David Sainte-Claire

Inquirer
DISC Type : dc

Director of Engineering at Shield AI

San Jose, California, United States

Overview

David Sainte-Claire is a senior technology leader with over 15 years of experience architecting distributed backend systems and scaling engineering teams at Shield AI, Meta, and Rivian. A graduate of San Diego State University, he is recognized by colleagues for his deep technical skills and high-quality work in systems integration.

Outside of his formal leadership role, David dedicates personal time to hands-on development. He recently spent a weekend building a basic agentic AI application template, showcasing a genuine passion for exploring and creating with emerging AI technologies beyond his day-to-day responsibilities.

He is a co-inventor on a patent for creating a "virtual meeting lobby" for people waiting to join an online event.

Personality Overview

Demanding

Upfront

ROI Conscious

They focus on objectivity in a pitch and pay little attention to bells and whistles.  They care equally about the product and its potential impact. They respond well to confident salespeople.

Topics They Care About

AI Infrastructure
He leads the team building "Forge, " the mission-critical infrastructure for developing, training, and validating Shield AI's autonomous AI pilot.
Distributed Systems
His career is centered on architecting and scaling massively distributed systems, including owning the infrastructure for Instagram's 2-Factor Authentication.
AI-assisted Development
He is actively driving the adoption of AI-assisted development workflows and pursuing a Master's degree in AI to deepen his expertise.

Media Appearances

David has no verified media appearances

Work History

7-2025
Director of Engineering at Shield AI
4-2024 - 7-2025
Software Engineering Manager at Meta
1-2022 - 4-2024
Senior Software Engineering Manager at Rivian
1-2018 - 1-2022
Engineering Manager, Mobile Partnerships at Facebook
2-2016 - 1-2018
Senior Staff Software Engineer / Manager at SmartThings

Education

High School from Bonita Vista
B.S from SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY December 2004

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 10 Location : San Jose, California, United States Job Level : Mid-senior Designation : Director of Engineering at Shield AI
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Insights For Selling To David

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Stress on the business value that your product offers
  • Ask them questions confidently while doing discovery, don’t be apologetic
  • Make sure that you you respond to any queries from them quickly

DONT's

  • Don’t try to be an alpha salesperson, give them equal space
  • Refrain from asking too many questions
  • Do not give up if they are not convinced, try again with a different approach

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with David is

  • Confidence in the product plays an important role, followed by powerful testimonials.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from David

  • They might hesitate a little, but they will say no if they are not convinced.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will David move?

  • They are neither the fastest decision makers nor the slowest.
  • Can David take some risk or not?

  • Once they have analyzed the pros and cons, they can take some risks.

You And David

Personality Compatibility


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