com

Download the PDFThe download leaves out my phone number. My email is above if you want the rest.

Summary

Michael Valderrama builds agentic systems and measures what they cost to run. He founded BucketBranch, an independent research lab and consulting practice, where he published the Agent Efficiency Quotient (AEQ), a benchmark for business value per token attributed across model, prompt, and orchestration layers, with the run records released alongside it. His production work includes AgentSaasy, an enterprise agent framework operating at $0.0009 per query, and VeteransGPT, a custom GPT in the OpenAI GPT Store that maps a diagnosis to the CFR criteria the VA rates against. He also architects NVIDIA H100 and A100 cluster deployments on the Bittensor network.

The delivery record behind that is 20+ years of engineering program management across software and hardware, the same work an agent system needs once it stops being a prototype. At Apple's SWE Programs Office he owned beta release plans for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS out to 36 million developers, ran special releases for new silicon introduction, and managed milestones between Apple's AI/ML teams and outside partners on Siri, Writing Tools, and Private Cloud Compute. Earlier he delivered 100 storage NPI projects at Micron, carried the Wyse thin-client line through Dell's ~$1B acquisition, and at Intel delivered processor and chipset programs into HP, Dell, IBM, Acer, and Apple, including the years the Mac moved onto Intel silicon.

Michael is a U.S. Air Force veteran and is completing an M.S. in Applied AI and Data Science at the University of San Diego.

Technical skills

Client Engagement & Solutioning
Solution Design, Discovery-to-SOW Consulting, Proposal & Effort Estimation, Tiered Fixed-Fee Pricing, Executive Presentations, Account Relationship Management, Stakeholder Engagement
Program Management
AI-Augmented Program Management, Agile/Scrum, Release Management, Vendor & Contract Negotiation, Global Delivery & Distributed Team Coordination
Technical
Python, MCP (Model Context Protocol), Jenkins CI/CD, NVIDIA GPU Cluster Management (H100, A100), Atlassian Jira & Confluence, IBM PLM, Siemens PLM, MLOps
AI/ML Tools
Claude, ChatGPT, OpenAI API Integration, Bittensor/TAO Network, LLM Integration, RAG Pipelines, Agentic Workflow Orchestration

AI research and development

2024 to present

  • Agent Efficiency Quotient (AEQ), a benchmarking framework for the economic efficiency of an agent: business value per token, attributed across the model, the prompt, and the orchestration layer. Specification and white paper are published, together with the run records they were derived from.The AEQ specificationCost of a Question
  • AgentSaasy, an enterprise agent proof of concept built as a reusable framework, running at $0.0009 per query. Seven domain tools, 27 automated tests, and prompts managed as versioned YAML with a token budget enforced per call.How it is builtThe enterprise asset management case study
  • VeteransGPT, a custom GPT published in the ChatGPT GPT store, built to take a veteran from a medical diagnosis to the criteria the VA actually decides the claim against. Diagnostic codes are mapped to their section of the rating schedule in 38 CFR Part 4, and answers come from the regulation text itself, so a veteran gets the section a rating turns on rather than a paraphrase of it.Use it in the GPT store

Experience

  1. Independent Consultant, AI Infrastructure & Solutions

    BucketBranchDec 2024 to present

    • Runs the client engagement end to end: discovery, solution design, tiered fixed-fee proposals and effort estimation, SOWs, change orders, delivery.
    • Architects GPU cluster deployments on NVIDIA H100 and A100 for distributed machine learning workloads on the Bittensor network.
    • Designs the cluster management and networking for multi-node operations, including the high-availability configuration that keeps them running continuously.

  2. Senior Engineering Program Manager, SWE Programs Office

    Apple, Inc.2018 to 2024

    • Ran software release management for iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, from integration and OS builds through the betas that went out to 36 million developers and the hundreds of millions of devices behind them, coordinating 15+ engineering teams and roughly 3,000 engineers.
    • Coordinated the work between Apple's AI/ML teams and outside partners on systemwide AI features, including Siri, Writing Tools, and Private Cloud Compute.
    • Built a risk process for the beta cycles that surfaced and closed 2,000+ issues before they reached a shipping release.
    • Automated configuration management and build steps, taking 25% off release cycle time and 30% off build and integration time.

  3. Senior Program Manager, Consumer Storage & Software Products | Embedded Business Unit

    Micron, Inc.2013 to 2018

    • Ran the removable storage PMO across both software and hardware, delivering 100 NPI projects through global vendors and contract manufacturers.
    • Rebuilt the product lifecycle process, gathering requirements from several divisions and getting 13+ teams onto one definition, on IBM and Siemens PLM.
    • Opened the industrial IoT SSD and memory line into factory automation, medical equipment, and consumer electronics accounts.
    • Led development of the GoPro Quik Key iOS app and the micro-SD reader line (Lightning, Micro-USB, USB-C) under the Apple MFi program.

  4. Senior Product Manager, Cloud Client Computing

    Dell, Inc. (acquired Wyse Technology)2009 to 2013

    • Carried the Wyse product portfolio through Dell's ~$1B acquisition of the company, keeping the roadmap and the existing customer commitments intact through the transition.
    • Product manager for the thin-client platforms behind large enterprise deployments, including a ~30,000-seat rollout at JPMorgan.
    • Owned the Linux thin-client line: 8 platforms across several form factors, on Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  5. Technical Program Manager, Processor & Chipset Products

    Intel Corporation1998 to 2009

    • Primary program contact for 5 OEM accounts (HP, Dell, IBM/Lenovo, Acer, Apple), holding the quarterly release alignment and working the risks that threatened their dates.
    • On the Intel-Apple team from 2005 to 2009, bringing Apple onto the Intel silicon family as the Mac line moved off PowerPC and became a platform account like the other OEMs.
    • Built a company-wide automation workflow for build, integration, and release, taking 30% off cycle time across 12 products.
    • Ran 15 software programs and 50+ people, with 85% delivered on time and on budget.

  6. United States Air Force

Education