VP of Engineering · Agentic AI · Army Veteran
Nick
Scherer
Building at the intersection of Agentic AI, Big Data, and Music Technology.
Ex-Amazon · Rostrum Pacific / SpaceHeater · Creator of Avi AI
About
Building the AI Future
of Music & Technology
I'm Nick Scherer — a VP of Engineering and Agentic AI specialist based in Los Angeles, currently leading engineering at Rostrum Pacific where we're building SpaceHeater, a next-generation music distribution platform.
My career spans from Amazon (Kindle Unlimited & Emerging Marketplaces) to founding-engineer roles at seed-stage startups through acquisition. I hold a Master's in Data Science & Engineering from UC San Diego and a BS in Computer Science from Rutgers.
Before tech, I served as an Infantry Officer in the US Army, leading 44-person operations and managing over $100M in assets — an experience that shaped how I think about leadership, execution under pressure, and building high-trust teams.
I'm also the creator of Avi AI — a conversational AI platform built to make advanced AI accessible to everyone.
Agentic AI Builder
Pioneering multi-agent AI systems that turn complex data into natural language insights — from music royalty analytics to autonomous pipelines.
Engineering Leader
VP-level engineering executive with a track record of building and scaling high-performance engineering teams at startups through acquisition.
Music Tech Innovator
Building SpaceHeater — the modern music distribution and catalog management platform powering labels, distributors, and catalog owners.
Army Veteran
Distinguished Military Graduate. Led 44-person operations, managed $100M+ in assets, and earned multiple Army Commendation Medals.
Experience
Career History
From Army Infantry Officer to VP of Engineering — a decade of building, leading, and shipping.
Leading engineering under the Rostrum Pacific umbrella, building SpaceHeater — a modern music distribution and catalog management platform powering labels, distributors, and catalog owners.
- Own platform strategy, architecture, and execution across DSP integrations, DDEX delivery pipelines, and royalty & payment systems
- Drive AI-powered capabilities that surface granular insights and streamline music distribution operations
- Remain hands-on to solve complex technical challenges and guide system design across the full stack
Led a software development team driving innovation in music technology through agentic AI, natural language data insights, and advanced analytics.
- Architected and shipped natural language data insights platform using LLM agents over music royalty data
- Built advanced analytics, label and artist royalty payment systems, and forecasting models
- Integrated AI music attribution systems to protect rightsholder IP at scale
1st USA engineer hire and Lead Engineer at a Seed-stage SaaS startup in the ecommerce / retail data / supply chain space. Led the team through acquisition by SPINS.
- Led implementation of internal Slack app with big data insights (MongoDB, Java 11, AmazonMQ/RabbitMQ, NodeJS) — launched in under 1 month
- Stood up Data Engineering & ML pipeline using AWS Step Functions, S3, Glue, and SageMaker
- Ported the Lucky application to Salesforce AppExchange — reused 100% of React components, shipped in 3 months
- Built CI/CD pipeline with GitHub Actions, CodeStar, CodePipeline, CodeBuild, Docker & S3
- Created company-wide internal CLI in Go; reduced AWS cloud costs by ~50% in Q3 via infrastructure audit
Assigned high-priority tasks immediately and unblocked a worldwide launch requirement within the first two weeks.
- Designed customer refund model with highly controlled, rule-based configuration business logic
- Launched global-first checkout delivery options in Australia, Egypt, Singapore, Turkey, UAE, and Saudi Arabia
- Coordinated with international stakeholders across SDMs, TPMs, PMs, and Systems/Logistics Technicians
Delivered a business-critical end-to-end project supporting worldwide marketing operations within the first 5 months.
- Built internal marketing tool (AngularJS + Java Spring MVC) that automated subscription promotion management, saving ~10 hours/week of tech team work
- Implemented using RESTful services, DynamoDB, and S3 — changes reached worldwide within 1–2 days
- Contributed to 6 services with exposure to ~30 services; owned full delivery lifecycle from design to production
Engineered security tooling and assessment infrastructure used in candidate evaluation.
- Built a plug-in test harness framework in Python for evaluating engineering candidates
- Developed a network conditioner to stress-test client-server models under packet manipulation conditions using Python, Scapy, TCP, multi-processing, and multi-threading
Led and managed complex operations, personnel, and multi-million-dollar equipment inventories for a US Army infantry battalion.
- Directly influenced the Republic of Korea Army's decision to purchase $50M in digital training simulators through live capability demonstrations
- Led a 42-person team of technicians maintaining 250+ pieces of equipment and 4 vehicles valued at $18M+
- Increased overall unit effectiveness by 46% by coordinating 20 large-scale training events; maintained 100% accuracy of 4K records
Managed large-scale logistics operations for domestic and overseas equipment transport.
- Coordinated transport of 32 vehicles and 14 shipping containers (~$100M in equipment) to US and overseas locations with zero losses
- Ensured international legal compliance across all shipments in coordination with government contractors
Developed plans, training, operations, and logistics for an organization of 44 people.
- Developed plans, training, operations, and orders for an organization of ~700 employees and 60 vehicles worth over $100M
Skills & Data
By the Numbers
A decade of impact — visualized.
Career Impact
Defense Decision Influenced
ROK Army simulator purchase
AWS Cost Reduction
Q3 infrastructure audit & optimization
Automation Savings
Amazon marketing tool
Personnel Led
US Army operations command
Equipment Managed
Army logistics operations
Effectiveness Increase
20 large-scale Army training events
Skills Proficiency
Career Timeline
Technology Stack — Years of Experience
Projects
What I've Built
Products shipped, startups scaled, and AI systems deployed.
SpaceHeater
AI-powered music distribution & catalog management
Modern music distribution and catalog management platform for labels, distributors, and catalog owners. Features DDEX delivery pipelines, DSP integrations, royalty systems, and AI-powered analytics.
Lucky → SPINS Acquisition
Retail intelligence SaaS — from seed to acquisition
As the 1st US engineer, built the core platform for a retail data SaaS startup — from Slack-powered data insights to ML pipelines and a Salesforce AppExchange integration — through successful acquisition by SPINS.
Agentic Narratives — Immersive Forest
Published research at UC San Diego
Published research paper exploring an agentic approach to generating conversational narratives in immersive forest environments — combining NLP, AI agents, and spatial computing.
Education & Awards
Credentials & Recognition
Education
UC San Diego
Master's Degree · Data Science & Engineering
2023 – 2025
Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) — Data Science and Engineering
Rutgers University — New Brunswick
Bachelor of Science · Computer Science
2013 – 2017
Distinguished Military Graduate | Army ROTC
Certifications & Awards
Distinguished Military Graduate
US Army / Rutgers ROTC
Army Commendation Medal (×2)
US Army
Army Achievement Medal
US Army
B2C Commerce Developer
Salesforce Certification
Publications
Research & Writing
An Agentic Approach to Generate Conversational Narratives on the Immersive Forest
Published 2025
Explores the use of autonomous AI agents to generate dynamic, context-aware conversational narratives within spatial/immersive forest environments. Combines agentic AI planning, natural language generation, and interactive storytelling.
Writing
Articles & Insights
Thoughts on engineering, AI, and lessons learned along the way.
Contact
Let's Connect
Open to select consulting, advisory roles, and interesting conversations.
Nick Scherer
VP of Engineering · Agentic AI Builder
I'm always interested in connecting with fellow builders, AI enthusiasts, and anyone working on interesting problems. Whether it's a quick chat or a serious engagement — don't hesitate to reach out.