Summary
Tolga Acar is a seasoned security architect and software leader with over 11 years of experience driving identity, cryptography, and AI-security initiatives at Microsoft and Intel. He blends deep academic training (Ph.D. in Computer Engineering) with hands-on engineering across principal and leadership roles, shaping MCP authentication, agentic identity concepts, and AI-powered security architectures. Known for translating cutting-edge research into production-ready identity solutions, he has advised executive teams as Technical Advisor to the CTO and now leads strategic security architecture efforts in Redmond. Tolga’s background in early cryptography consulting and long tenure at Microsoft gives him a rare perspective on both low-level protocol design and large-scale cloud identity systems. He combines technical rigor with practical leadership, mentoring teams to deliver auditable, scalable security controls. Based in Sammamish, WA, he quietly bridges academic depth and product-focused engineering to harden next-generation AI identity and authentication systems.
11 years of coding experience
20 years of employment as a software developer
Ph.D. Computer Engineering, Ph.D. Computer Engineering at Oregon State University
Master of Science - MS Computer Science, Master of Science - MS Computer Science at Istanbul Technical University