# Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji

> Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji is a Databricks co-founder and its senior vice president of Field Engineering. An Iran-born computer scientist educated at the University of Virginia and UC Berkeley, he moved from distributed-systems research to McKinsey strategy and then helped turn Berkeley research into an enterprise data company. His public argument is notably practical: AI earns its place through measurable outcomes, sound data, governance and people who can put the technology to work.

- **Role:** Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Field Engineering at Databricks
- **Organizations:** Databricks, McKinsey & Company, University of California, Berkeley, University of Virginia
- **From:** Iran
- **Education:** B.Eng in Computer Science and Economics, University of Virginia, PhD in Computer Science, Networking and Distributed Systems, University of California, Berkeley
- **Known for:** Co-founded Databricks in 2013 as part of a seven-person Berkeley founding team., Built and leads Databricks' global Field Engineering practice, described publicly in 2025 as more than 3,000 people., Earned a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley in networking and distributed systems.

## Career timeline

- **2005-2009** — Studied computer science at UC Berkeley and completed a PhD on hybrid routing for low-power wireless networks and large-scale data centers under Scott Shenker.
- **Before 2013** — Worked at McKinsey & Company as an Associate Principal, advising enterprises, technology vendors and the public sector on cloud, next-generation IT and corporate strategy.
- **2013** — Co-founded Databricks with six colleagues from the UC Berkeley research community.
- **2014-present** — Leads Field Engineering at Databricks, currently as Senior Vice President.
- **2025** — Described Databricks Field Engineering as a 3,000-plus-person global organization built around technical depth and a hands-on-keyboard mentality.
- **2026** — Continued advocating for governed, measurable enterprise AI through public interviews, customer forums and the Data + AI Summit.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Databricks in 2013 as part of a seven-person Berkeley founding team.
- Built and leads Databricks' global Field Engineering practice, described publicly in 2025 as more than 3,000 people.
- Earned a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley in networking and distributed systems.
- Helped translate a research-rooted data platform into a customer-facing enterprise operation with global reach.
- Has become a public advocate for outcome-driven AI adoption, data governance and technically deep field work.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Discussed the enterprise shift from token maxxing to value maxxing, focusing on cost control, governance and choosing the right model for each use case in a Bloomberg interview shared by Databricks.
- **2026-06** — Spoke about Databricks' expanding investment in India, describing it as an important growth and revenue market with strong enterprise AI adoption.
- **2026-06** — Appeared in the Data + AI Summit keynote and an enterprise perspectives fireside chat.
- **2026-04** — Joined Foundation Capital and Visa technology president Rajat Taneja for a discussion about moving enterprise AI from pilots to production.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arsalantavakoli
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/djpersia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arsalant

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/arsalan-tavakoli-shiraji
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26