Can you share your career journey and how you came to work at ID.me?
I joined ID.me as a new grad software engineer after earning a computer science degree from the University of Pennsylvania. I was fortunate to be the company’s first hire through its campus recruitment program.
ID.me’s mission immediately caught my attention during my job search. As the world becomes increasingly digitized and the web more decentralized, identity proofing has become both a highly technical challenge and a critical part of modern life. I am passionate about delivering technical solutions with a commitment to non-negotiable accuracy, which made ID.me’s mission especially meaningful to me.
What are some interesting facts about you?
I went back to school after a great run as a journalist in my previous career. The timing could not have been more exciting, as I gained in-depth knowledge of artificial intelligence as the field rapidly evolved. When AI agents started to rewrite the rules of software development, I graduated as an AI-native engineer.
My time in journalism made me an accuracy freak, and it also equipped me with knowledge across a wide range of subjects, so random fun facts may come up during a conversation with me.
How have you grown as a professional since joining ID.me?
ID.me goes all-in on AI and backs the initiative with real investment. As an engineer at ID.me, I have access to many of the leading coding assistant tools and veteran engineers who are actively re-imagining how to engineer.
This gives me a leg up as a new member of the industry, and I’ve been iterating on my coding approach alongside frontier models. The company’s work environment gives me a sense of security amid all the chatter around AI labor replacement: it’s okay if my AI experiment becomes irrelevant in two months; what matters most is taking an active part in the movement..
What are some of the best tech career tips you’ve received?
I’m very grateful to have learned some career-defining lessons from a senior leader who took the time to help me bootstrap my tech career. Here are three memorable tips that I’d like to share:
- “The best technology is simple and understandable.”
- “Engineers are always climbing from one blocker to another.”
- “A surprising amount of engineering is knowing where to look and who to ask.”
How does knowing who ID.me’s members are influence your approach to your work?
While ID.me provides robust digital solutions for members, I was surprised to learn that our company is still committed to helping members resolve identity-proofing questions over the phone. During my shadowing sessions with our frontline representatives, I was deeply touched by their empathy and patience, which ingrained in me the understanding that behind every identity, there’s a real person with a full life.
I will remember this experience forever. During one phone call, an elderly veteran was trying to set up his account and explained that he would need his wife, who was a bit more familiar with technology, to follow the representative’s step-by-step instructions. It was difficult to describe which buttons to click and how to retake a photo when the first attempt came out blurry, but the representative remained caring, patient, and explained every step in a way that was accessible and easy to follow. He wasn’t afraid to repeat himself or reword instructions until the couple felt comfortable moving on to the next step.
Helping the couple took 45 minutes, but I never sensed any frustration from the representative. By the end of the call, everyone was celebrating that the veteran would now have easier access to the many services across government agencies available to him. The couple were happy about their mighty victory in the digital world, and at that moment, I learned about the real meaning behind “No Identity Left Behind.”
Can you share an example of how your work makes a difference?
I worked on an engineering project to obtain the most up-to-date official military profile data for our members. At first, I was primarily focusing on the technical challenges, but after my shadowing experience, I realized that the data acquisition solution I built carried far more weight than the code itself might suggest.
Through collaboration with our sales team, I also learned how this work creates value for both our members and our customers. From time to time, companies and organizations want to offer exclusive benefits to military-affiliated individuals but some have struggled to do so because fraudulent claims allow ineligible people to take advantage of those offers at scale. In some cases, they have been forced to discontinue the programs altogether.
The data pipeline I built adds an extra layer of confidence to the military affliation validation process, helping connect legitimate members with the benefits intended for them. It’s rewarding to see how a technical solution can help strengthen trust, reduce fraud, and ensure that these opportunities reach the people they were designed to serve.
