Summary
Trace Wax is a Head of AI Engineering and veteran software leader with 12 years of experience turning nascent teams into million-dollar impact engines and strengthening large engineering organizations. Based in New York, he combines hands-on engineering roots from Pivotal and thoughtbot with product leadership and GTM experience as a former CTO and VP of Product, guiding strategy-to-delivery for client software. An early adopter of the current AI wave, he teaches AI/ML at Columbia and helps product and engineering teams adopt generative AI to boost creativity, speed, and job satisfaction. He’s also an experienced facilitator and educator—co-author of an O’Reilly book on Design Sprints and a longtime instructor for Mind the Product—known for bringing enthusiasm, patience, and practical methods to complex programs. Rarely obvious from a title: he has launched offices, built AR/VR practices, and organized large leadership communities, blending operational rigor with community-building chops.
12 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Cleveland Institute of Music
Stanford University