Meet the International Team

In 2022, we announced our latest Vanta milestone - expanding our international presence with a new European headquarters in Dublin and growing our team in Sydney. We’re hiring dozens of full-time employees in both locations over the next year. Want the inside scoop on what it's like to be part of our International rocketship? Check out insights from some of the new International Team.

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Harriet Niland, Account Executive, UK and Ireland

Meet Harriet!

I’m part of the International Sales Team at Vanta supporting our EMEA clients. I’ve been with the company for about three months.

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Tell us about your role at Vanta.

I spend the majority of my time educating new clients about our solutions and helping them start their journey towards compliance.

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What made you realize this was the right career field for you?

I’ve been in various consulting sales roles for the past six years and early on realized how much I love learning about different companies and how they operate.

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At Vanta, I spend a lot of time with founders for whom security and compliance is a primary concern. It’s really fun showing them how to leverage Vanta to solve those challenges within one platform.

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I also get a buzz from problem solving with the wider team when the requirements are more particular. There’s a high degree of collaboration that has to happen across a sales team so I’m often working with our Customer Success, Solution Engineering, Product, and Support Teams to make sure we’re all on the same page about our customers’ goals and how to best get them there.

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If you could go back to the start of your career, what advice would you give yourself?

Sales in a busy organization can feel like a constant sprint with lots of activities that all need to get done. Some advice I received early on is the importance of minimizing the noise and ruthlessly prioritizing what’s really important. For me, that’s focusing on the customer, making sure I understand their timeline, and working with them to achieve that.

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And secondly, it’s so important to understand the wider organization outside of just your team. Connect with people across the business to learn about what they’re working on, see what you can learn from them, or how you can work together. This is a great opportunity to widen your network, get mentorship or start a new initiative.

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What is your favorite thing about working at Vanta and in the International Team?

The best thing about being part of Vanta and the International Team is the pace at which we’re moving. A core focus for Vanta this year is supporting our international customers, which is why we’ve established our EMEA and APAC headquarters in Dublin and Sydney. I love seeing the team grow and can’t wait to see what the team looks like at the end of 2023. It’s already changed significantly in just two and a half months! EMEA startups and scaleups are heavily focused on privacy and security, so it’s fantastic to be able to meet them where they are.  

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Favorite book recommendation?

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is one of the first business books I read (without it being assigned by a lecturer). One of my first managers gave it to me as a Christmas present and I’m forever grateful, although at the time I wasn’t sure what habit she was intending I change.

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Essentially the book breaks down the science behind actions and rewards and gives you insight on how to break habits, or trick yourself into forming new ones. In sales, focusing on the outcome or the reward has helped me to change activities that aren’t working anymore. It’s encouraged me to get creative and try new things that eventually lead to repeatable results.

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Outside of work it also (sometimes) helps minimize my chocolate biscuit intake and has slightly improved my gym attendance.

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