Built Technologies, one of the fastest growing construction and real estate software providers in the U.S., today announced the hiring of technology and e-commerce veteran James Chen as Chief Technology Officer. Under Chen’s leadership, Built will continue to accelerate its development of innovative solutions for construction and real estate stakeholders as they build and manage the world around us.

Chen arrives at Built with a distinguished career in technology leadership across domains including marketplace, logistics, and B2B technology. He has held multiple senior management positions building and scaling platform development, including at major e-commerce and marketplace companies Amazon and Rakuten. Most recently, Chen worked as CTO at Flexport, where his team steered B2B global logistics, empowering buyers, sellers and their logistics partners with technology and services to make global trading easier for everyone.

While at Amazon, Chen served in separate stints as Director of Technology for both Amazon Shipping (Small Parcel & Freight) and Amazon Global Logistics, leading innovation and development of large scale global logistics and transportation systems. Previously, Chen was a senior executive officer at Rakuten for over six years, where he was widely acknowledged for his pioneering work in developing the company’s global e-commerce platform. With his extensive experience in executive leadership and management of ground-up startups (CampusCraze, Freecause) to globally distributed multinational corporations and teams (Rakuten, Amazon), Chen is excited to join Built’s mission and accelerate the scaling of the Built technology team.

"James is a widely respected technology leader with an impressive track record of driving operational excellence at global marketplace and logistics companies," said Built CEO Chase Gilbert. "His breadth of experience as a B2B product visionary and technical strategist will translate into delivering exponential value for Built customers, who rely on our construction and real estate solutions for better financial management. James' history of innovating through a people-first approach makes him a perfect fit for the culture that we have developed."

“I am thrilled to be joining Built at this exciting time in the company’s evolution and growth story,” said Chen. “It’s been remarkable to watch Built grow over the years as the company develops innovative product offerings and technological capabilities that are powering smarter construction and real estate finance. Simultaneously, the company is attracting top talent from major companies in the space. I could not be more excited to get started with the Built team and our customers.”

James earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from MIT. He has also worked to establish the San Francisco Agile Development Center, an organization pursuing technology innovation and global development coordination. 

Chen joins Built following the company’s recent additions of digital payments expert Bora Chung and engineering veteran Matt Marenghi to its Board of Advisors.