In this installment of our ID.me Employee Spotlight Series, we’re excited to highlight Tate Jarrow. Tate’s career reflects a deep commitment to security: He began his career as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army and gained valuable experience in cyber investigations and security at the U.S. Secret Service. Before joining ID.me in May 2024, Tate also served in cybersecurity product leadership roles at Google.
Today, as Vice President of Wallet (Product), Tate supports our wallet and identity teams, which are responsible for ID.me’s identity verification flows, member support tool, authentication, and more. Tate brings an authentic, lead-by-example leadership style to his work at ID.me, which is all about making the digital world a safer, easier place to navigate for our members.
As we grow, ID.me is looking for more dedicated professionals like Tate who are passionate about building great products for our members. Explore our results-driven culture, competitive compensation, and benefits at ID.me Careers.
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Tell us about your team and your current role?
I’ve had a really fascinating and fun career at ID.me so far. It’s what I love about start-ups and high-growth companies – no shortage of change and challenges to tackle! I was hired to be a Sr. Director of Product for Wallet. Shortly after starting, I was asked to cover down on leading the fraud team on an interim basis (I have some fraud experience in my background), and then I took over an expanded role as we grew our Wallet org.
Currently, I’m the VP of Wallet (Product), supporting our wallet and identity teams, which are responsible for our identity verification flows, support tool, authentication, and developer portal, to name just a few things.
What are the things you like about working at ID.me?
I love ID.me’s mission. We are solving one of the most challenging problems for online safety, which is proving your identity on the internet while preventing someone else from using your identity to impersonate you. I think that ID.me is positioned to be one of the most important companies on the internet in the next 3-5 years. ID.me has the potential to be as ubiquitous on the internet as Google is. That vision and future is really exciting!
What is your favorite leadership principle and why?
“Lead by example” and “be authentic.” I guess that’s cheating because those are two principles, but they are linked. If you’re not authentic as a leader, people will see right through you – you can’t fake it; you have to be authentic.
Leading by example and being authentic about it is critical, because it builds trust, communicates without needing to explicitly dictate what the right thing to do is, and shows that you mean what you say with actions. Words are cheap – actions are what people look to. Leading by example is a good reminder that one’s actions speak louder than words.
Leading by example is about doing what you say, and showing people that you also do what you expect of other people. Being authentic is about being you, while leading by example. We all have different personalities, and that’s good. Leaders have different styles and that’s okay too. You should be authentic because when you try to be something you’re not, people will see through that, and you lose credibility.
So lead by example, and be authentic and you will earn the respect and trust of the people around you.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I’m really passionate about helping every day people like you and me achieve personal privacy and security in their lives. (This is one of the reasons why ID.me is awesome to work at – ID.me is helping people make themselves safer by providing secure and private control of their digital identity!). To this end, I spend a lot of time advising start-ups in the consumer cyber security space, and I serve as a board member on the victim-centric non-profit Cybercrime Support Network. I also publish a weekly Substack blog that provides actionable tips and advice for people to take to improve their privacy and security – you can check it out at https://onlinesafety.substack.com. Here’s a link for 100% off, or you can become a free subscriber!
I also compete in triathlons. I just wrapped my 4th season and I really enjoy cross-training with swimming, running, and cycling. I always work out in the morning – otherwise I find the day will get away from me and I won’t be able to fit it in!
What is the best career advice you have ever received?
Don’t worry about following a distinct path. Do things that are interesting to you and that you’re motivated to do. If you’re interested and motivated, everything else will follow – because if you’re interested and motivated, you are going to do well because you will care, you will want to learn, and you will go the extra mile. And doing well opens up doors for future opportunities everywhere. There’s no “right” or “correct” path that anyone has to follow. Chase what’s interesting and motivating and you’ll have a great career.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you came into your current role at ID.me.
I’ve had a really interesting, and I think atypical, career journey. By the way, one of the things I love about ID.me is that it’s filled with people from lots of different backgrounds and experiences – many of which do not fall into the normal “corporate path” that you see in other tech companies. I think that’s one of our great strengths as a company!
I started my journey as an Infantry Officer in the US Army. I graduated from West Point, and after my Infantry Officer training, Ranger School, and Airborne school, I was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Italy and served two combat deployments in Afghanistan as a Platoon Leader and a Company Executive Officer. From there, I moved to Georgia, where I served as an infantry basic training company commander and battalion XO before getting out of the military and joining the US Secret Service as a Special Agent. I started my career there in the New York Field Office where I did cyber investigations and physical protection – this is where I learned cyber security, fraud investigation, and other related skills. I then was assigned to the Counter Assault Team in Washington, D.C., which is a full-time protection tactical team. During this time, I got my MBA from Cornell University and decided to pivot into the private sector.
I started my private sector career in a cyber security role at Google in the Bay Area. One of the great things about Google is its internal mobility, and I moved to a leadership role in New York for an internal security team that used AI/ML to anticipate and mitigate security risk. I then pitched a startup idea to Google’s internal incubator for an app that would help users enhance their personal security and privacy, and got funded to found a company. I founded “Beacon,” building a team and an app, and was acquired by Google One (premium, subscription Google). After that, I led Google’s One advanced privacy and security product vertical that included products like Google’s VPN and Darkweb monitoring. I then joined a very early stage startup (series A) that was working to make cell phone networks private and secure by default (FYI, they aren’t), before being referred into ID.me by one of my former MBA classmates, and here I am!
What does your team do at ID.me?
The wallet team is responsible for serving our members. The wallet team is all about bringing new members into our ecosystem, helping them establish an identity attribute or community credential, and making it easy for them to use their wallet to access not only government services, but also great deals in marketplaces. We are responsible for ensuring it’s easy to sign up for ID.me, easy to use the wallet, and that the wallet always remains safe and secure.
What is special about ID.me compared to other identity verification companies on the market?
ID.me has done a great job of growing its member base (more than 130 million members). This means that for 130 million people it’s really easy to access great government services and deals, since they already have an ID.me account.
ID.me focuses on the member: the member’s experience, the member’s privacy, the member’s security. This member-focused approach means that our network is resilient and will continue to grow and be valuable for our members.
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Tate’s leadership, technical expertise, and unwavering dedication to security make him an invaluable part of our team ID.me. We’re proud to have leaders like Tate driving our mission to create a safer, more trusted digital world. Stay tuned for the next feature in the ID.me Employee Spotlight Series.
Want to join our team? Visit ID.me Careers to learn more about the benefits of working at ID.me or to explore open roles.
