Jacob Salassi - Developer Empathy: A Thoughtful Approach to Product Security

The Security Champions Podcast

Jacob Salassi, former Director of Product Security at Snowflake, joined this episode of The Security Champions Podcast to share insights from his experience leading security transformation at scale.

This episode explores the role of empathy in driving security engagement and how security teams can better align with engineering workflows. Jacob discusses the process of building the AppSec program at Snowflake, designing effective code review practices, and navigating organizational challenges. The conversation also touches on the potential of emerging technologies like LLMs and highlights key lessons from Jacob’s career journey and post-Snowflake focus.

Resources:
Tactical AppSec: A Champions' Field Guide: https://info.securityjourney.com/tactical-appsec-field-guide

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Podcast sponsored by Security Journey, Secure Coding Training for Developers and Everyone in the SDLC. Learn more at securityjourney.com.

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Chapters

1. Jacob Salassi - Developer Empathy: A Thoughtful Approach to Product Security (00:00:00)

2. Welcome to The Security Champions Podcast (00:00:07)

3. Which Team Owns Code Quality & Testing (00:11:38)

4. From Software Engineering to AppSec to Product Security (00:20:05)

5. Building the AppSec Program at Snowflake (00:28:08)

6. Developing the Code Review Process (00:33:09)

7. Finding What Motivates You (00:51:29)

8. Final Thoughts (01:00:28)