# DJ Patil

> DJ Patil is a General Partner at GreatPoint Ventures in San Francisco. He coined the modern title 'data scientist' while at LinkedIn, served as the first U.S. Chief Data Scientist under President Obama, and was CTO of the Biden-Harris Transition. He now invests in healthcare, enterprise tech, and national security.

- **Role:** General Partner at GreatPoint Ventures
- **Organizations:** GreatPoint Ventures, Devoted Health, Venrock (advisor), LinkedIn (former), RelateIQ (former), Greylock Partners (former), U.S. Department of Defense (former), White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (former)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Coursework, De Anza College, B.A., Mathematics, University of California, San Diego, M.A., Applied Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park, Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park
- **Known for:** First U.S. Chief Data Scientist (2015-2017), Launched the Police Data Initiative covering 130+ jurisdictions, Led the Data-Driven Justice Initiative across communities covering 91M people

## Career timeline

- **2001** — PhD in Applied Mathematics, University of Maryland; faculty research on nonlinear dynamics and numerical weather prediction.
- **2004** — Joined Department of Defense, leading the Threat Anticipation Project.
- **2008** — At LinkedIn with Jeff Hammerbacher (Facebook), coins the modern job title 'data scientist'.
- **2011** — Data scientist-in-residence at Greylock Partners; publishes 'Building Data Science Teams'.
- **2012** — Co-authors HBR essay calling data scientist 'the sexiest job of the 21st century'.
- **2014** — VP of Product at RelateIQ, acquired by Salesforce.
- **2015** — Named first U.S. Chief Data Scientist by President Obama.
- **2017** — Joined Devoted Health as Head of Technology; advisor at Venrock.
- **2020** — Served as CTO of the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition.
- **2023** — Joins GreatPoint Ventures as General Partner.

## Achievements

- First U.S. Chief Data Scientist (2015-2017)
- Launched the Police Data Initiative covering 130+ jurisdictions
- Led the Data-Driven Justice Initiative across communities covering 91M people
- Championed the Precision Medicine Initiative
- Co-authored seminal HBR essay defining the data scientist role
- Early investor in Figma, Confluent, Monte Carlo, Chronosphere, Sumo Logic
- Featured in two Michael Lewis books

## Latest updates

- **2023-02** — Announced as General Partner at GreatPoint Ventures.

## Links

- Website: https://gpv.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpatil
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/dpatil

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/dj-patil
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-20