Tell us a little about yourself. What does your job at Telefónica involve?
I am part of the BOS Management team, within Telefónica’s specialist security sales team. My job is to help our customers improve their cybersecurity posture, especially in the financial and insurance sectors, supporting them in the challenge of staying up to date with new threats.
It is a very dynamic role in which I also work closely with our partners and cybersecurity manufacturers, which allows me to be in direct contact with the constant evolution of technologies and participate in both national and international projects. All of this makes me feel fully fulfilled in my day-to-day work.
How would you define the position of cybersecurity account manager?
A cybersecurity account manager, or as we call it at Telefónica, a ‘Sales Specialist’, is a very dynamic and enriching role, combining both technical expertise and close customer relations. It is a position in which you must always be up to date with the latest technological developments and, at the same time, understand the needs of each company in order to support them in improving their security posture.
In my case, it involves being in direct contact with some of the main players in the financial and insurance sector in Spain, with whom I work continuously to convey the importance of cybersecurity and help them make the best decisions. This also means travelling frequently, not only in Madrid, but to different cities in Spain, which allows me to be even more involved in the reality of each customer and reinforce that relationship of trust that is key in this role.
In short, it is a position where every day brings new challenges and learning opportunities, with the chance to experience first-hand the evolution of technology and its impact on organisational strategy.
Which aspect of this professional profile is more important: the commercial or the technical?
I would say that in this professional profile, the combination of commercial and technical skills is very important. Ultimately, it is about understanding each client’s needs very well and being able to translate them into concrete solutions that add value to their organisation.
In my case, I don’t come from a purely technical background, but that doesn’t prevent me from supporting and accompanying clients in their day-to-day activities. The important thing is to have an in-depth understanding of their context, their challenges and how the technologies we offer at Telefónica, together with those of our partners, can help them improve their security. That ability to listen, understand and convey the right proposal is, in fact, what makes the difference in this position.
What are the main responsibilities of this job?
I would say that the main responsibilities of this job are, first and foremost, to be very close to the client: visiting them, understanding their needs and leading the negotiation process so that they feel that Telefónica is the right partner for their cybersecurity strategy.
But there is another equally important part: internal management. From the moment a project is proposed until it becomes a reality, many teams and departments within Telefónica are involved. One of my main responsibilities is to coordinate these multidisciplinary teams, align all parties and ensure that we are moving in the same direction to deliver the best possible result for the customer.
Ultimately, it is a role that combines customer proximity and internal leadership skills, ensuring that complex projects are carried out from start to finish.
Could you give an example?
A good example is a project that we have recently completed successfully and which has been a great challenge. It was an identity management initiative involving several companies in the same sector, which meant coordinating the needs of thousands of employees from different organisations within a single solution.
It was a project that took several months of work, in which we had to be very agile in adapting the proposal to the changes that arose, as each company had its own particularities when it came to defining how it wanted to manage the identity of its users. To this end, we held a large number of follow-up meetings, both with clients and with all the internal Telefónica teams involved in the project, ensuring that every step we took responded exactly to what they were looking for.
Ultimately, the result has been very positive, as we have managed to come up with a solid global proposal that effectively meets the needs of all the clients involved.
What are the particularities of the financial and insurance sector?
Each sector is a world unto itself, but the financial and insurance sectors have something in common: they are probably among the most challenging in terms of cybersecurity. Why? Very simple: they handle money and highly sensitive data. This means they are always in the crosshairs of attackers.
Here, cybersecurity is not limited to protecting systems; it is also a matter of trust. All it takes is for one piece of banking or customer data to be leaked for the company’s reputation to be seriously damaged. Furthermore, these are highly regulated sectors, which means that they must continuously demonstrate that they comply with all regulations and that they can provide traceability for each process.
What is most striking is that attacks often do not come directly from the entity itself, but from an external supplier or a point in the supply chain. We have seen this several times in Spain and abroad, and it confirms that security must be comprehensive and cover the entire ecosystem, not just the organisation itself.
Which people working at Telefónica would you nominate for this interview who you consider to be excellent at their job?
Firstly, my direct manager, María Isabel Pérez, head of specialist security sales at BOS, who leads the team with a very clear and strategic vision.
I would also highlight my colleague Manuel Cañedo, who works with very important clients in the insurance sector and who could provide another very valuable perspective from a commercial point of view.
And I would especially like to nominate Mohammed Zariohi, who is the Security Manager for several clients with whom I also collaborate. His role is to ensure that all the cybersecurity services that each client has contracted with Telefónica are working properly, and he is also the client’s first point of contact for everything related to these services. I think his more technical and operational management perspective would be very interesting to hear.
