Product & Engineering
David Watson

David is a master generalist. The common thread throughout his career has been consistently building complex cutting-edge technology that makes a real-world impact. 

Highlights

Google

David joined Google before it was a household name. He worked with the company during its hyper-growth stage, where it went from about 50 to 10,000 people. While at Google, he developed for core Search and led the creation of enterprise hardware solutions. 

Autonomous vehicles

At Voyage, David worked on building robo-taxis for seniors.  During his time at Aurora, he worked to commercialize self-driving vehicles. As Chief Architect at Embark, he wrote robotics software, designed safety-critical architecture, and led complex multi-team integrations in order to put self-driving trucks on interstate highways.

For David, the work he enjoys most as a builder is when he can quickly get his head in the game, and then do whatever it takes to breathe life into a product. 

Superpowers

Mastering new product domains

David is intrinsically motivated by things that are new to him—he works best when he’s diving into unfamiliar industries and getting in over his head. For him, that’s where maximum growth comes from—the thrill of pulling it off in new territory. 

Understanding the problem

David’s consistent approach is to roll up his sleeves in order to figure out the problem that needs solving. His specialty is architecting products, engineering cultures, and processes, but he can handle anything that’s thrown at him—both on the technical side and the leadership side of startups.