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.
Daniel (right) has some fun at a team building event in Barcelona at the Axonius All-Company Retreat in January 2020.
This month, we’re spotlighting Daniel Graf, SRE Team Leader. Based in our Tel Aviv office, Graf joined Axonius in December 2019.
Linor Shust: Tell us a bit about your career path before Axonius. What did you do? What critical moments got you to where you are today?
Graf: It all started with getting my B.Sc in Computer Science during high school. Then, serving five years as a Software Developer and RnD Team leader in an Intelligence Unit in the Israel Defense Forces. Once released, I joined the Aviation Team at Argus Cyber Security as a Security Researcher.
Linor: What about Axonius made you interested in working here?
Graf: Axonius had the vibe of a mature startup with a never-ending goal to grow, together with the product itself to support it. It just felt like the right place to join for growing further.
Linor: What are some of the things that you and your team are responsible for?
Graf: Some of the SRE team highlights:
Adapters! We're constantly developing integrations with new (and semi-ancient) technologies to enrich the Axonius platform with information from as many sources as possible. We call these Adapters. Each sprint brings multiple challenges to the table, from the simplest API documentation to the toughest research scenarios with multiple parties involved.
Customers! Our biggest source of ideas and constant improvement.
As part of researching and developing adapters, together with the company's customer success and sales engineering teams, we are in communication with customers and vendors, making sure no aspect of any task is missed.
And as the team leader, the above tasks require a bit of juggling in inter-team and inner-team communication, making sure it all runs smooth requires well defined processes and on-the-run improvements.
Linor: What’s a favorite project you’ve worked on or career milestone you’ve achieved while working at Axonius?
Graf: I appreciate tasks that make you look back at the efforts you put and just feel proud about yourself.
One of the toughest adapters I've worked on took three months to complete development, requiring multiple calls with the customer and the vendor for research.
As a developer, being in charge of the full demand-to-satisfaction cycle really gives you the drive to keep running.
Linor: What advice can you offer to someone looking to take on a role similar to yours?
Graf: Aim for your team members' success. This is the best success factor for a team leader.
Linor: If someone reading was interested in joining Axonius, what should they know about working here?
Graf: We aim high, and as such, we work hard. It's totally worth it. Join and see for yourself!
RAPID FIRE Q&A
Linor: Ok, now for some fun! I’m going to ask you a series of “rapid fire” questions about yourself, to help our readers get to know you a bit better.
First one! When you log on in the morning, what do you tackle first?
Graf: Cleaning up my Inbox and planning the day.
Linor: What helps you focus?
Graf: Coffee and headstands.
Linor: How do you organize your day to stay productive?
Graf: I make a personal goal plan for the day.
Linor: How do you deal with stress?
Graf: A quick VR session of BeatSaber brings all the stress out as sweat.
Linor: Any hobbies outside of work?
Graf: Netflix. Settlers of Catan. Wolt.
Linor: Favorite way to spend your weekends?
Graf: Just hanging out with my friends.
Linor: Do you drink coffee? How do you take it?
Graf: Black. In quantities.
Linor: What's the last great movie you watched?
Graf: Not a movie, but "Dark" on Netflix is one of the most mind-boggling series I've ever watched. Definitely a genius one.
