Inside Illumio: Jason Emerson

Inside Illumio is a monthly series that highlights the exceptional individuals behind Illumio's world-class products. Each post will peek behind the scenes to spotlight a member of our team. Come get to know us a little better and learn more about what makes Illumio's culture so unique.

This month, meet Jason Emerson, Staff Professional Services Consultant at Illumio. Read about how he’s still having fun in his role after almost seven years, why Illumio is his favorite product he’s worked with, and how he sees Illumio’s core value Onwards Together in play in his team and the entire company.

Tell us about yourself. What do you do at Illumio?

I’ve been part of the Professional Services team at Illumio for almost seven years. My role is really fun — I think I have a bit of a unique role all Illumio. I help enable our channel partners, support implementation for our federal customers, attend events and conferences to support pre-sales work, and even put training materials together. I get to do a lot of different things, and that keeps it interesting.  

What made you interested in working at Illumio?

I had worked with Scott Downie, Senior VP of Support and Services at Illumio, at another company. I appreciate the way Illumio’s leadership runs and builds teams. Knowing that there were people at Illumio I’d already worked with in the past made me know that it would be a great place to work.

What does a day in the life of Jason look like? What are you working on that excites you?

My day-to-day changes quite a bit, but it always revolves around supporting our customers and partners. That can look like creating content for channel partner enablement, supporting federal customers implement Illumio’s platform, or sitting in on partner training courses to help answer questions and add insight. I spend a lot of time strategizing ways to help manage partners and ensure they’re delivering the Illumio platform in the best way possible for our customers.

What I like most about my work is helping partners deploy Illumio successfully. That involves close collaboration with my team at Illumio. Although I’ve been here for almost seven years, I’ll never know everything about every product, project, or partner. I’m always learning, and my team is always there for help when I need it.

What is the most important thing you've learned at Illumio so far?

The power of alignment across an organization — and that applies to both Illumio and our customers. I've seen how building bridges, having conversations, continuously communicating with each other really makes a difference for our customers and my team.  

What are you passionate about outside of your career?

My family. They’ve helped me live a better life. I live at the beach, so my wife and I spend a lot of time there — nearly every day — walking our dogs, paddle boarding, surfing, and collecting shells.  

Which Illumio core value resonates with you and why?

Onwards together. It’s a phrase I hear all the time and reflects Illumio’s team atmosphere. I credit that to our leadership. It’s why I’ve been here so long — I really like the people I work with and the people-first mindset we have for our team and our customers.  

What do you want people to know about working at Illumio?

Illumio has such a great platform. It’s my favorite product that I’ve worked with, and our customers get so much value out of it.  

I love seeing customers' surprise when they get complete visibility into their network with Illumio. A lot of the time, they have no idea what’s communicating in their network! Then, we can help them categorize and have intelligent discussions about what traffic is needed and what’s not. For many organizations, it’s the first time they’re having those kinds of conversations. It’s exciting to be a part of such important security initiatives that truly move the needle for our customers.  

Interested in joining the team? Check out our career openings.