Confluent Champion: The Power of a Learning Culture and Motivated Teams

For Staff Security GRC Program Manager Janis Hom, it's working alongside a team of highly motivated individuals—who help create an atmosphere of excellence  and progress—that pushes her to perform at her best.

Let’s learn more about Janis and how she’s always learning something new at Confluent.

How have you grown or changed since joining Confluent?

First, I’ve learned to love working remotely. I love that I can control my time better, which leads to more productivity and job satisfaction. The benefits of flexibility and fewer distractions far outweigh the challenges of less face time. 

Confluent also presents a great opportunity to work on integrating governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) into overall trust and security—and to lead the maturation of compliance as a whole. This ensures we can meet our customers’ expectations for security features and practices. Our leadership challenges each of us with their vision for what defines world-class GRC.

What skills or technologies have you learned since joining? What are you looking forward to learning next?

There’s so much new to learn at Confluent, starting with Apache Kafka® itself. Because my work involves showing our security compliance with various information security standards, I’m constantly learning new things about Kafka. For example, I was at Confluent for two years before I learned that data integrity is a feature of Kafka itself. That’s what makes work interesting—always learning new things.

What's unique about Confluent's company culture? What’s one question you would tell people to ask about the culture during their interview?

At Confluent, it’s 100% acceptable to say your disagreements out loud. It’s fascinating to be on an engineering all-hands meeting and watch different team members respectfully challenge each other. One question I would recommend candidates ask is, “What topic has generated the most disagreement in the department, and why?”

What motivates you to excel in your role and how does Confluent support your ambitions?

For me, it’s always about the people. I work cross-functionally to ensure security controls are in place and working as they should be—and the people I work with are highly motivated to deliver quality work. I would hate to be the person in this chain that lets others down. I think quality begets more quality.

How does Confluent encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Just look at the variety of internal events that Confluent offers for all types of topics, whether it’s mental health, ethnicity, orientation, or financial planning. Confluent’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion shows in its investment in time and staff to organize the range of offerings. 

Rapid-fire questions:

1. What job did you want to have when you were a child?

   1. Restaurateur, because I love good food and ambience.

2. What’s the best decision you’ve made in your career?

   1. Joining Confluent, of course!

3. What’s your favorite TV show that’s set in an office?

   1. 30 Rock.

4. What’s your work-from-home must-have?

   1. Enzo, my golden retriever.

5. If you could have your team off-site anywhere in the world, where would it be?

   1. Europe, because what’s with all those infosec regulations and standards over there? :)

6. What’s your favorite way to unwind after work/on the weekends?

   1. There’s nothing like a great vinyasa yoga class after work to reset and unwind.