CTO at Auctane. Builder, tinkerer, named inventor. Seattle.
I’m a tech leader, curious builder, and unrelenting tinkerer. Over two decades, I’ve worked at the intersection of science, technology, and people — shipping software and AI you’ve used, and possibly yelled at.
I’ve led very large engineering organizations at Microsoft, Amazon, PayPal, Venmo, Nasdaq, and now Auctane. I work hands-on with algorithmic AI since 2015 and generative AI for the past four years, and have deployed both at enterprise scale. I’m a named inventor on multiple US patents spanning speech recognition and natural language understanding, ML-driven financial transaction systems, digital asset custody, and streaming encryption — the kind of stuff that quietly powers things hundreds of millions of people use every day but never think about.
Outside work I box, rock climb, cook food that’s mostly edible, and occasionally edit spy fiction thrillers for friends who may or may not have been actual spies.
Named inventor on US patents covering streaming authenticated encryption, customer-impact alarming, and several aspects of Alexa’s voice and visual messaging. Full list on Justia →
Occasional notes on engineering leadership, AI, and building teams — writing.nick-ciubotariu.com.