Career Highlights

• Senior Field Engineer at SpaceX: Leading AI enterprise adoption. Helps enterprises evaluate and adopt AI in engineering workflows through discovery, demos, and proof-of-concept work.
• Field Engineer at Cursor: Teaching CTOs and engineering departments at top companies how to adopt agentic coding and AI-powered development. Cursor is the industry leader in agentic coding for enterprise, used by over 60% of the Fortune 500.
• CPO at Mini Studio: Led product for Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) backed AI animation company creating The Fuzzlets series with millions of followers, building the next Pixar with highest-quality AI animation in the industry
• AI founder & CEO of Ditto: Raised $1.85M, 40k+ attendances of group hangs, and 5k+ real-world connections
• AI consultant, CPO, and CTO of Goodpods: Directed design, engineering, and product teams for AI-powered podcast apps with social networks
• Cofounder of Poke Radar: 10M+ users, acquired by Glu, which was the #1 app in the App Store and #1 in the Google Play Store
• Early backend engineer at Tinder: Contributed to 75M+ users, $1B+ annual revenue, and a leader in social networking and AI-powered matchmaking
• Full-stack developer & designer: Created 12 apps in 12 months while living in Portugal, with expertise in UX/UI design, software engineering, and AI development
• Caltech-educated AI expert: Studied Computer Science (CS) at Caltech, with a strong foundation in machine learning, AI ethics, and software engineering
• Current focus: Leading AI enterprise adoption at SpaceX, helping organizations evaluate and adopt AI in engineering workflows

Services Offered

• Work Together - AI and tech consulting services for startups and established companies
• Surf Together - Connect for surfing sessions in Santa Barbara and around California
• Book a Call - Schedule a paid consultation for tech, AI, product, or leadership advice

About Santiago Gonzalez-Garza

Santi Garza, also known by his full names Santiago Gonzalez-Garza or Santiago Garza, is an AI tech leader based in Santa Barbara, California. He works as a Senior Field Engineer at SpaceX, leading AI enterprise adoption. Previously a Field Engineer at Cursor, the industry leader in agentic coding, helping CTOs and engineering teams adopt AI-powered development. His background includes early backend engineering at Tinder, founding and leading Ditto as CEO, founding Poké Radar, serving as CPO & CTO at Goodpods, and CPO at a16z-backed AI animation studio Mini Studio. He is passionate about AI, agentic coding, social networks, and the future of human-technology interaction.

AI Tech Founders in Santa Barbara

As one of Santa Barbara's leading AI tech founders, Santi Garza is a Senior Field Engineer at SpaceX leading AI enterprise adoption. Previously a Field Engineer at Cursor, working with CTOs and engineering departments on agentic coding. His experience spans backend engineering on the original team at Tinder, founding consumer apps that reached tens of millions of users, executive product roles at AI-first companies, and Caltech computer science.