Employee Spotlight: Anna Suslova

The Axonius Employee Spotlight is a Q&A series dedicated to shining a much-deserved light on the movers and shakers building the fastest growing cybersecurity company ever. You can read past Employee Spotlights here.

This month, we’re spotlighting Anna Suslova, Senior Marketing Manager. A remote employee based in Boston, Massachusetts, Anna joined Axonius in 2019.

Kaite Rosa: Tell us a bit about your career path before Axonius. What did you do? What critical moments got you to where you are today?

Anna Suslova: Prior to joining Axonius, I was a Field Marketing Campaigns Manager at Cybereason. I sometimes think of my role and responsibilities there close to that of (and I hate to use this term!) a Marketing Generalist. I was responsible for a variety of demand generation programs and initiatives. Mainly, I owned and executed webinars and email campaigns, managed national programs, and supported all territories in North America (and eventually LATAM) with event planning and execution. 

Before Cybereason, I was a Marketing Specialist at Withings (acquired by Nokia Tech), managing various lead generation and brand awareness campaigns.

I have always liked different aspects of marketing, but once I had the opportunity to own the facilitation and manage Cybereason’s presence at the Gartner Security & Risk Summit 2019 and later at Black Hat 2019, I knew that I was particularly passionate about national events and wanted them to fall under my scope of responsibilities going forward.   

Kaite: What about Axonius made you interested in working here? 

Anna: I heard about the company through Megan Andrews, VP of Demand Generation (read her Employee Spotlight here), who was my manager at Cybereason.

We met up for lunch one day, and she told me that she finally had an open headcount on her team at Axonius. After hearing what Meg had to say about the company and role, and doing some of my own research, I decided to apply right away. At that point in my career, I was ready for more ownership, learning, and growth. The idea of joining such a fast-paced and rapidly growing startup was an easy and obvious decision for me.

Kaite: What are some of the things that you or your team are responsible for? 

Anna: The programs team is responsible for driving pipeline via campaigns, including in-person and virtual events, webinars, lead nurturing, and third party sponsorships. This encompasses everything from campaign planning, creation, promotion, and execution via various channels to bring it to life. 

So far this year, my team has executed 132 campaigns and we have many more planned for H2.    

Kaite: What’s a favorite project you’ve worked on or career milestone you’ve achieved while working at Axonius? 

Anna: It’s crazy to look back and think about all of the campaigns and projects that I’ve worked on since I joined back in 2019!

My career milestone at Axonius was definitely RSAC 2020. This was a national conference that we started planning five months in advance and happened to be the one of the last in-person events that I got to attend that year. I oversaw and managed the conference planning from start to finish. This included working closely with a brand environment vendor on brainstorming the booth design and overall theme, setting event goals, and owning the logistics, pre-event promotion, on-site experience, sales enablement, and post-event follow up. 

There are so many moving parts and checklists when it comes to events, especially national ones, and they often require the involvement of multiple (if not all) teams across the company. Even within the marketing organization, I have to work closely with our brand, operations, digital, channel, and product marketing teams to ensure the conference is a success. 

As dedicated and time-consuming as the planning process is, I can’t wait for in-person events to start back up!

Kaite: What advice can you offer to someone looking to take on a role similar to yours? 

Anna: When it comes to marketing roles specifically, before planning a new campaign or initiative, challenge yourself and the people on your team. Ask, “Why are we doing this?” and, “Is this the best use of our time and resources?” If your team can’t answer those two questions or isn’t on the same page in terms of goals, expectations, and communication, the campaign won’t have the desired outcome and impact.  

But in general — and I think this advice can apply to anyone, regardless of the role — find what you are passionate about and cultivate it into more than one skill. I think it’s important to never stop learning, whether you’re in marketing or any other profession. Don’t be afraid of taking risks and being disruptive. 

If things don’t go as planned, be prepared to accept the consequences and, most importantly, always learn from your mistakes. 

Kaite: If someone reading was interested in joining Axonius, what should they know about working here? 

Anna: My two favorite aspects of working here are:

1. The people/culture
2. The opportunity for growth and career development

We have a great culture — not just within the marketing team, but across the entire company. Despite the fact that we haven’t been able to have any in-person company retreats, events, or on-sites over the past year or so – all while experiencing rapid growth – Axonius has still managed to keep its strong sense of unity in my opinion. Axonians win together when times are good, and stick together when times are tough. 

Hard work and dedication are recognized and really do pay off here, which brings me to my next point. Because we are still a relatively young company, there's a lot of room for growth and opportunity for career development. Successes are celebrated and acknowledged. It’s amazing to see how many promotions and title changes are announced during our monthly company-wide meetings.

Want to work alongside Anna? The Axonius marketing team is growing! Check out our careers page to learn more and apply.