Nico Tomacelli

Initiator
DISC Type : Di

Director of Reliability at Upstart

Woodinville, Washington, United States

Overview

Nico is the Director of Reliability at Upstart, specializing in building scalable systems and high-performing engineering teams. His career includes leadership roles at Adobe and Amazon, focusing on observability, quality engineering, and operational excellence. Colleagues describe him as laser-focused, organized, and insightful.

Outside of his technology career, Nico has a passion for motorcycle road racing and previously served as the President of the Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association (WMRRA).

Unique fact: He is a co-inventor on a patent for account synchronization in unmanaged networks.

Personality Overview

Confident

Friendly Challenger

Impact-Oriented

They don’t mind taking a stand if they believe in something.  They measure a product on its merit but can be influenced by strong testimonials. They usually prefer to drive the conversation.

Topics They Care About

Platform Reliability
Leads Upstart's Reliability organization, driving strategy to make software delivery predictable at scale and ensuring platform-wide resilience to build customer trust.
Engineering Leadership
Focuses on building and leading large, multi-disciplinary organizations that turn complexity into clarity, empowering teams to deliver trusted platforms.
Observability & AIOps
Championed enterprise-wide observability at Adobe using Splunk and OpenTelemetry, and has leveraged Generative AI and AIOps to enhance DevOps.

Media Appearances

Nico | Working at Adobe. Featured in Weekday Works

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Work History

10-2025
Director of Reliability at Upstart
11-2019 - 10-2025
Director of Engineering, Production Readiness, Developer Experience, and Operations - Adobe Express at Adobe
2-2018 - 12-2019
Senior Engineering Manager, Quality Engineering + Developer Experience - Emerging Devices at Amazon
1-2017 - 2-2018
Senior Engineering Manager, Quality Engineering + Developer Experience - Alexa Smart Home at Amazon
9-2014 - 1-2017
Senior Engineering Manager, Quality Engineering - Alexa Smart Home | Alexa Mobile App at Amazon

Education

1993 - 1997
HS Diploma from Douglas County High School

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 17 Location : Woodinville, Washington, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Director of Reliability at Upstart
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Insights For Selling To Nico

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Acknowledge their status and position during the conversation
  • Look like someone who is on top of their game
  • Get them to a point where they are ready to bat for your product internally

DONT's

  • Don’t be very informal even if they are being so themselves
  • Avoid focusing only on the product or its ROI, keep building trust subtly
  • Don’t be too verbose or overly friendly; a little bit, however, is fine

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Nico is

  • Confidence in the product’s value is critical, followed by relationship and a sense of achievement.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Nico

  • They will not hesitate to say no if they do not develop conviction.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Nico move?

  • If they develop confidence in your product and you, then they can make fast decisions.
  • Can Nico take some risk or not?

  • If necessary, they have the ability to take risky decisions.

You And Nico

Personality Compatibility


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