Meet Chris, Method’s information security lead!

Take a peek into life at Method through a candid interview with Chris.

We'd love to learn more about you. Describe your role on the team.

I joined Method in January 2025 out of our DC office, and honestly? It's been a wild ride in the best way.

I was brought on to help build out and mature the Security & IT function, and I love that kind of challenge. There's something really exciting about getting to define how things are done rather than just inheriting a playbook. That's the thing about working at a startup. No two weeks look the same. You get real autonomy, you wear a lot of hats, and your work actually moves the needle.

I think about security across four areas: Product Security, Security Assurance (Governance Risk Compliance), Corporate Security, and Security Operations. I started with a focus on GRC and IT, and over time I've grown into cloud security and platform/infrastructure work, things like optimizing our systems and reducing operational spend. It's been a cool progression, and I'm genuinely excited about where we're headed.

What is the most impactful piece of work you have done at Method?

What keeps me up at night is the thought of us getting hacked, so a lot of what I do is making sure that never happens and that we can prove it to the people who need to know.

One of the most impactful things I've done is helping unlock enterprise customers by obtaining our PCI DSS v4.0.1 certification. Large financial institutions do thorough security reviews, and having that certification lets them move faster with us, which helps shorten our sales cycle with big customers that would have otherwise taken much longer to close.

More recently, a big win has been optimizing our infrastructure to achieve $500K+ in annualized savings. We were spending around $60-70K a month on systems alone and got that down to about $20K. (And we're still improving!).

What is the most ambitious personal project you have ever completed?

Hockey. I grew up playing my whole life and genuinely had dreams of going pro. That picture got a little clearer when I was 17 and my teammate got drafted 22nd overall to the Montreal Canadiens. He still plays today and actually scored his first NHL goal right here in DC.

That was the moment I realized my path was heading in a different direction. But the love of the game never went away. I still play in a league on Sunday nights. Fun fact, Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, plays in it too, which makes for some interesting games.

If you weren't working at Method, what would you be working on?

Outside of work, I've really been embracing slowing down. Being a new dog dad, spending more time away from the screen, building things around the house. I've also become oddly passionate about the lawn. Seeding it, mulching, the whole thing. It actually ties back to my very first job, where I worked at a garden center as a cashier, packing mulch, and helping around the greenhouse. So there's something full circle about it.

Mostly though, I'm spending time with my dog Otto. He's a golden retriever we got during COVID. It turns out his dad, Jack Daniel, won the Sporting Group at the Westminster Dog Show, something we had absolutely no idea about when we found him on a farm in Delaware. Now he comes everywhere with me: hikes, beach trips, you name it, he is with me.

What's been your favorite memory with the team so far?

Cape Cod, no question. It was my first glamping experience, everyone had their own Airstream, which I thought was pretty cool. Then a hurricane showed up, which could have been a disaster but honestly just made it more memorable.

It was also a moment when the engineering team was really starting to grow, so I got to meet a lot of new faces and bond with people across Engineering, CS, and Product. There's something about being in good company when things go sideways. It just becomes funny. That trip really stands out as the moment the team felt like a team.