Thrive Spotlight: Ariel Amarante – Engineer, Security Deployment

Welcome back to another installment of our “Thrive Spotlight” blog series.

Our featured employee is Ariel Amarante, Engineer, Security Deployment – Onboarding/ Pro Services.  As a Security Deployment Engineer, Ariel’s main focus is to ensure a seamless transition to the security product implementation for our clients.  He gets to ensure clients can execute their daily roles without having to worry about potential nefarious actors impeding on their organization.

Ariel lives in Yonkers, NY and works out of our Greenwich, CT office.  Outside of work, he loves spending time with his three children.  They do all types of fun things, but their favorite is taking road trips together.  Ariel is a HUGE Yankees fan, so unless he is on a client call, you will see him in his Yankees hat.  He is also an aquarist; he has saltwater fish and coral.

Hi Ariel!  Can you tell us about your background and how you came to Thrive?

I started in IT as a Helpdesk Support Intern during high school in the MID Department for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.  Since then, I have had the privilege of road mapping, implementing, and maintaining new technologies across various industries such as hospitality, retail, and then landing in financial services.  I joined Edge Technology which then got acquired by Thrive in 2022.

Where did you go to school or get training?

I got my AS at Queensborough Community College and started my BA in Computer Science at St. John’s University.  Due to life changes, I left St. John’s University and focused on getting certified with different technologies I was already supporting with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.  I started with getting A+ certified which led me to getting my MSCE and CCNA.  Since then, I have gotten a few additional certifications and recently got my Mimecast certifications.

What do you most enjoy about working for Thrive?

The organizations efficiency and the comradery that we have here.  We all work together to achieve our goals.  Whenever I need assistance, I can reach out to one of my colleagues and they are always willing to help me. #OneThrive holds true.

As part of the security development team, I get to put clients’ minds at ease by ensuring the security applications hand-picked for their environments protect their organization collectively, bringing industry best practices and standards to secure them from the latest unforeseen threats.  It brings me a sense of pride to know that we can help others while doing something that I am passionate about. 

Are there any recent exciting projects at Thrive you can tell us about?

There is excitement every day!  As new products are introduced, we have a front row on learning and implementing these products for our clients.  I always tend to take on projects that I have never implemented before to keep the cogs turning in my head.  I love to learn by being in the driver seat and figuring it out if I get stuck, which leads back to #OneThrive and how the team always ready to step in and help!

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