Nicolas Ayache is an experienced engineering leader and researcher, currently serving as Engineering Manager at Nomadic Labs. He oversees the Etherlink core R&D team focused on building a fast, fair, and nearly free EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain on Tezos. With over 15 years of expertise in formal methods, software verification, and critical system development, Nicolas has held various technical and managerial roles, including at Clearsy and IKOS GROUP, where he specialized in safety-critical railway systems and formal verification. He holds a Ph.D. in formal verification from CEA-LIST and Université Paris-Sud, where he developed tools to simplify the validation of critical embedded systems.