Tell us about your role at Vanta

I’m a software engineering intern at Vanta working on the Organizational Security team. Companies using Vanta to improve their security posture and become compliant use various tool stacks, from task trackers to cloud services to identity providers. I’ve been working on building extensible and scalable support for ingesting security-relevant resources from these third parties.

Give us an overview of your experience

As a startup in the midst of hyper-growth, Vanta is an incredibly dynamic place to work. We’re iterating quickly, constantly adding new features, and there’s a contagious excitement and belief in our mission that shines through in every interaction I’ve had with fellow Vanta’ns. I’ve spent this summer gaining great perspective into the ways a company effectively and efficiently scales (as well as the challenges that come with rapid growth), and this has led to valuable learning opportunities across all functions at Vanta. I’m consistently impressed by the transparency at the company, and the willingness of every Vanta’n to share their experience and wisdom with me.

What made you realize this was the right internship for you?

The people I interviewed with were kind, creative, and grounded. When I arrived at Vanta, primarily working out of Vanta’s New York City office, I was blown away by the upbeat and playful energy at the office and the cross-functional collaboration between Vanta’ns sitting next to one another. Company culture is really central to an internship experience, and I immediately felt welcome and inspired at Vanta.

Why did you decide to choose Vanta over other companies?

I’m deeply passionate about building a better internet, one that is more secure and safe for everyone that uses (or will use) it. I think a lack of security and privacy for users is an existential threat to the virtue of our digital lives, and I believe in Vanta’s role as a core contributor in that fight. Every company that processes sensitive user data stands to benefit from using Vanta and contribute to a safer internet. A world in which using Vanta for continuous security is the expectation for software companies is one that I hope to experience: I chose Vanta because I wanted to help make that a reality.

Why are you excited about Vanta’s mission or product?

Vanta’s product is really interesting to work on because it requires a lot of thinking on:

1. What makes a software company secure beyond defined compliance controls and how can this be continuously monitored rather than surfaced as a point-in-time check?

2. How can we make the notion of being “secure” digestible in-product and extensible to companies of different sizes and industries? These aren’t easy questions, and they lend themselves to solving exciting and challenging problems.

What’s your favorite book?

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I love reading historical fiction and The Nightingale is my pick of the bunch. It’s a compelling story (following two sisters living dramatically different lives during World War II) that’s beautifully written with lively and well-developed characters. It made me bawl my eyes out. I’d highly recommend and love to hear others’ thoughts on the book so please do reach out.

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