Air Force to Allstate InfoSec
Why move from a start-up to a well-established large organization like Allstate? Nathan, Senior Manager Application & Cloud Security, shares his journey from military, to start-ups, to Allstate.
As a veteran, Nathan was used to high stress situations that came with little direction. He was skilled at looking for ways to solve problems and put out “fires” without a roadmap in front of him. The military taught him how to be hyper-focused and that military experience continues to help him solve exciting and demanding challenges at Allstate.
Emerging technologies, expanding teams and new jobs are all coming from Allstate’s digital transformation journey. As Allstate expands from a portfolio of insurance offerings, to a platform company, the opportunities are endless. Nathan has had the opportunity to be a driving force in Allstate’s Information Security initiatives for the past six months. After serving in the US Air Force for 8 years, Nathan got a job as a security analyst for the University of Oklahoma. He was able to apply what he had gained in the military to his security analyst role and to deep dive into agile software development.
Nathan moved on to the start-up world, gaining hands on experience of building security systems from the ground up. Start-up life provided the challenge he was looking for, but he quickly found that his passion was building and empowering whole technical teams to scale systems at a rapid pace.
Nathan saw the opportunity for building the next big thing and team at Allstate, but was surprised to find a start-up like, nimble environment within Allstate’s labs. He works primarily in the CompoZed lab, an area inside Allstate that focuses on information security & technology for the rest of the company. “CompoZed is like a start-up within the company, it’s influencing the larger Allstate and its proof that people within Allstate are willing to really look at trying new things. Allstate can’t afford to not be cautious but we also can’t afford not to change.” Nathan was attracted to the challenge but stayed for the value he was finding every day.
When asked why others should consider Allstate, Nathan was quick to share that “Allstate is on the verge of becoming a state of the art software company. You’re working on things that have never [existed]. It’s not compliance or police – we’re innovators, developers, engineers.” Check out opportunities to join Nathan’s team and other Information Security positions here.
