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Rafael Santos

Investor

Advisor at FCJ Venture Builder

Brazil

Find your path to Rafael

249 people in our graph share verified history with Rafael — schools, employers, funds. One of them is your warm intro.

Tommi UhariunlockedRafael: together at Alcatel (2002–2003)
×5Rafael: together at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
Rafael: together at FGV - Fundação Getulio Vargas
×3Rafael: together at Alcatel

About

Rafael Santos is a founding engineer at Dirt AI with 25+ years of experience in startup scaling, product leadership, and AI systems engineering. He has founded four startups and led product and technology functions at two scale-ups, developing digital solutions across IoT, real estate, automotive, and SaaS platforms. Santos currently teaches generative AI and data leadership at MIT, serves as a technology advisor to startups, and has hands-on expertise in AI agents, distributed systems, and platform architecture.

Experience

  1. Dirt AIFounding Engineercurrent2025 — present
  2. InfinitePathsIOStartups Board & Tech Advisorcurrent2023 — present
  3. InfinitePathsIOAI Literacy & Tech Leadership Educator (MIT, IFTL)current2023 — present
  4. MIT Professional EducationEducator for Online Programs (Generative AI & AI Agents, Data Leadership, others)current2022 — present
  5. FCJ Venture BuilderInvestor & former Operations Advisorcurrent2023 — present
  6. Lumenalta (formerly Clevertech)Hands-on Engineering Manager2022 — 2025
  7. MC1 - Win The MarketChief Product Officer (CPO) - Leading Product, Design and Engineering teams2021 — 2022
  8. CreditasProduct Lead | Lead PM - Creditas Auto2021Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  9. CreditasLeading Product for Creditas Home (Real Estate) an Creditas Auto (Used Car Market)2019 — 2021São Paulo Area, Brazil
  10. CreditasSenior Product Manager - PIX (Central Bank's Instant Payment Method)2020 — 2021Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  11. CreditasSenior Product Manager - New Products2019São Paulo Area, Brazil
  12. Decision6CPO/CTO & Founder - In-Store Customer Behavior Analytics SaaS Platform2014 — 2019Rio de Janeiro Area, Brazil
  13. MetaCerta.comCEO/CTO & Founder - SaaS Finance Management for SMB2013 — 2015Rio de Janeiro Area, Brazil
  14. SpectaCEO/CTO & Founder - Outsourcing high-performance product teams2008 — 2015Rio de Janeiro / RJ / Brazil
  15. NullPointer LabsEngineering Manager2007 — 2008
  16. Modulo Security SolutionsLead QA Engineer2006 — 2007
  17. Instituto Gênesis PUC-RioVolunteer2005
  18. ThinkFreakFounder - First VoIP network provider in Brazil2003 — 2004Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  19. AlcatelInternship2002 — 2003
  20. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de JaneiroInternship @ Cetuc2001 — 2002

Skills & more

Strategic ThinkingStrategy4Problem Solving1Design ThinkingWritingLeadership11AI AgentsGenerative AIRetrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)1Generative AI ToolsPlaybookTechnical Leadership
+12 moreTechnical AdvisoryEarly-stage StartupsStartup DevelopmentBusiness StrategyAdvisory BoardsSystems DesignEmerging TechnologiesTechnology ResearchTeachingSoftware EngineeringProduct ManagementProduct Development

Languages English · Portuguese

  • Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation — MIT Professional Education
  • Lean Startup Program | Startup Accelerator - Startup MetaCerta — Startup Farm
  • ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers — DeepLearning.AI
  • LEAN GOVERNANCE — Board Academy Br
  • Lean Startup Program | Startup Accelerator - Startup mylogin — Startup Farm
  • TOEFL - Test of English as Foreign Language — EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE GLOBAL B V
  • Proficiency (C2) — BSC London Hampstead (Former Hampstead School of English)
  • BEC - Business English Certificate Vantage - Council of Europe Level B2 — University of Cambridge
  • Product Manager — PM3
  • Ciclo Diploma — Cultura Inglesa

From Rafael's professional profile.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Rafael Santos?
Rafael Santos is a founding engineer at Dirt AI with 25+ years of experience in startup scaling, product leadership, and AI systems engineering. He has founded four startups and led product and technology functions at two scale-ups, developing digital solutions across IoT, real estate, automotive, and SaaS platforms. Santos currently teaches generative AI and data leadership at MIT, serves as a technology advisor to startups, and has hands-on expertise in AI agents, distributed systems, and platform architecture.
Where does Rafael Santos work?
Rafael Santos is Advisor at FCJ Venture Builder.
Where did Rafael Santos go to school?
Rafael Santos studied at MIT Professional Education (Acting as a Learning Facilitator (no degree), Generative AI); FGV - Fundação Getulio Vargas (MBA, Business Management / Gestão Empresarial); Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (Engineer’s Degree, Computer Engineering).

Same school

Shared employers

Also worked at Modulo Security Solutions1

Arti Arora RamanFounder at Portal26