Davide Di Censo

About · Bologna, Italy → Oakland, California

I connect the disciplines it takes to build difficult products.

I am a technology and product leader, inventor and hands-on builder. My background is computer science with deep expertise in human-computer interaction, and my career has been spent at the point where emerging technology meets people: HP/Palm, HARMAN’s Future Experience Team, Faurecia’s Cockpit of the Future, LG’s Silicon Valley Lab and LG NOVA, and now ReliefAI Health, where I am Head of Engineering & Product and employee #1.

The pattern repeats. I find what a new technology makes possible, define a useful human experience around it, build a working system that proves the idea, and then help turn the idea into a product, a platform and, most recently, a company. I am not equally specialized in every discipline that takes. The point is that I know how to connect them.

Davide Di Censo
Based in
Oakland, California
From
Bologna, Italy
Now
Head of Engineering & Product, ReliefAI Health
Patents
55+ U.S. granted
01Range

From strategy to the soldering iron.

Hard products usually fail in the gaps between disciplines. I work across the whole span so those gaps stay closed.

  1. 01

    Strategy

    Where a technology is going and what it could be worth.

  2. 02

    Product

    What to build, for whom, and what to leave out.

  3. 03

    UX / HCI

    How it should feel, and why people will keep using it.

  4. 04

    Software

    Architecture, APIs and the code that makes it real.

  5. 05

    Systems

    Sensors, edge AI, cloud, and everything between.

  6. 06

    Hardware

    Microcontrollers, actuators, boards and enclosures.

  7. 07

    Prototyping

    Working systems people can hold, fast.

02Now

Now: ReliefAI Health.

ReliefAI Health is an LG NOVA-backed digital health venture, launched in 2025 from LG Electronics’ North American Innovation Center. It builds a B2B behavioral health platform that helps therapy practices extend care between sessions and sustain it through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring. I joined in June 2025 as the first employee and Head of Engineering & Product.

The role is the whole technical and product side of a young company: product and technology strategy, the patient app and provider portal, a FHIR-native backend on a serverless cloud architecture, AI features such as voice journaling and voice biomarker analysis, engineering execution, and the team and process that let a small company ship. Because the platform handles protected health information, I am also the company’s HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer and Head of IT: I own the security architecture, run the HIPAA program, am taking the company through SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, and oversee the platform’s qualification as FDA Software as a Medical Device. At LG NOVA the job was advanced innovation and creating ventures. At ReliefAI the job is the venture itself.

Engineering leadership

Platform architecture, delivery, quality and the engineering team.

Product leadership

Clinical and operational needs translated into a scalable, user-centered product.

AI-enabled development

Voice journaling, voice biomarkers and clinician-facing insights that support therapists rather than replace them.

Security, compliance and IT

HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer, SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, security architecture, vendor and BAA management, company IT.

reliefai.co
03Experience

Experience

  1. Jun 2025 — Present

    Current

    Santa Clara, CA

    ReliefAI Health

    Head of Engineering & Product

    • Head of Engineering & ProductJun 2025 — Present
    • HIPAA Privacy and Security OfficerJun 2025 — Present
    • Head of ITJun 2025 — Present

    Employee #1 at an LG NOVA-backed digital health venture. ReliefAI builds a B2B behavioral health platform that helps therapy practices extend care between sessions and sustain it through Remote Therapeutic Monitoring. I own product and engineering end to end: the patient mobile app and provider portal, a FHIR-native healthcare backend on a serverless cloud architecture, and AI applied where it helps clinicians rather than replaces them. Because the company handles protected health information, I am also its HIPAA Privacy and Security Officer and Head of IT: I own the security architecture and am taking the company through HIPAA compliance and SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2.

    • Product and engineering leadership from MVP to commercial launch
    • Healthcare data architecture and interoperability: FHIR, cloud-native serverless
    • Applied AI for behavioral health: voice journaling, voice biomarker analysis, clinician-facing insights
    • Security and compliance: HIPAA program, SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2, security architecture, vendor and BAA management
    • IT: company systems, devices, access and tooling
    • Platform qualification as FDA Software as a Medical Device, the basis for RTM reimbursement
    • Building the team, the delivery process and the engineering practices from the first hire
    • Digital health
    • AI
    • Platform
    • Security & compliance
    • Venture building

  2. Sep 2020 — Jun 2025

    Santa Clara, CA

    LG Electronics / LG NOVA

    Emerging Technologies, CTO North America Innovation Office

    • Edge AI Leader & Product OwnerMar 2024 — Jun 2025
    • Telehealth Platform Leader & Product OwnerSep 2021 — May 2024
    • Future Experience Sr. ArchitectSep 2020 — Sep 2021

    Led LG's first telehealth product from proof of concept to commercial launch with Amwell, as the directly responsible individual for two cross-functional teams of 18 people. Then owned Edge AI R&D for the Emerging Tech department, defining the next generation of on-device AI applications with global teams, headquarters and business units. Recognized as High Potential talent and selected for the LG LeAP Ahead leadership program.

    • Telehealth platform: product definition, roadmap, user research, stakeholder alignment across Amwell, LG CTO and CSO organizations, and the LG NOVA Digital Health team
    • Designed platform APIs and communication protocols; contributed production code in React and TypeScript
    • Introduced AI-assisted patient monitoring, recognized by senior leadership and the source of several patent filings
    • Earlier, led wearable biomechanics sensing: project DRI, product manager, mobile and data-acquisition developer, prototype architect
    • Digital health
    • Edge AI
    • Product ownership
    • Platform

  3. Jun 2018 — Apr 2020

    Sunnyvale, CA

    Faurecia

    Innovation Leader, Silicon Valley

    Led Faurecia's innovation in the Bay Area: new concepts around smart surfaces, occupant monitoring, autonomous transportation and new mobility, a dozen interactive demonstrators and prototypes built end to end, co-development with OEMs, university collaborations, and startup scouting. Introduced a dedicated fueling committee to give early-stage projects a real pipeline.

    • Context-aware ambient display door panel, installed in a demo vehicle with a French OEM's Silicon Valley R&D branch
    • HMI for advanced seat adjustments and an individual micro-mobility concept
    • Increased the North American organization's innovation and patenting output by 40%
    • Automotive
    • HMI
    • Mobility
    • Prototyping

  4. Feb 2017 — Mar 2020

    Viae Diversae Consulting

    Strategic consulting

    Worked with individuals, small teams and large organizations on product and concept development toward productization: market alignment, portfolio positioning, features and UX.

    • Strategy
    • Product

  5. Sep 2012 — Feb 2017

    Palo Alto and Mountain View, CA

    HARMAN International

    Future Experience Team

    • Sr. R&D Manager and Principal EngineerJun 2016 — Feb 2017
    • R&D Manager, Future ExperienceSep 2012 — Jun 2016

    Vision-driven UX research and engineering for automotive, consumer and professional audio: mid-air haptics with Ultrahaptics, the JBL speaker with Google's Project Soli, audio augmented reality, pupil-based driver monitoring, eye-gaze and vergence sensing, shape-shifting controllers, and HARMAN's lead on the €2.5M Horizon 2020 FANCI consortium. Dozens of invention disclosures from this period became granted patents.

    • Scoped, staffed and ran advanced technology projects; managed contractors, consultants, interns and partner companies
    • Represented the team to HARMAN's executive committee and CEO, investors and partner CEOs
    • Presented at CES and tech days across Europe, Asia and the Americas; co-authored an IEEE Sensors 2016 paper nominated for Best Industrial Paper
    • Automotive
    • Audio
    • Haptics
    • Sensing
    • Patents

  6. Jul 2009 — May 2012

    Sunnyvale, CA

    HP / Palm

    Emerging Platforms, webOS and Future Concepts

    • Advanced Prototyping Engineer, Future Concepts Team, R&DAug 2011 — May 2012
    • webOS Application Catalog QA Lead, HP Cloud ServicesAug 2010 — Aug 2011
    • Third-party applications QA lead, Emerging Platforms GroupJul 2009 — Aug 2010

    Started in the Emerging Platforms Group on the Compaq AirLife 100, coordinating third-party application partners on Android and Chrome OS devices. Led QA for the webOS Application Catalog through the TouchPad, Pre 2, Pre 3 and Veer launches. Then joined Palm's Future Concepts team to research and prototype interaction models five or more years out: augmented reality writing, Ghost Fingers, Augmented Glass.

    • Mobile
    • AR
    • Shipped products
See the products that shipped
04Capabilities

Capabilities

  • Engineering and product leadership

    Leading cross-functional teams of researchers, designers, engineers and QA from ideation to productization. At LG, two teams across four states and two countries; at ReliefAI, the whole engineering and product function as employee #1.

  • Product definition and strategy

    Turning research and market signals into product scope, roadmaps and partnerships. Managed large grant projects, contracted agencies and go-to-market partners such as Amwell.

  • Human-computer interaction

    Interaction design, multimodal interfaces, human-machine and human-human interaction, informed by cognitive psychology. Gesture, gaze, haptics, audio and ambient displays.

  • Architecture and software

    System architecture, API and protocol design, and application code in React, TypeScript and Swift. Working knowledge across C, C++, Java, SQL and shell scripting, including parallel programming.

  • AI and Edge AI

    AI-enabled product development, from ML and DSP pipelines on wearable IMUs to skeletal tracking on an NPU in a hospital room and LLM summarization in a clinical workflow.

  • Hardware and prototyping

    End-to-end prototyping across hardware, software, firmware, mechanical and electrical design: microcontrollers, sensors and actuators, circuit board design, laser cutting and 3D printing.

  • Commercialization

    Path from proof of concept to production, including feature prioritization with partners, executive and OEM demonstrations, and trade shows including CES and Google I/O.

  • Invention

    55+ granted U.S. patents and more than 200 applications. Empirical studies, experimental design and statistical evaluation feed the patent process as much as the prototypes do.

Education

M.Sc. Computer Science, University of Bologna. Study abroad at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as part of the master's program. Research focus on Human-Computer Interaction.

Languages

Italian (native), English (full professional), Spanish (limited working)

Mentoring

Supervised eleven students and interns between 2013 and 2015 from RISD, Art Center College of Design, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, University of Pennsylvania, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado Denver.

Publications

Co-author, “Sensor Fusion Paradigm for Smart Interactions Between Driver and Vehicle”, IEEE Sensors 2016, nominated for Best Industrial Paper. Author of the Ghost Fingers research paper at HP/Palm.

05Press and media

Press and media

06Contact

Get in touch

dicenso.davide@gmail.com