Meet Stephanie, Security Engineer

Kickstarting her professional life, Stephanie joined LAB3 as a fresh software engineering graduate. “When I started university, I was unsure about the direction I wanted to take my career,” explained Stephanie. “Security was an area completely new to me. I found doing these electives fascinating, the balance between coding and the information itself.”

Today, Stephanie is focused on the infrastructure side of security and is mainly involved with Sentinel SIEM deployments, as well as support for Purview and data loss prevention policies. She has also done a little bit of Identity and Defender.

“I enjoy the exposure to bits of everything,” explained Stephanie. “That’s what I like about LAB3, the opportunity for learning. No two clients are the same, and every client has different ways of working and different expectations for how they want their infrastructure set up.”

These differences provide Stephanie with the variety she craves, with the constant stream of new challenges to work through and learn from.

“I’ve always said to myself that I’d be pretty happy in any job if there’s continuous learning involved, constantly keeping me engaged and trying new things. If things get a bit too routine for me, then I lose interest and drop out.”

Stephanie also appreciates the way people work together across LAB3.

“Whenever I come across new challenges, I do my own research, and I also lean on the senior engineers to understand how they navigate problems. Everybody is highly approachable and open to sharing their knowledge,” said Stephanie.

Given how intertwined LAB3 projects often are across practice areas, Stephanie has found that this collaborative approach extends beyond her immediate team. She regularly works alongside colleagues from other areas, including network and when clients choose to have LAB3 manage their new environments, there is also a crossover with the Security Operations Center team.

In addition to the learning opportunities on client-facing projects, Stephanie uses quieter periods to maintain and earn Microsoft certifications.

“There are just so many fundamentals to learn, and It’s amazing being able to play with technologies that are new to me. People here are supportive in making sure my learning is progressing and that I’m also keeping up to date with my work generally.”

While she values the flexibility of LAB3’s remote-first work model, Stephanie also enjoys the days she spends in the Sydney office, using them as an opportunity to connect informally with engineers from other practice areas over lunch.

Outside of work, Stephanie enjoys staying fit and active, and she values the time that mostly working from home brings to her life.

“Having no commute allows me to do the hobbies I enjoy, like going to the gym before work without having to get up at some crazy time. And after work, I don’t have to rush home from the city to make earlier scheduled netball games.”