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Engineering and data leadership

Joe Saia

Engineering and data leader building software, data systems, and teams for high-stakes, high-growth environments.

I'm a PhD economist who has spent 15 years building across startups, healthtech, AI, and data infrastructure. I'm interested in teams that combine intellectual depth, practical execution, and meaningful impact.

Joe Saia
15 years
Building software and data systems
PhD
Columbia economist
Research
Economic modeling, Bayesian methods, and causal inference
25 people
Engineering and data org leadership
AI + data
Production systems in healthtech and startups

Working thesis

What I look for in the work, and the teams doing it.

01

Teams with real leverage

Great teams become more than the sum of their parts through hiring, ways of working, and the trust that lets people argue and ship anyway. I've led a 25-person engineering and data org, worked inside a global four-person team punching far above its weight, and served on a corporate Senior Leadership Team.

02

Work that matters

I want to help build things that improve the world. That has meant public-sector research, work on systems-level economic questions, and healthtech products that improve individual lives.

03

Colleagues with depth and range

I've gone deep on theory through a Columbia PhD, Bayesian research, and causal inference, then wide on practice by building data infrastructure, ML pipelines, and engineering teams across seed, Series A, and growth-stage companies.

04

Pragmatic AI

I've built AI tools embedded in production applications, including triage assistants, and I'm excited by the shift underway. I'm also realistic about today's limits and interested in how teams reshape work around what should be automated and what should stay human.

If that describes a team you're building — or one you'd want to put me in touch with — let's talk.

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