Working at Verafin for over a decade has given Hazel Dalton vast experience across a variety of responsibilities and projects. As the current Vice President of Cloud Platform at Verafin, we were excited to learn more about how technology has influenced Hazel’s role.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at Verafin?
I have an arts degree in Computer Science from Memorial University of Newfoundland and have been with Verafin since 2012. Today, in my role as the Vice President of the Cloud Platform, I am responsible for Verafin’s production cloud (supporting 2,500 customers in a multi-tenant environment), release process, platform optimization (for cost reduction and performance) and security program. I also work closely with the Verafin Enterprise business unit to support the development of a low-latency, high-availability, real-time transaction processing pipeline.
How did you become involved in the cloud platform space?
I have been a leader at Verafin since 2016 and moved into the Cloud Platform at the end of 2021 to assume the Vice President role. I was promoted into the position to expand the leadership team and help the Cloud Platform teams embrace Verafin’s strategic framework. My prior expertise was in data pipelines and integration, and moving into cloud and security had a significant learning curve. I was (and am!) excited to constantly expand my knowledge of AWS and cloud computing and help Verafin engineer solutions for the top tier of banks in the United States.
How has technology influenced your role at Verafin?
Technology is constantly evolving, and my role has evolved with it. I fell in love with programming at university and joined Verafin as a software developer. Now, I lead teams of people, and I still use the principles that I applied daily as a developer when I consider the moving pieces of the system and understand how changing one small piece can affect the whole.
What challenges have you been presented with throughout your career that you’ve had to overcome?
Software development is a male-dominated profession. That environment can be challenging, but I believe it has also driven me to reach — and keep reaching — for my goals. I think that women belong (and excel!) in technology, and I hope that by representing women as a leader in technology, I can make it easier for women who choose to enter technology in the future.
What advice would you give to people who are interested in working in the cloud industry or desire to have a role in the technology sector?
Check out a course on CodeGuru, PluralSight or even YouTube. Create a free account on AWS and play with it. Go do it for fun. You will never learn all the things there are to learn, so don’t wait until you’re comfortable – just dive in, take the initiative, and roll with the changes!
