Owner / IT Services
March 2026 – present
ZachTech · Oshawa, ON area
- Founded ZachTech, a local IT services business, and am building its client base.
Zach Howard
Embedded & C++ Developer | ESP32 Firmware, Audio DSP & IoT
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada · zachdhoward@proton.me · github.com/zdhoward · tools.zachtech.ca
Summary
More than a decade of hands-on work across IT, custom development, QA and DevOps for multiple companies and studios (freelance since 2013).
Skills
- Embedded: ESP32, Arduino, C++ firmware, USB serial, TFT touch displays, Raspberry Pi
- Also Used: Additional languages used in past work and projects: C#, C++, C, PHP, Java
- Languages & Tools: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, REST APIs, Git, GitHub
- Scripting: Bash and PowerShell scripting
Experience
QC Lead
March 2025 – March 2026
Eterio Realities · Victoria, BC
- Worked directly with developers to integrate testing and quality practices throughout development.
Associate Quality Designer
March 2024 – June 2024
Electronic Arts · Vancouver, BC
- Created and maintained QA test passes for Frostbite engine changes and validated new features and workflow changes.
QA Specialist, embedded at Electronic Arts
April 2020 – March 2024
Keywords Studios · Vancouver, BC
- Embedded QA on the Frostbite Build Tools team, working directly with software engineers on internal developer tools and workflows used across AAA game projects.
- Validated changes to internal build systems and developer workflows and created testing strategies for complex engineering systems.
IT Coordinator
September 2018 – April 2020
Mountain West Studios · Vancouver, BC
- Developed backend systems for automated video rendering and delivery, and automation for business workflows.
Product Specialist
January 2016 – August 2018
Saved By Technology (now Long & McQuade Pro) · Toronto, ON
- Delivered workshops on audio programming and Max/MSP.
Earlier roles
- Freelance since 2013: server deployment, database migrations, and custom Max/MSP audio tools for musicians.
Projects
- Built AIUsageMonitor (open source, v1.14.1): an ESP32 touchscreen desktop display with C++/Arduino firmware, fed over USB serial by a Python collector, showing AI subscription quotas and live system telemetry. github.com/zdhoward/AIUsageMonitor
- Founded ZXAudio (zxaudio.ca): VST3 audio plugins built in C++ with JUCE, including the PHASE//ZERO phaser, plus open-source DSP and UI component libraries. zxaudio.ca
- Home network on UniFi gear connecting two Unraid servers, a Raspberry Pi OS host, and other single-board computers and IoT devices.
Education
- Seneca College — Computer Programming & Analysis, 2011 – 2014