Lucas Carlson
Staff Applied AI Engineer @ Zapier | Building MCP for AI Connectivity
- Role
- Staff Engineer, Applied Ai at Zapier
- Location
- Carlsbad, CA, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Lucas Carlson
Cloud and AI technology leader and cloud platform architect with 20+ years turning emerging technologies into enterprise-scale solutions.I\'ve spent my career at the intersection of cloud infrastructure and AI innovation. Founded AppFog, the world\'s first standalone PHP PaaS (acquired by CenturyLink), where I scaled cloud architecture to millions of developers. Co-founded MOG, the streaming platform that evolved into Apple Music through acquisitions by Beats and Apple.Currently co-founder at LEADx, where I architected LEADx, an AI-powered leadership coaching platform that has served managers at Fortune 500 companies. This role combines my passion for Large Language Models with enterprise-scale implementation:• Architect and deploy LLM-based solutions using ChatGPT, IBM Watson, and custom RAG implementations, creating personalized AI experiences at enterprise scale• Lead cross-functional teams of engineers and product managers to deliver AI products from proof-of-concept to production• Design distributed AI systems on cloud infrastructure with 99.9% uptime, implementing ML pipelines and frameworksMy expertise spans the full AI/ML stack: from LLM orchestration and agentic workflows to production ML infrastructure and responsible AI practices.Core focus: Enabling enterprises to harness AI capabilities, particularly in Generative AI, LLMs, and specialized ML infrastructure to solve their most critical business challenges.Always eager to collaborate on AI/ML strategy, partner engineering, and the future of enterprise AI platforms.
Experience
Staff Engineer, Applied Ai
Sep 2025 — Present · San Diego, CA, US
At Zapier, I help shape the future of AI connectivity through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Our mission is to make apps seamlessly usable by AI solutions, securely and reliably.In this role, I: • Drive the evolution of MCP, ensuring Zapier is the #1 choice for connecting AI assistants to tools and data. • Apply hands-on expertise in LLMs, RAG systems, and evaluation frameworks to deliver high-impact, production-ready solutions. • Partner across product, engineering, and security to balance innovation with enterprise-grade reliability. • Mentor engineers, contribute to technical strategy, and elevate developer experience with AI-first workflows. • Explore emerging AI capabilities, translating them into differentiated features that empower millions of businesses to scale with automation and AI.
Education
Reed College
Bachelor, Physics
Skills
- Mongodb
- Strategic Planning
- Databases
- Machine Learning
- Open Source
- Software Development Life Cycle (Sdlc)
- Start-Ups
- Project Management
- Technology Evangelism
- Engineering Management
- Linux
- Software Product Management
- Artificial Intelligence
- Analytics
- Ruby on Rails
- Business Strategy
- Agile Methodologies
- Management
- Web Applications
- Node.js
- Enterprise Software
- Mysql
- Docker
- Software Development
- Php
- Paas
- Javascript
- Product Marketing
- Evangelism
- Entrepreneurship
- Web Development
- Leadership
- Amazon Web Services (Aws)
- Software Project Management
- Software as a Service (Saas)
- Business Development
- Saas
- Java
- Ruby
- Product Lifecycle Management
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