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The Advanced Persistent Talent series profiles ThreatConnect employees and explores how their work impacts products and offerings, how they got here, and their views on the industry at large. Want to know more about a particular team? Let us know!
Angel Salcedo radiates energy even through a computer screen. The warmth in his smile and the confidence in his voice help explain why he thrives as a customer success engineer: he knows that the work begins with careful, empathetic communication.
“Customer success is not about knowing all the answers,” Salcedo says. “It’s about starting a dialogue where everyone’s expertise carries equal weight. That’s how you problem-solve in a field that’s always changing.”
“In tech, what was yesterday is not today, and what’s today is not tomorrow,” Salcedo says. “The more we allow that opportunity to be collaborative rather than feeling we have to know it all, the more we can deliver.” Read on to learn how he helps ThreatConnect clients reach their goals.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
How did you get into threat intelligence?
Angel Salcedo: It’s a funny story. I graduated with my master’s in information technology from Kennesaw State University in 2019. I held a few jobs after graduation before I found myself in a Tier 2 developer role during the pandemic. My interest in technology and systems continued to grow. I found myself constantly asking questions, questioning solutions, and ultimately became curious about other roles in information technology.
I stayed at that company until 2022, when I landed a role as a cybersecurity analyst. I then had the opportunity to coordinate with a recruiter at ThreatConnect. The recruiter I met with was not only welcoming but also made me feel like ThreatConnect could be my place to grow tremendously. My first round interview felt fate-fueled. It was an interview where the interviewer and interviewee just clicked. I answered the questions confidently while expressing my curiosity and desire to grow. It was welcomed, and I was told I would grow tremendously. That is still true to this day.
What does your role look like day to day?
Threat intel is, in and of itself, a beast with many facets and complexities that can be challenging for our clients to understand when they first work within ThreatConnect. I work as a conduit to successfully deploy automations, develop workflows, and create visualizations that help leadership understand the actions to take to improve their businesses’ security posture. I tackle meetings, work with different organizations and people, and constantly ask, “What are ways we can further mature your cybersecurity program? What’s our next big mountain to climb?”
What is either the most challenging or maybe interesting part of your job?
I like to say I’m a jack-of-all-trades because of the vast number of tools ThreatConnect integrates with. My engineering colleagues and I are like puzzle pieces that come together to form a really great picture. We all bring different skills and different tools that work together to develop a successful threat intelligence program. Not only do I feel like a whiz at ThreatConnect, but, thanks to what my colleagues with expertise in other areas have taught me, I also feel pretty sharp when it comes to different tools that integrate with ThreatConnect.
How do you set customers up for success with these tools?
It’s about putting your hand out and saying that we’re going to do this together. That’s the beauty of customer success: you’re not alone, and I’m not alone. We’re going to get to the other side together. I love working through that dialogue and letting them know, “Hey, your idea is just as important as my idea, and our ideas together are going to get us where we want to go.” It’s an opportunity for us to learn from each other, and that’s just as important as being the one who knows all the answers, because new things pop up every day.
In tech, what was yesterday is not today, and what’s today is not tomorrow. The more we allow that opportunity to be collaborative rather than feeling we have to know it all, the more we can deliver.
What’s been the most interesting thing you’ve worked on this past year?
In 2024, ThreatConnect acquired Polarity, so one thing I’ve been able to do is connect that tool to ThreatConnect more cohesively. Previously, Polarity interacted with ThreatConnect to gather intel and present it from Polarity’s perspective. This year, I worked with some of the engineers and developers on the Polarity side to get a successful integration with ThreatConnect underway. Since demonstrating the capability, a few organizations I worked with before the acquisition have told me, “This capability is how I envisioned Polarity being integrated into ThreatConnect from the very beginning!” That’s been a challenge that I have learned tremendously from.
How do you like to spend your time outside of ThreatConnect?
I love to spend time with my family and friends. I am a community-oriented person. I enjoy bringing great people together. I am also someone who uses a wheelchair. I call it sitting down, and it’s driven me a lot, no pun intended. It’s been really cool to see how that part of my life has provided me with adventurous opportunities. I’m one of the ambassadors for the Kyle Pease Foundation, a really great national organization based here in Georgia. It allows people with disabilities who sit down, like me, to participate in 5K runs, 10Ks, half marathons, and marathons around the country. I completed a half-marathon in two hours and 10 minutes at about 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. I also volunteer and am a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated, so that’s a big part of my life, too.
The beautiful thing about what my life has taught me is that I’m never afraid of a challenge. I love doing hard stuff, and so it’s brought me to this place of wondering, “What’s the next hard thing I can do, and what’s the next hard thing after that?” My circumstances have definitely made me think outside the box, but they’ve also, in some ways, made me create my own shape, and that’s been a really, really beautiful thing. I don’t know if this is a quote from someone else; I hope it’s just me, but I live by it and think it will guide me for the rest of my life: “See the man before the chair.”
It takes a lot of work to complete a half-marathon. How do you apply that discipline to your job?
I always think that people have a fire inside that burns regardless of their circumstances. I call them “core fires”. If I had everything today and nothing tomorrow, my core fire would still burn. Mine is that I love to help people. I’ve had a really excellent upbringing from people who wanted to help me and who saw beauty in my spirit and my light. I feel like I’m here on purpose. I love to give back; in work, that translates to both creating solutions and authentically engaging with our clients. It’s being able to talk to someone who might need that extra little conversation about how their dog is doing, even if it’s just that small.
I love that about my job; it’s not just about engineering great things. I love the challenge of that, but more than anything, I really do love to help. This year, two of the organizations I work with reached 100% of their goals, and that really makes me happy. It is our success and hard work that allowed us to achieve 100%. For them to be on the other side and say, “That engineer is doing great things for us.” That is what truly excites me every day at my job.
