He arrived in the US in 2021, an experienced technology professional ready for his next career move. He was, however, met with shock. Things unfolded in ways he had not imagined.
“I didn’t land a tech role despite my expectations and experience,” says Jeff Gathethe, the 40-year-old systems architect. “I started at the very bottom.”
He began as a turnboy for a mattress company. Soon after, he became a long-haul truck driver.
“It was not what I had always wanted, but it offered a proper induction into America, the geography and the culture, and exposed the loneliness one can experience in the pursuit of dreams in a foreign country. I saw every corner of this country.”
That lesson hit home when his truck broke down in California. “My dispatcher didn't answer my calls for a day. When he finally did, he told me to stay in a hotel at my own cost. I didn’t have the money.”
After the company refused to fly him home, he paid for his own flight, quit, and returned to Washington with nothing but detoured dreams.
“I carry people’s pain too deeply,” he says. “I wasn’t built for healthcare.”
His next job was with a company called Green Latrine. Driving a vacuum truck (honey sucker) around Seattle, he cleaned and serviced up to 40 portable toilets a day.
“It was hard, humbling work. It taught me that dignity has nothing to do with job titles; it also gave me space to think. I learned things they definitely don’t teach you in business school. I could predict a supply-chain shortage of tissue paper just by looking at the lunch menu on a construction site. I developed a sixth sense for what I called ‘peak usage emergencies,’ which always hit about 15 minutes after the morning coffee truck left,” he jokes
But the jokes were a coping mechanism,” he admits, “I realised I was spending all my creative energy trying to make a job I didn’t like funny instead of finding a job that was fulfilling and one that matched my qualifications.”
During that time of reflection, he remembered Coca-Cola. Having worked with the beverage giant in Kenya as an IT project manager and across distribution and sales, he took a long shot. He decided to apply for the most basic entry point he could find.
Jeff Gathethe, the 40 year old IT Systems Specialist at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Fransisco, California in 2024.
Photo credit: Pool
“I thought they wouldn’t hire me into management,” he explains. “I needed a foot in the door.” He applied for a Merchandiser’s position. “Stocking shelves wouldn’t have been any difficult,” he recalls.
He submitted his resume. “It was everything I had done for a decade condensed into a page.” A decade of leadership in product strategy and systems architecture would be glamorous in Kenya, but he had somewhat lost faith in himself after the first two attempts at the greener-pastures dream.
One manager asked him, “You are overqualified for this. Would you consider a Distribution Manager role instead?”
Not known to him, his application had started conversations across departments. The digital team wanted him as a user experience manager. The sales department had two openings: Regional sales manager and market development manager.
Jeff Gathethe.
Photo credit: Pool
He was later contacted by the IT Department with a counteroffer—IT projects manager, leading national AI programmes. In just a week, he went from hoping he would be considered for a merchandiser’s role to being headhunted for senior leadership.
For the next year and a half at Swire Coca-Cola, Jeff led AI product strategy for more than 47,000 employees worldwide. His immediate challenge? Making technology actually help people do their jobs better.
“When I started, employees were drowning in procedures,” he says. “A new hire would spend weeks figuring out processes. HR managers hunted for compliance rules. Supervisors would spend endless days reviewing manuals for safety protocols. Everyone was frustrated.”
His solution was a personalised AI assistant akin to giving every employee a personal assistant. “The system was designed to guide each employee through their role in their preferred language, tailored to their location.”
“You’re dealing with human psychology, cultural differences, and decades of habits. Most AI projects fail because they don’t account for the human element; it is not just about training a machine on what to do. It is about efficacy.”
Winning trust at first was difficult. He spent months explaining that AI wasn’t there to take away jobs, but to make them even better.”
His work bore fruit. “HR tickets dropped by 80 percent, IT requests fell 40 percent, and retention improved.”
“It wasn’t just the job but the reminder that when you are ready, the right doors open,” he says.
This rebirth led him back to system architecture through Civic AI—a system he believes can help reduce bureaucracy. “The core idea was a digital government assistant that works for you,” he says. “Imagine applying for a passport by talking to a chatbot. It tells you, ‘Here’s what you need—ID, birth certificate, photo. Upload them.’ Then it logs into eCitizen, fills out the forms, submits, and gives you payment details. It’s about replacing bureaucracy with conversation.”
Civic AI advanced to the final stages with Techstars (a leading pre-seed venture capital firm) but stalled over unresolved issues with the Kenyan government on data access, platform terms, and privacy compliance. Without a solid legal and trust framework, Jeff paused full rollout, continuing to refine the system with legal and policy experts to comply with the Data Protection Act.
As Civic AI shelved its rollout, Techstars connections led him to Aging Options, where he now helps architect a life planning platform to fix the failures of traditional retirement plans. “A plan is only as good as its execution,” he says. “We built an AI guide that acts as a secure assistant. When a parent has a health emergency, their child can ask, ‘What do I do now? Which hospital? How do I access funds?’ The AI, knowing the legal documents and wishes, gives clear, immediate instructions. It turns panic into clarity.”
For Jeff, this work threads together into a stretched-out fabric. “When my truck broke down in California, the system wasn’t designed for my humanity. The work I do now is the opposite—we use technology to empower human connection, to ensure no one is left stranded during the most critical time of their life.”
His philosophy can be summed up in one word—fidelity. “Any system can crunch numbers. The hard part is building a system that remembers a promise years later. One that reminds a son of his mother’s wishes when she’s no longer there.”
