Vineet first joined Abnormal on the threat detection team as a Machine Learning (ML) engineer, and describes being immediately drawn to the company’s dynamic environment and its strong, experienced team. Vineet’s experience at Abnormal highlights one of the most rewarding aspects of working here—as his desire to learn the ropes before starting his own company down the road grew, his supervisors not only encouraged him to pursue these new interests, but found roles within the company where he could gain practical experience.

Compressing knowledge and wisdom

It might seem strange for a current employee to openly discuss plans for someday leaving the company with upper management. However, at Abnormal, Vineet’s journey is one the company has openly embraced and helped support. As he describes it, the beauty of working at a high-velocity startup allows for “a compression of knowledge and wisdom into a shorter time frame.” At the current moment, Vineet has seen how two distinct areas of Abnormal operate as he makes plans for his next career move. Previously, he was deep in the engineering world working almost exclusively with other ML engineers solving incredibly complex problems. Today, he’s in product management, where he’s closer to the customer side of the business and tackling exciting new initiatives.

An internal structure of support

Vineet credits the encouraging and candid environment of Abnormal for helping him explore other roles within the company. Everyone from executive leadership down to his direct supervisor was supportive when he expressed interest in product management. “I was watching the company grow quickly and wanted to understand what was driving that growth from a new perspective [outside of ML and engineering].” What started as an exploratory shift internally gave him a runway that’s now led to real exposure to a new side of the business. In his current role, he’s getting a comprehensive view into how the technology Abnormal is developing is mapped to different parts of the company. From customer development calls to defining the machine learning strategy, the breadth of his current experience is a testament to how Abnormal supports employee initiatives for continued professional development.

New perspectives and challenges

As he’s grown into his Product Director position, Vineet is at the helm of some of Abnormal’s most exciting new projects, including data loss prevention and training data for new machine learning models. Traditional data loss prevention solutions are what Vineet calls a broken system: false positives, tons of manpower required, regulatory hurdles; in short, ample room for improvement. Vineet’s team is helping Abnormal take a novel, technologically-driven approach to improving data loss prevention solutions for customers across the world. He lists three reasons he’s especially excited about the new initiative: “One, it’s a high-impact area. Two, it’s challenging, so I can step out of my comfort zone to expand my skills, and three, it’s got a wide breadth of disciplines.” He’s also interested to see how this particular pillar of the cybersecurity ecosystem is having a measurable impact on customer outcomes.

Controlling one's own destiny

In the startup world, the feedback employees get on their work is often easier to map when compared to larger companies. Vineet discussed a clarity he’s seen in the ROI from the work he does at Abnormal, which in turn helps optimize his experience. Because the company is aware of his interest to one day start his own company, they’ve put him in a position to soak up knowledge through new professional opportunities. As he builds a new skill set, the company entrusts him with more responsibility, and that relationship continues to be symbiotic.

Set up for success, Vineet is poised to continue adding tangible value at Abnormal while building the foundation for the next chapter of his professional life.

Ready to control your own destiny? Check out our open roles now!