Vijaya Kaza is the Chief Safety Officer and Head of Engineering for Belief and Security at Airbnb. She leads groups accountable for creating the expertise (Platforms, instruments and AI fashions), to safeguard the Airbnb group, in addition to for securing Airbnb’s infrastructure and data property. She can be the manager co-sponsor of Airbnb Tech’s Range Council.
Right here’s Vijaya’s story of how she obtained to Airbnb, in her personal phrases.
Straight shot to science and engineering
I grew up in a modest, multi-generational household in India with 30 to 40 relations beneath one roof on any given day. Because the oldest baby in that home, I used to be anticipated to excel academically and set an instance for the opposite kids to comply with.
In our tradition again then, being “good at college” was synonymous with shining in science and math. As luck would have it, I had a powerful affinity for these topics and loved finding out and diving deep into them. I adopted a pure path that mixed math and science, finding out engineering in school, and obtained a bachelor’s and two grasp’s in electrical engineering. This basis paved the way in which for my future work in expertise.
Stumbling into cybersecurity
After school, I landed my first job as a Software program Engineer at Cisco. Nonetheless, my entry into the safety area was unintentional. I merely adopted a supervisor I appreciated who was transferring into a brand new safety enterprise unit, fell in love with Safety and by no means appeared again after that! There was no grand plan or calculated profession technique.
After 17 years at Cisco main product improvement for a $1B safety product portfolio, I headed to FireEye, one other well-known title within the Cybersecurity house. There I had the duty for serving to the corporate transition from on-prem to a cloud/SaaS enterprise mannequin, and rising the income of their cloud safety portfolio. That position gave me the expertise of engaged on totally different areas of safety, in addition to main each Product Administration and Engineering in a Normal Supervisor capability.
Subsequent, I led Product Improvement at Lookout, a startup in San Francisco targeted on cellular safety. On the time, it was a client safety firm pivoting to constructing for enterprise clients. I didn’t comprehend it then, however that glimpse of client safety was an incredible primer for my eventual position at Airbnb.
Cybersecurity is an ever-changing area with fixed innovation and I’ve completely loved working and studying in such a dynamic house. Every main technological transformation — from cloud to cellular to AI — brings novel safety challenges to unravel for companies and finish customers.
An sudden alternative at Airbnb
After I was initially approached for the Chief Safety Officer (CSO) position at Airbnb, I used to be stunned. I had at all times labored within the area doing engineering and product improvement work, so I wasn’t certain about this position. However after assembly Ari Balogh, Airbnb’s Chief Know-how Officer (CTO) for a casual espresso chat, we actually hit it off and I used to be completely impressed by his imaginative and prescient to rework the engineering and expertise group throughout the firm. Ari shared his philosophy of specializing in the craft of engineering and that actually resonated with me. The prospect of molding Airbnb’s engineering tradition was very attractive.
Seems Airbnb was additionally on the lookout for somebody to steer engineering for its Belief and Security group. Given my background with a mix of engineering and safety area experience, I ended up taking over each of those roles. This distinctive alternative allowed me to return to my roots main engineering groups whereas making the most of my safety expertise within the capability of a CSO.
After I joined the corporate in 2019, I used to be struck by Airbnb’s dedication and energy to ship a optimistic person expertise. Our consideration and design focus that go into serving to visitors and hosts have a seamless expertise is in contrast to something I’ve skilled earlier than.
Why Airbnb?
I joined Airbnb due to the chance to have an outsized influence — Airbnb’s nearly 6,000 workers serve hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. Our mission-driven strategy, powered by our founders’ unmatched ardour and dedication to doing good by means of initiatives like Airbnb.org actually resonated with me. I’ve been constantly impressed by the caliber of proficient, caring individuals right here who’re united by Airbnb’s imaginative and prescient. It’s uncommon to discover a firm that so successfully combines technical excellence with social consciousness.
Two groups, one mission
Whereas each the Belief and Security and Safety groups share the widespread mission of safeguarding customers and the platform, the precise methods, threats, and focus areas are fully totally different. Belief is on the core of our enterprise and we’re deeply targeted on offering our visitors and hosts peace of thoughts as they stay, work, journey and host on Airbnb. We construct expertise to assist decrease security and privateness dangers for our group.
For instance, our modern reservation screening expertise goals to assist scale back the danger of disruptive events on Airbnb globally by taking steps to determine higher-risk reservations and doubtlessly forestall these bookings from being made.
On the cybersecurity entrance, we concentrate on securing Airbnb’s property, our knowledge, our workers, and our infrastructure. We implement strong safety controls and menace detection capabilities to safeguard Airbnb’s inside sources.
Embracing the improv mindset
Exterior of labor, I’ve pursued some hobbies which have surprisingly imparted invaluable management classes. A number of years in the past, I made a decision to strive improv comedy, one thing that’s completely exterior my wheelhouse. I had by no means carried out something near theater or performing in my whole life. What began as a enjoyable experiment rapidly grew to become a ardour undertaking and I progressed by means of the degrees and ultimately carried out stay in entrance of an viewers with family and friends in attendance.
It could appear unrelated at first, however the very nature of improv is profoundly related for management. You’re continually placed on the spot and must suppose in your ft, responding to new questions and situations within the second. Improv trains this important talent of processing info in actual time and formulating a coherent, compelling response.
Hold a gradual head
Over any profession, together with mine, there are inevitable skilled setbacks, disappointments, and annoyances alongside the way in which. The secret is to not make a lot of those short-term hurdles; it’s the way you reply that issues most. The much less you agonize over the bumps within the street, the higher. Keep your focus, hold one foot in entrance of the opposite, and persist ahead undeterred. I discovered these classes early, having taken on management roles from a younger age because the eldest baby in a big family. My recommendation is to maintain a gradual head, preserve perspective, and plow ahead with conviction.
We’re presently increasing the Airbnb group and hiring for a number of roles. Try our open positions here.
