Dave Baiocchi is a member of Expeditionary's Advisory Board.
Dave Baiocchi (bye-OH-key) is an engineer-turned-strategist who specializes in the human dimension of artificial intelligence. He advises leaders on how to bridge the gap between advanced technical capabilities and the practical realities of organizational adoption. As the founder of Spark & Compass, Dave helps established organizations navigate the identity shift required to integrate AI into high-stakes workflows, ensuring that technology augments rather than displaces human judgment.
Dave’s perspective is shaped by nearly two decades of experience solving multidimensional problems at the intersection of policy, technology, and national security. He spent ten years as a Senior Researcher at the RAND Corporation, where he led client-funded projects for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, NASA, and the Intelligence Community. His work at RAND focused on helping federal clients understand the strategic implications of emerging technologies and designing resilient systems for uncertain futures.
Dave brings a problem-behind-the-problem diagnostic approach to the Expeditionary Advisory Board. He argues that the primary barrier to AI success in complex fields is rarely the technology itself, but rather the mental models and workflows of the humans using it. His expertise lies in designing policy frameworks and adoption strategies that allow professionals to trust and leverage AI partners without ceding their essential role of judgment.
In addition to his leadership at Spark & Compass, Dave is a Professor at the RAND School of Public Policy, where he guides Ph.D. students in empirical research design and policy analysis. He began his career as an optical designer for space-based systems at Sandia National Laboratories. Dave holds a Ph.D. in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona and a B.S. in Physics from DePaul University.
