Jake Chen

I think about how intelligence leaves the lab and enters the physical world — and the invisible infrastructure required to make it trustworthy.

For the past six years, I've worked at Waymo as a Strategy Lead, advising the executive team on questions that sit at the intersection of autonomy, market readiness, and trust. Before that, I was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, where I worked across technology, financial services, and retail on go-to-market, pricing, and growth strategy.

My earlier career spans analytics at HubSpot, product strategy at Microsoft, and five years of management consulting at Deloitte — building customer scoring models, launching digital video platforms, and designing data infrastructure. Across 15+ years, the through-line has been the same: understanding how complex systems create and capture value.

I hold an MBA from MIT Sloan and a double major in Finance and Information Systems from the University of Minnesota. I write not to build an audience, but to think more clearly about problems that resist easy answers.