Data infrastructure
10 Databricks engineering leaders
These ten Databricks engineering leaders include Databricks' CTO and cofounder, its EMEA CTO and its CTO for neural networks, along with six vice presidents of engineering and a director who leads the Berlin site. Readers can learn how Databricks builds and scales its data and AI platform, from query processing, storage and Unity Catalog to security and privacy.
Professionals to explore
01—10Akhil Gupta
LinkedInExperience: VP, Engineering · Databricks
VP, Engineering at Databricks since June 2023 (current), after serving as CEO Co-Founder of Rubicon (2021–2023), which his profile notes was acquired by Databricks. At Dropbox he was GM and VP, Enterprise (2019–2020), Vice President Of Engineering (2015–2019) and Head of Infrastructure (2012–2015).
Arvind Mani
LinkedInExperience: VP of Engineering · Databricks
VP of Engineering at Databricks since October 2021 (current). His summary describes scaling security, privacy and abuse prevention systems across LinkedIn, Meta and Databricks, including building Meta's Privacy Infra org from a handful to 250 engineers. He was Engineering Director at Facebook (2017–2021) and Engineering Director, Member Trust & Safety at LinkedIn (2010–2017).
Dael Williamson
LinkedInExperience: EMEA CTO · Databricks
EMEA CTO at Databricks since March 2022 (current), a role his profile lists at executive C-suite level. He was Data Platform Practice Leader (Microsoft Business Group) at Accenture from 2018 to 2022, and he sits on advisory boards including Biorce and the Frugal AI Hub at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Gaurav Garg
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering · Databricks
Vice President of Engineering at Databricks since October 2024 (current), a role in the Engineering and Technical department. He was Head Of Engineering at CoinTracker (2021–2024), Vice President Of Engineering at Uber (2018–2021) and Vice President Of Engineering at Google (2006–2018).
Hanlin Tang
LinkedInExperience: CTO - Neural Networks · Databricks
CTO - Neural Networks at Databricks since July 2023 (current), a C-level engineering role, after serving as CTO and Co-Founder at Databricks Mosaic Research (2020–2023). He was Senior Director, AI Lab (2019–2020) and Principal Engineer (2016–2020) at Intel, and Power WG Chair at MLPerf (2018–2020).
Matei Zaharia
LinkedInExperience: CTO & Cofounder · Databricks
CTO & Cofounder of Databricks since 2013 (current) and Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley since 2023. His profile describes him as the creator of Apache Spark who has developed open-source projects including Delta Lake and MLflow, and he has been VP, Apache Spark at The Apache Software Foundation since 2014.
Michalis Petropoulos
LinkedInExperience: VP of Engineering · Databricks
VP of Engineering at Databricks since August 2023 (current). He was also Senior Director Of Engineering at Databricks (2021–2023), where his profile says he managed query processing and storage for Lakehouse, and Director Of Engineering at Google (2020–2021) and at Amazon Web Services (AWS) (2018–2020).
Tasso Argyros
LinkedInExperience: VP, Engineering · Databricks
VP, Engineering at Databricks since January 2025 (current). He was Founder & CEO of ActionIQ by Uniphore (2015–2024), Co-President of Teradata (2011–2014) and Founder & CTO of asterdata (acq. by Teradata) (2006–2011), and he has been an investor and board director at multiple companies since 2015.
Tim Januschowski
LinkedInExperience: Director of Engineering & Site Lead Berlin office · Databricks
Director of Engineering & Site Lead Berlin office at Databricks since February 2024 (current), where his profile says he oversees work on object storage and the Unity Catalog across Amsterdam and Berlin, including performance, security and usability. He was Director Pricing Platform at Zalando (2022–2024) and has been a Technical Advisor at WhyLabs since 2022.
Yan Leshinsky
LinkedInExperience: Vice President of Engineering · Databricks
Vice President of Engineering at Databricks since September 2025 (current). At Amazon Web Services (AWS) he was Vice President & GM, Amazon Aurora & RDS (2024–2025), Vice President & GM, Amazon Aurora (2023–2024), Vice President & GM, Amazon Redshift (2020–2023) and Director of Engineering (2012–2015).
Choose the right perspective
Match the leader's area to your question, since a platform CTO, a regional CTO and a vice president running one product area see different parts of the engineering organization. Look at each person's earlier roles to find someone whose background, such as databases, infrastructure or security, fits your decision.
Questions to take into the conversation
- 01How does Databricks decide which platform capabilities to build in-house versus acquire?
- 02How do you organize engineering teams around query processing, storage and governance in a lakehouse platform?
- 03What practices help an engineering organization scale security and privacy controls as the customer base grows?
About this directory
This is a professional research starting point based on business profile data retrieved on . Titles and companies reflect that source snapshot and may describe past or present roles. Check the linked profiles for current details. Inclusion does not imply Instant Expert membership or availability.
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