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Marco Baldauf

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IT Security Insights #8: Lucy’s team is the spider in the web of IT security

Lucy is Head of Managed Platform Security and is part of every customer project. Together with her team of IT project managers, IT architects, and engineers, she ensures that customers are safe when surfing the net. To do so, she deploys and maintains technology from manufacturers like Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, Check-point, McAfee, and F5. Lucy is looking for many new employees to support her team. 

Lucy, you are Head of Managed Platform Security at Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH. How did you end up in IT security?

Digital dargestelltes Vorhängeschloss

Lucy: I’ve been working in IT and security for around 20 years now. I studied political science and followed my degree with a traineeship with a newspaper. But IT fascinated me even back then. When I was a young woman and started working in the front office of an internet provider, I found out that I got along pretty well in what was considered a man’s world at the time. I’ve specialized in security issues for over 12 years now, having grown into the area through my previous jobs. Back then, there wasn’t a college major in IT security. I’m a perfect example of how it can be learned and that lateral entries have a chance, too.

What are the responsibilities of you and your team?

Lucy: The more than 270 employees in my department maintain infrastructure security for our enterprise customers. IT doesn’t work without firewalls, network-centric elements, or proxy systems. We look after the core: secure email traffic and secure surfing of the internet. I manage eight teams in Germany. We’re involved in every major customer project and always have a “leg” in the game, almost like a spider in its web. Strictly from a security aspect, there’s no project that doesn’t involve us; security always plays an important role.

Our main customers are from the SME and large enterprise segments. Teams of salespeople, solution designers, engineers, and architects take up the requirements of our customers and my employees provide support throughout – from contract negotiations and solution design to the implementation. Above all, we take care of the technical component. The better we plan the projects, the better we are at satisfying our customers’ requests and fulfilling the agreed KPIs and SLAs.

What projects are you and your teams currently working on?

Lucy: Most customer projects run for three to seven years, which means we have to plan in the long term, while still responding quickly to change requests. Right now, we have a very large project in the healthcare sector. We’re supporting a company that operates nationwide in migrating their complete data traffic, data centers, and web applications to T-Systems. We’re involved with 30 experts just for security and are helping with the transition and operations. In addition to major projects like this, we also have many small and midsize customers who still have digitalization ahead of them. With our solutions and expertise, we let our customers concentrate on their core competencies, while we take care of their IT and infrastructure. My engineers speak directly with the companies’ IT managers on such projects and work together very closely with the customers.
 

You’re expanding your team. Who are you looking for? What do future colleagues need to bring to the table?

Lucy Celik

Lucy: I have jobs for every kind of person. I have jobs for IT nerds who only want to work at a console and deal with the bare technology, with little customer contact. In our internal labs, engineers can go wild and try out new technology to their heart’s content. We validate the solutions of our suppliers and challenge their products. This sometimes even leads to optimizations in the devices of our partners (such as Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, Checkpoint, McAfee, and F5). I’m incredibly proud of my engineers.

There are jobs for IT specialists, who enjoy the mix of technology and people: IT architects and engineers who visit customers and advise them on site. We work together on projects with the customer and other colleagues toward a common objective: successful onboarding of the customer and smooth operation of their IT security.

I’m also very happy to get young professionals on board, who are fresh from their apprenticeships or recent graduates. We give them an opportunity to develop themselves and become experts in their subject areas. These young professionals join experienced colleagues on projects and are even invited to talks with top customers. If an employee discovers that their strengths or interests lie elsewhere, we give them the opportunity to change technologies or even roles. We’ll find the right job in our business area for every talent, interest, and strength.

We need experienced experts and senior staff who are willing to assume responsibility for customer projects. I’m looking for cloud engineers, security architects, software developers, UI/UX designers, lab engineers, cloud architects, and IT project managers – at ten locations throughout Germany. If you’re looking for a wide scope of tasks, want to work at the heart of IT security, and continue to learn and develop your skill set, you’re in the right place with me in Managed Platform Security. We’re a strong, diverse team and the spider in the web of IT.

Especially in IT, professional education is essential to stay on the ball. What do you offer employees here?
Lucy: The professional development and qualification of our teams are two of my most important responsi-bilities. Knowledge of new topics is an asset that can’t be overvalued. We’re in the middle of a classic renew-al of our portfolio. Customers are increasingly buying less hardware and moving more and more to the cloud. 
We work according to recognized frameworks like ITIL, Prince2, and PMI, as well as with scrums and other agile methods. We have the right professional development opportunities for every employee group. Talent promotion is a major part of my job.

Lucy, thank you for the interview and the insights into your everyday work as IT security manager.

Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH
Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH is an attractive, reliable employer for cybersecurity experts. You’ll find more insights into the fields of activity where we’re recruiting new employees here:

#1 Tino: Cloud security consulting 
#2 Alexander: Security consulting and incident response service
#3 Karl-Friedrich: Security consulting and setting up security operations centers
#4 Daniel: Managed cyber defense
#5 Tilo: Guardrails in IT security
#6 Juan: IT security also protects human lives
#7: Kay: IT security is system-relevant

If we’ve aroused your curiosity, you’ll find further information and career opportunities on our Careers page.
 

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