We Are Sectigo | David Colon

He has been at the front lines of modernizing Sectigo’s business practices from spearheading goodwill initiatives to modernizing best practices. In fact, one of the first things David upgraded was his role itself. At many companies, the development and operations group work separately, with different business goals, managers, and expectations. At Sectigo, however, collaboration is key, so David has helped Sectigo’s engineers shift to a mindset that synthesizes development and operations (DevOps).

“Several of the engineering practices at Sectigo were siloed,” explains David. “My team and I have been a driving factor behind Sectigo’s more modern approach to agile development. Part of my goal is to coordinate with other managers and make sure that everyone is on the same page, so keeping the company’s development and operations teams working toward a common goal requires adaptability to new technologies that increase transparency and productivity across both teams.”

Building a Better World Through Security

Sectigo’s solutions benefit not just customers, but the greater public as well. David notes that there are a lot of moving technologies in the enterprise space and making things easier for customers tends to make things easier for everyone. He explains that keeping the world secure “inherently makes it a better place.”

For example, in the interest of improving web security, David pitched an idea to upper management that called for Sectigo to collaborate with a non-profit SSL provider to improve certificate transparency (CT). Upon approval in 2019, David and his colleagues spearheaded the sponsorship of Let’s Encrypt to develop a CT log. This goodwill gesture helped improve the cybersecurity space for Certificate Authorities and organizations worldwide. The sponsorship covered a large portion of the funding needed for the non-profit to operate its new CT log for one year and aided the broader security landscape by expanding the number of logs available to CAs.

“Management is transparent and they’re committed to investing in you as long as you’re willing to put in the time,” says David, explaining that his experience pitching the Let’s Encrypt project spoke volumes to him about Sectigo’s company culture and values, as well as its willingness to entertain new ideas.

Unorthodox Thinking Is the Norm at Sectigo

With training resources readily available and an open-door policy with executives, Sectigo believes in empowering its employees and their ideas. The company strives to be forward-thinking, working with employees to foster innovation, collaboration, and outside-the-box ideas—like helping to sponsor a competitor.

“Sectigo is a very modern company,” says David. “From the work perks to the policies, the company has a real startup energy, but it comes coupled with decades of experience. We work hard and play hard. Everyone at Sectigo wants to be here and gives 110% every day. It’s kind of a niche for New Jersey, in the sense that we have the niceties of a lot of tech startups without being located in a tech hub like Silicon Valley.”

That mentality is something that permeates the entire company. During the past few years, Sectigo has grown tremendously, leveraging new and exciting technologies to deliver personalized security solutions to clients across the globe while maintaining the expert knowledge and experience that long predates the company’s 2018 rebrand. David joined Sectigo before the rebrand, which he explains was much more than a name change—it was a major shift in company identity.

“Sectigo is something entirely different. It’s not in the city, it’s not a back-office company, and notably, it’s different than Comodo with its own unique personality, set of beliefs, and culture,” he says.

Keeping One Eye Toward the Future

An industry expert, David can often be caught sharing his expertise on Root Causes, Sectigo’s ongoing podcast series that explores important issues in today’s world of PKI, online trust, and digital certificates. A frequent guest on the podcast, David most recently shared his knowledge and experience with SSH keys. Catch that episode here.

The opportunity to make meaningful contributions to the broader security community through Root Causes and other initiatives is part of what David values about Sectigo. Innovation, modernization, and making the web a safer place are all passions for David, and his role at Sectigo enables him to explore and seize new ideas every day. This, perhaps more than anything else, is what makes David motivated and excited about his future at Sectigo.