How Saronic Scales Security at the Speed of Defense

In this episode of Make Yourself @ Work, Matt Tverberg sits down with Delia Midamba, Director of Physical Security at Saronic, an Austin-based defense technology company building autonomous vessels for the U.S. Navy. Before Saronic, Delia built and led security programs at Splunk, Cloudflare, and Cohesity, and started her career as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. State Department.

Delia shares what it's really like to build a security program from scratch at a company where the stakes are national defense. That means navigating trade compliance, multi-site consistency, and protecting technology that real lives may one day depend on.

She dives into how she manages visitor compliance workflows, keeps security consistent across multiple sites, and balances a frictionless employee experience with the requirements of a regulated environment. Some key lessons from the conversation include: security works best when it enables the business rather than blocks it, consistency across sites reduces risk and creates a better employee experience, and the biggest security variable is always human behavior.

This episode is a must-listen for physical security leaders, workplace and operations professionals in regulated or defense environments, and anyone building a security program at a fast-scaling company.

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Quotes

“The human factor adds an element of unpredictability that you always have to be able to pivot and account for. So the security teams always have to be reading people, assessing behavior, and then responding based on the signals they're getting.”

“ Framing the conversation and being flexible and understanding [that] your risk tolerance may not be their risk tolerance. And so coming to an agreement on where they want that risk tolerance to be, and then implementing based on that.”

“I think a lot of the time security is seen as a hindrance or a blocker… So if we can get to a stage where we're not seen that way, where people are comfortable coming to us for help… that's a win for me.”

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Timestamps

(00:25) Background on Delia and Saronic

(01:31) From the State Department to defense tech

(04:36) The US shipbuilding gap and Saronic's mission

(06:51) Saronic vessels used in a real Navy rescue mission

(09:03) Working with a Navy SEAL founder

(10:27) Communicating security value to leadership

(16:09) One badge, one process: the consistency principle

(19:32) Trade compliance and visitor workflows

(26:38) Incident readiness and tabletop exercises

(30:58) What keeps a defense security leader up at night

(33:09) How Delia defines success in her role

(36:17) How Delia Makes Herself @ Work

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Links 

Connect with the guest and host on LinkedIn!

• Delia Midamba
• Matt Tverberg

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