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Rehman Khan joined Netskope in February 2024 as Chief Information Security Architect after previous positions at Charles Schwab, Bayer, Ameriprise Financial, and Wells Fargo. Read on to learn more about what drew him to Netskope, his vision for the role, and what excites him most about his future here.
What first drew you to this role at Netskope?
It was Netskope’s leadership in cybersecurity innovations that I’d been observing as an outsider. And for me, it was, “hey, I can be part of this journey; innovating in cybersecurity and countering threats.” That was one big component: the innovation and the foresight that Netskope has. As a customer I really liked the leadership team here and I think that they’ve done a great job. They have a customer focused and employee empowerment culture, and I’m now experiencing that internally.
Can you tell us a bit about your role and what it entails?
I came in to create and lead the security portfolio, architecture and engineering services function. My role is Chief Information Security Architect, and the idea is to continue to build our security architecture and engineering program. Our goals with that program are to achieve security governance, enable our internal teams to be successful, build innovative capabilities that serve our internal teams, and to enable business or technical capability development. We’ll be leveraging cutting-edge concepts like zero-trust architecture, AI, and use automation to stay ahead of the curve.
Why do you feel like Netskope is a good fit for you?
Netskope is growing and maturing internally from a processes perspective and I think that I can contribute to that. I bring 20+ years of experience in building teams that are focused on enterprise architecture, security architecture and engineering. I’ve been in that role in a few organizations helping digital transformation internally. For me, this role is an opportunity for us to get a little bit more formalized from a process perspective, and really continue to build our cybersecurity program.
Can you take us through your overall vision for this role?
My vision is to build innovative, reliable, zero trust architecture-based security solutions that empower us to proactively govern, protect and respond to cyber threats. I want to design core information security architecture and engineering principles that revolve around proactive defense, zero trust architecture, artificial intelligence, and automation. I am also building an operating model that is built to provide services for our internal ‘customers’. For example, we’ll have a security research and strategy service, security architecture service, security engineering and consulting service. The idea is to create a service oriented operating model so we have some structure and visibility for our internal customers when they engage us. The other thing that I’m planning is to continue building relationships with cybersecurity startups. If they’re building an innovative capability that we could use internally, I want to be able to partner with those types of organizations and see where they can help address our use cases, instead of always requiring internal development that is more resource intensive.
How do you think your past roles have set you up for success here in this role, as Chief Information Security Architect here at Netskope?
I bring a whole host of industry experience, having worked across multiple industries and building security, architecture and engineering practices based on regulatory standards such as NIST, and ISO27001. I’ve been in financial services, which is a highly regulated industry, and is required to adhere to CISA-The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) as part of a critical US infrastructure. I oversaw teams that created cyber security strategies and architectures to protect businesses by assessing their current state, developing a future state vision and a roadmap that enables business securely. I’m hoping to apply all that learning when it comes to people, processes, and technology in a more agile manner.
Is there anything that really surprised you about joining up so far?
I don’t know if it was a surprise, but what I found very refreshing is the transparent culture. I get the sense that people are willing to roll up their sleeves and just jump in and solve a problem. And they’re very objective about it and they just want to work together. Coming in as a new person to the organization, I feel very welcomed. I feel everybody’s willing to help. Actually, one thing that I was very surprised by was seeing that Sanjay has a regular “open door” meeting for the entire organization. People are your biggest asset in any organization and when that showed up on my calendar I was like, wow. As a new employee, that’s a pleasant surprise.
What excites you most about your future at Netskope?
Being part of an organization that is global, at the center of securing business, and continuing to grow with our SASE platform. That’s the most exciting thing because we’re squarely in the center of the universe here, and it’s our opportunity to onboard as many customers onto our secure edge as possible. To be part of that story–building a secure back bone for that organization–is an opportunity of a lifetime for me. We’re talking about securing businesses, and I feel very proud of that. I’m going to be here and be part of this journey to bring more clients on to enhance and secure their experience.
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