Summary
David Rivas is a seasoned technology executive and CTO at Rigetti Computing, where he oversees hardware and software engineering for cloud-based quantum computing systems. With 21 years leading product, software, hardware, and go-to-market efforts across startups and multi-billion-dollar companies, he blends hands-on technical depth with strategic leadership. He has built and scaled engineering organizations—from cloud data pipelines at Bolt Threads to enterprise SaaS platforms and hardware-enabled consumer products at Nokia and Sun Microsystems—driving P/L responsibility, partnerships, and open-source ecosystems. His background as an applied mathematician and scientific programmer informs a rigorous, problem-driven approach to ambitious products and new markets, including M&A, fundraising, and multi-party negotiations. Based in San Francisco, he combines global leadership with a track record of delivering complex, production-grade systems at scale. He has led teams through transitions from traditional software to cloud-native architectures, operating across SaaS, hardware-software integration, and emerging technologies.
22 years of coding experience
8 years of employment as a software developer
Santa Monica Alternative School
University of California San Diego