How Marine Linguist Chase Garcia Became a Tech Leader

Throughout his career, Chase Garcia has sought ways to challenge himself while making an impact on the world around him. He found these opportunities first in the U.S. Marine Corps and now at Booz Allen. It’s a professional journey that has spanned from linguistics to machine learning across a growing list of certifications and specialized roles. Read on to learn more.

Chase became a Marine right out of high school. “I wanted to push myself and find the limits of where I might excel.”

Linguistics intelligence and foreign languages fit the bill, leading to proficiency in both Mandarin Chinese and Korean. “It was one of the harder jobs to get, and I was excited to do it,” Chase says.

Openness to new experiences, a sense of adventure, and intellectual curiosity propelled him through a successful military career that also included roles as an operational planning manager, platoon sergeant, linguist, and intelligence analyst across multiple deployments and duty stations.

After earning a bachelor's degree in international relations and separating from the military, Chase contemplated his next move. “I was looking at the things I valued like service, wanting to be useful, and continuing to take on new challenges. I was figuring out where I could apply the talents and abilities that I had gained to something bigger than myself,” he says.

In 2012, that drive led him to Booz Allen.

Chase calls the move “a big step into the unknown.”

“Coming out of the military into the civilian, industry, and contractor world, it’s kind of your first foray into a completely different dynamic,” he says. “You really don't know what to expect.”

What’s more, while Chase’s new job involved supporting the intelligence community, the position had a significant—and unfamiliar—technology focus as well. “It was a very big learning curve,” he remembers.

But he soon found a community where there were “people coming from different backgrounds—some veterans like me, some coming from careers in the government, and others completely from the outside—all focused on supporting our client’s mission.”

He also found himself intrigued by areas like cybersecurity, network engineering, and emerging technologies. “All of this was very interesting to me,” says Chase. “And Booz Allen was able to give me an open door and a hand up.”

Now 11 years later, Chase has earned an M.B.A. as well as certifications in cybersecurity, Agile development, program management, and most recently, AI.

He says it’s all been invaluable to his professional growth and especially his latest role as the technical risk lead for Booz Allen’s national security business. In this role, he works with colleagues and leaders firmwide to improve processes and policies, and assesses where technology investments can be leveraged to reduce technical risks for new opportunities.

“As we continue to tackle some of the hardest challenges in national security and defense, we want to grow our presence within our clients’ core missions,” says Chase. “At the same time, we are looking at how we can do this smartly and strategically, with focus and discipline to really create new value.”

AI is one example. “At Booz Allen, we’re working to understand what's in the realm of the possible when it comes to AI and machine learning,” Chase says. “For example, we’re looking at where to use these tools in the environments we have and how to engineer new environments to maximize the potential for these technologies.”

In the firm’s quest to answer questions like these, “I’m continuing to grow and learn new things,” Chase says.

His advice for others interested in a similar career path: “Be open to opportunities as they come to you. Develop a broad array of interests. Be flexible and enjoy the journey along the way.”