Downtime reduction for Chowbotics cold-bowl robots supporting a business line worth $17M.
Operational Signal
Measured Impact
80%
Lab Scale
50+
Long Arc
2010→
Systems that stay calm under load.
Zach Gonser operates where field execution, robotics support, and infrastructure discipline converge. He has led customer-facing operations at Apple, protected a $17M robotics business line at DoorDash / Chowbotics, and now helps Botrista turn beverage automation into reliable day-to-day performance.
Containerized services running across a self-hosted Unraid environment built for observability and automation.
More than a decade across Apple, DoorDash / Chowbotics, Botrista, and continuous homelab operations since 2012.
Bento Grid
Operational capabilities with hard edges and clear proof.
Each module maps to a repeatable operating behavior: stabilize live systems, standardize support workflows, instrument infrastructure, and translate technical complexity into dependable outcomes.
Robotics Operations
Turning launches, support, and field coordination into day-to-day reliability.
At Botrista, the work is not abstract strategy. It is partner execution, issue triage, launch coordination, and keeping automated beverage programs stable enough to scale.
Service Discipline
Built on eight years of Apple-grade support rigor.
Apple established the operating baseline: clear communication, structured escalation, training discipline, and the expectation that reliability is part of the product.
Reliability Outcome
Protected a business line by cutting robotics downtime at the source.
The DoorDash / Chowbotics result matters because it ties technical intervention directly to business continuity, not just internal efficiency.
Infrastructure Depth
A homelab used as a production-grade proving ground for automation, networking, and local AI.
Unraid, custom bridge networks, Nginx Proxy Manager, dynamic DNS, VPN gateways, DNS filtering, Grafana dashboards, CI/CD, backup and recovery, Home Assistant, n8n, LocalAI, Ollama, and Stable Diffusion all live in one continuously operated system.
Containers
50+ Docker workloads
Storage
100TB+ capacity
Networking
3+ VLAN segments
Lab Dashboard
A technical command center built for instrumentation, not decoration.
The lab is proof, not garnish. It demonstrates how Zach thinks about uptime, fault isolation, network boundaries, deployment safety, and self-hosted AI systems in practice.
Infrastructure Plane
Online
Production-grade self-hosting with measured blast radius.
The environment is segmented, observable, and built to survive change. Networking, storage, automation, and inference are managed as an operating system, not as disconnected hobby experiments.
Network posture
UniFi management · dynamic DNS · VPN gateways · DNS filtering
Segmented
Observability
Grafana dashboards · uptime alerts · log analysis
Instrumented
Deployment model
Custom bridge networks · CI/CD pipelines · zero-downtime update scripts
Automated
Inference layer
Ollama · LocalAI · Stable Diffusion workflows
Local
System Telemetry
Verified
Live-proof modules grounded in the current fact set.
These are the strongest verified infrastructure signals surfaced from the current site and supporting audit, translated into a denser operational view.
Storage array
100TB+
Unraid-backed capacity with backup and disaster recovery as part of the operating model.
Container fleet
50+
Docker services orchestrated with custom bridge networks and service-to-service boundaries.
Network segments
3+
VLAN isolation under UniFi management to keep systems organized and failure domains controlled.
Automation fabric
n8n + HA
Workflow automation and Home Assistant integrations extending into custom AI and deployment routines.
Operational pattern
Observe → diagnose → automate → verify
Tooling stack
Nginx Proxy Manager, Grafana, LocalAI, Ollama, Git hosting, CI/CD
Outcome Timeline
A career shaped by support quality, systems reliability, and operational accountability.
The throughline is sustained stewardship: start with disciplined support, move into robotics reliability, then carry that systems mindset into partner and regional operations.
Operator first. Technical enough to own the hard parts.
Zach’s strongest positioning is not “software engineer” in the abstract. It is systems and operations leadership backed by hands-on proof in robotics, infrastructure, observability, and AI-enabled automation.
2010
Apple tenure begins, establishing support and service discipline.
2012
Homelab operations begin and continue as an active technical proving ground.
2023
Botrista chapter starts, extending robotics experience into partner and regional operations.
Selected experience
Jan 2025 - Present
Manager, Regional Sales Operations
Botrista, Inc.
Leading beverage robotics operations and partner execution, turning launches, support, and field coordination into reliable day-to-day performance.
Jan 2024 - Jan 2025
Partner Operations Manager
Botrista, Inc.
Built the processes and diagnostic workflows that helped Botrista support a growing robotics footprint across multiple regions.
May 2023 - Feb 2024
Partner Growth Manager
Botrista, Inc.
Supported partner growth in beverage robotics, helping operational complexity stay manageable as automation programs expanded.
Mar 2018 - Oct 2022
Product Support Manager
DoorDash (Chowbotics)
Reduced downtime by 80% for Chowbotics’ cold-bowl robotics fleet, protecting a business line worth $17M.
Jan 2010 - Mar 2018
Genius & Channel Support
Apple Inc.
Developed the support rigor, escalation habits, and customer-facing execution standards that still underpin every later operating role.