Engineering Leader. AI Architect. Startup Builder.
VP of Engineering & AI with 8+ years building AI-powered platforms from zero to scale. I turn ambitious ideas into shipped products.
About Me
I build AI-driven products and the teams behind them. As VP of Engineering & AI at Amara Social, I lead 25 professionals across 5 cross-functional squads, shipping AI-powered content moderation, recommendation systems, and personalization engines on AWS.
Before that, I co-founded Dolo Distribution, built the tech from scratch, and led it to a successful exit. I started my career at General Atomics building mission-critical drone software, and at The MITRE Corporation supporting government R&D.
I hold a B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida, an active SECRET security clearance, and a Global Leader of the Year award from the 2024 Asia Icon Awards. When I am not building products, you can find me on the jiu jitsu mats (purple belt), on the golf course, or hosting my podcast.
I am based in Mount Pleasant, SC and open to remote leadership opportunities.
Professional Experience
Amara Social
VP of Engineering & AI
Sep 2021 - Present
- •Built AI content moderation pipeline (Bedrock, Rekognition): 35% reduction in manual review, 85% accuracy
- •Designed RAG-based recommendation engine: 18% CTR increase, 12% session duration uplift
- •Architected event-driven AWS microservices: 37% cost reduction, 36% performance boost
- •Led fundraising strategy contributing to $500K+ raised and 22% profit growth
Dolo Distribution
Co-Founder & CTO
Oct 2020 - Aug 2021
- •Built AI recommendation system increasing order value by 18%
- •Developed inventory optimization models reducing stockouts by 25%
- •Led full technical strategy from MVP to successful exit
General Atomics
Software Engineer
Sep 2017 - Jun 2021
- •Developed pilot control application for military UAS operations
- •Delivered high-reliability software under DoD quality standards
The MITRE Corporation
Simulation Systems Intern
Jun 2015 - May 2017
- •Supported simulation and modeling for government research programs
AI Expertise
Recommendation & Matching Systems
Designed and deployed RAG-based recommendation engines using embedding similarity and weighted scoring. A/B tested across thousands of users with measurable engagement lifts.
NLP & Content Moderation
Built production NLP pipelines for content moderation, sentiment analysis, and automated tagging using AWS Bedrock and Rekognition.
Predictive Analytics
Developed churn prediction models and user behavior analytics driving targeted retention campaigns and measurable business outcomes.
LLM Integration & Generative AI
Led R&D integrating large language models via Bedrock for personalized content creation, AI-assisted guidance, and intelligent automation.
AI Ethics & Compliance
Established bias audit frameworks and transparency reporting systems, ensuring compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and emerging AI regulations.
Cloud & Infrastructure
Architected event-driven AWS microservices (Lambda, ECS, SQS, SNS) with Terraform IaC, achieving 37% cost reduction and 99.99% uptime.
Open Source Projects
Production-quality AI tools I have built and open-sourced.
rag-core
Lightweight RAG Pipeline Library for Python
Click "Run Query" to step through the RAG pipeline
from rag_core import RAGPipeline
pipeline = RAGPipeline(chunk_strategy="recursive")
pipeline.ingest(documents)
response = pipeline.query("How does event-driven architecture work?")modguard
Multi-Layered AI Content Moderation Pipeline
Select an example or type text to moderate
from modguard import ModerationPipeline
result = pipeline.moderate("Your text here")
print(result.decision) # APPROVE | FLAG_FOR_REVIEW | REJECT
print(result.confidence) # 0.94Thoughts on AI, Engineering, and Leadership
Coming soon. In the meantime, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Let's Build Something Together
Open to CTO and VP of Engineering roles, advisory positions, and interesting AI challenges.
Connect with me
Clayton Cuteri
GitHub
claytoncuteri
The best way to reach me is through the contact form or LinkedIn. I typically respond within 24 hours for opportunities involving engineering leadership, AI strategy, or advisory roles.