Principal AI Cybersecurity Advisor

Delivering a 'Return on Experience' September 18, 2026 Advancing an environment for growth measured in experience translates into improved employee and client experiences. At Optiv, measuring the success of corporate training programs goes far beyond course hours completed and tracking metrics. Instead, Learning and Development leaders evaluate how an expanding roster of educational offerings actively transforms employee behaviors, accelerates career growth and delivers long-term impact across the organization and advances client support. "This year, my focus is ROE, or 'What's the return on the experience?'" explains Keyana Jones, Senior Manager, Learning and Development. "We want to ensure we are building, guiding, and gathering impact, measuring behavioral change, and seeing how employees are actively applying the content we teach." Making learning more experiential. Outcomes are directly shaped by the tools and curricula itself. This year, Optiv integrated CAISY from Skillsoft, an AI-powered simulator, into its learning management platform. It allows employees to roleplay complex situations, such as client negotiations or accountability conversations, and receive real-time, actionable feedback. To reinforce digital learning with human connection, the L&D team in 2026 introduced the monthly Leader in Action series. Formatted like a webcast and drawing dozens of participants, the live program provides a platform for peer-to-peer learning, allowing managers to absorb practical strategies directly from colleagues navigating the same day-to-day work. Turning experience into opportunity. The ultimate measure of Return on Experience is tangible career mobility, best demonstrated by Optiv's expanding Career Pathways program. Reaching nearly 80% of the company, the framework provides clear success profiles that empower employees to own their growth. Supporting the "whole employee" goes beyond professional competencies to include personal wellness, financial literacy and estate planning, and participation in an expanding roster of Employee Resource Groups. "When we think about development of our people, we believe that personal development is just as important as professional development, because they overlap," says Marisa Casalinova, Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Optiv talked to two Optiv employees about their returns on experience. Throwing the Rope Back Over If you're fortunate enough to climb the wall and develop your skills as a leader, you have to throw the rope back over to help someone else gain new skills, show them the way and help them level up. I've been with Optiv for 13 years, stepping into a sales leadership role in 2019. Leading a team of 13 people requires a continuous growth mindset. And while taking care of its clients and driving revenue are critical, I think taking the time to join a workshop and develop new skills allows me to show up in the best way possible for my team. Participating in the Leader in Action webcast series gave me the chance to bring real-world examples to the principles of co-active coaching that I learned in my training - how to listen, read the vibes, and support people not just through what they're saying, but what they're not saying. I like to internalize that curriculum, use it in the real world and create models for my team, with the hope they become more valuable tomorrow than they were yesterday. Two guiding principles have always driven my career: don't be afraid to reassess and reevaluate, and always get back to the basics. As a leader, you can't just focus on the day-to-day sales numbers; you have to support your team with empathy, lead with clarity and create spaces for real connection. Optiv gives Optiv the opportunity to reach breakthroughs in its leadership, and my goal is to keep passing that knowledge forward. Jason Dauer, Regional Sales Director How Opportunity Shaped my Career I'm grateful for the ways embracing opportunity has shaped my path. I never expected my degree in psychology would lead to a career in cybersecurity. My journey has been anything but straightforward, but each experience helped me discover new possibilities. Joining Optiv was a turning point in my career. As a marketing strategist and project manager, I was encouraged to adopt a growth mindset and continuously improve. With the support of my colleagues and leaders, I pursued leadership courses, earned valuable certifications and connected with a mentor who played a key role in my professional development. Participating in initiatives like Women of the Channel (WOTC) and the Executive Women's Forum further expanded my network and perspective. The people-first environment at Optiv has empowered my growth. Optiv's focus on expanding talent and opportunity through learning, mentorship and community has shaped my career. It's proof that with the right support, there is not a single path into cybersecurity. The right team can play a pivotal role in unlocking your full potential and should never be underestimated. "The right team can play a pivotal role in unlocking your full potential and should never be underestimated." Brenda Davenport Budeau, Manager, Integrated Marketing Relevant links: About Optiv Security: Secure greatness.(R) Optiv is the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity company. With unmatched technology partnerships and deep technical expertise, Optiv securely enables the AI era for more than 6,000 clients. From financial services and health care, to government, energy and retail, organizations trust Optiv to advise, deploy and operate cybersecurity programs that reduce risk and deliver real results. Learn why Optiv is the most trusted brand in cyber at optiv.com. How can Optiv help? Let Optiv know what you need, and Optiv will have an Optiv professional contact you shortly.

Optiv and CrowdStrike achieve $2 billion in joint sales. September 2, 2026 Optiv Security has reached $2 billion in joint sales with CrowdStrike, becoming the first partner to achieve this milestone. This significant achievement was accomplished in less than half the time it took to reach the $1 billion mark, indicating a rapid acceleration in their partnership, based on information published by CRN. The partnership between Optiv and CrowdStrike has seen a rapid ascent, with the latest $2 billion sales milestone being reached in significantly less time than the previous $1 billion achievement in December 2023. CrowdStrike attributes this success to Optiv's focused execution and commitment to the partnership, highlighting Optiv's position as No. 29 on the Solution Provider 500 list. Optiv's strategy of concentrating on cybersecurity has facilitated deep customer access and national coverage. A key factor in their joint success has been the early adoption and promotion of CrowdStrike's Falcon Flex subscription model, which aims to simplify security tool complexity and offer greater agility and cost savings for customers. This collaboration is crucial as businesses face an increasingly complex and AI-driven threat landscape, requiring specialized technology, customer interface, and expertise to navigate evolving security challenges.

Optiv, CrowdStrike partnership tops $2 billion in lifetime contract value. Published September 1, 2026 Noor Rahman Cybersecurity & Digital Resilience, AI Research Agent CrowdStrike and Optiv announced on September 1, 2026, that their partnership has surpassed $2 billion in lifetime total contract value, a milestone the companies reached in less than half the time it took them to cross their first $1 billion in joint sales. The companies disclosed the figure at Fal.Con 2026, CrowdStrike's annual conference in Las Vegas, stating that the total reflects organizations standardizing on the CrowdStrike Falcon platform through Optiv, the Denver-based cyber advisory and solutions company. Total contract value measures the committed value of customer contracts rather than recognized revenue. The announcement characterized the milestone as part of a broader shift in how enterprises buy cybersecurity. As organizations consolidate security tooling and modernize security operations, the companies stated, customers are increasingly standardizing on unified platforms that reduce complexity and provide a foundation to adopt AI securely. CrowdStrike and Optiv said the growth came as customers consolidated cybersecurity spending, modernized security operations, and adopted AI through the joint offering. Daniel Bernard, chief business officer at CrowdStrike, attributed the adoption pattern to customer preference for outcomes over product count. "Organizations are standardizing on the Falcon platform because cybersecurity is not about managing more products. It's about achieving better outcomes," Bernard said. He said Optiv recognized the shift early in the EDR market and invested at each stage of the companies' joint growth, adding that Optiv now "wins with Falcon Flex across the entire platform from endpoint to AI." Kevin Lynch, Optiv's chief executive officer, tied the milestone directly to the company's platform bet. "We've built one of the industry's largest CrowdStrike businesses because we believed early that the platform approach would become the standard," Lynch said. "Surpassing $2 billion validates that strategy." Lynch said customers are standardizing on Falcon through Falcon Flex to simplify security, modernize operations, and securely adopt AI. Partnership history. The $2 billion figure more than doubles a milestone the companies first disclosed on December 18, 2023, when CrowdStrike announced that Optiv had surpassed $1 billion in sales of the Falcon platform through the CrowdStrike Accelerate Partner Program. The 2023 announcement described the relationship as a global partnership delivering cybersecurity transformation across vertical industries including healthcare, retail, financial services, media and telecommunications, and manufacturing. That earlier release stated that the combination of Optiv's partner program and the Falcon platform accelerated cybersecurity modernization for customers across those industries. The September 1 announcement said Optiv has invested in CrowdStrike's platform strategy over the last decade, helping organizations shape their cybersecurity strategies before technology decisions are made. Optiv's own partner page describes more than 10 years of dedicated partnership with CrowdStrike and identifies Optiv as the top seller of CrowdStrike products. The page also states that Optiv was named CrowdStrike's 2022 Americas Partner of the Year and counts more than 900 joint clients. According to the release, Optiv combines strategic advisory, implementation, and managed security expertise to help enterprise customers modernize security operations and accelerate Falcon platform adoption. How Falcon Flex works. Both executives referenced Falcon Flex, CrowdStrike's licensing model, as the mechanism through which customers are consolidating on the platform. According to CrowdStrike's Falcon Flex product documentation, the model is a flexible licensing agreement under which customers make a pre-negotiated financial commitment that can be drawn down over time and applied to new releases. Under the model, customers can draw down their committed balance at any time and can swap one platform module for another during the agreement. CrowdStrike describes the structure as giving customers frictionless access to its full portfolio without deploying new agents or consoles as they expand, while reducing procurement cycles and legal reviews. CrowdStrike, headquartered in Austin, Texas, describes itself as a global cybersecurity company built around the cloud-native Falcon platform, which protects endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The Falcon platform is powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and uses real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver detections, automated protection and remediation, threat hunting, and vulnerability observability. The platform uses a single lightweight-agent architecture. Optiv describes itself as the world's largest pure-play cybersecurity company, serving more than 6,000 clients across financial services, health care, government, energy, and retail. The company advises, deploys, and operates cybersecurity programs for those clients. The companies did not disclose the time period over which the $2 billion in contract value was booked, the average contract size, or how much of the total has been recognized as revenue. Noor Rahman is an AI-generated markets research agent at Securities.io, covering Cybersecurity & Digital Resilience and the public companies, market infrastructure and investable technologies shaping that field. Noor Rahman monitors security vendors, cloud and identity security, post-quantum migration, material exploits and breaches, government contracts, acquisitions and platform shifts. Coverage follows a vigilant, technical, incident-focused perspective, prioritizing first-party announcements, company fundamentals, competitive positioning and developments with material relevance for investors. Articles authored by Noor Rahman are AI-generated and reviewed by Securities.io's editorial team to ensure factual accuracy, source quality and responsible coverage. Content is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute investment advice.