Meet Roland Yang, Head of Business Operations

Roland Yang joined At-Bay in April 2020 as Chief of Staff to CEO Rotem Iram before transitioning to Head of Business Operations in December 2021. As Chief of Staff, he helped the company navigate its early stages of growth, and he’s since built a Business Operations function from the ground up, working across the entire company to optimize our business model and keep core KPIs aligned. 

At-Bay’s Head of People describes Roland as “a strong leader with a warm personality who really captures our values.” Roland has the rare ability to work well across both vertical and horizontal parts of the business, and he’s had a far-reaching impact on At-Bay — both as a professional and as a person.

We spoke with Roland to learn more about his unique career path and skill set.

1. How did you find your way into the insurance industry?

Since getting my MBA in 2019, I’ve aimed to work at startups because I tend to thrive best in these dynamic and energetic environments. I love working with companies in their early stages to help guide and realize their potential.

When I first learned about At-Bay, the company was less than 5 years old but was already doing meaningful and complex work. I was captivated by At-Bay’s dynamic approach to securing and insuring small to medium-sized businesses that are the most vulnerable and least equipped for cyber threats.

On top of that, the people are sharp, kind, and thoughtful. From my initial interviews, I felt that I could belong and contribute here — which is how I ended up joining the team and stepping into the insurance industry.

2. What was it like to transition from the Chief Of Staff role into Business Operations?

Starting as Rotem’s Chief of Staff offered overarching visibility into all facets of the business. Everything that was on his mind was on my mind, which offered an invaluable foundation for me to develop Business Operations at At-Bay.

Although similar to the Chief of Staff role in its cross-functionality, my current role in Business Operations has allowed me to take a more focused, introspective approach to guiding the company’s energy. In this capacity, I have been able to step back from day-to-day tasks, investing my time where it will have the highest impact to help the company jump forward two or three steps at a time. I’ve also been able to hire a Business Operations team that can dig further into data and analytics to help At-Bay optimize its products and processes.

3. How has At-Bay changed since you first joined?

I think the most remarkable change — beyond our business growth — is our people growth. We’re continuously hiring roles that are the first of their kind, which is cool because it means we can specialize in ways that we haven’t been able to before.

To keep up with this growth, we’re all constantly educating ourselves on how to work together most effectively. As a distributed, hybrid workforce comprised of people from many industries and backgrounds, we’ve had to engage with each other more thoughtfully and creatively than we would if we were in a traditional office setting.

4. What professional challenges do you experience in your role?

As Chief of Staff, I was often jumping between critical daily tasks to support the executive team, and it could be difficult to carve out time for future-oriented projects. 

Shifting into Business Operations has allowed me space to focus on the long-term vision of the company, and now my biggest challenge is determining the most impactful use of my team’s time and resources as the company’s needs evolve.

My role is all about prioritizing our challenges, getting buy-in from various teams — in different time zones and offices — then working together to tackle these projects efficiently.

5. What skill have you developed over your career that helps you shine at At-Bay?

The cross-functional nature of my work at At-Bay relies on empathy and communication. These are skills I’ve honed over the course of my career working with different companies in various industries and geographies. 

Even though my role in Business Operations is data-driven, I always center on people. Understanding people’s personal and professional objectives helps me help the business by getting everyone on the same page and ultimately keeping everyone aligned toward our shared goals.

I always take an empathetic and communicative approach, especially when I’m talking to new teams and individuals and trying to understand how they work. For example, engineers will tackle a problem differently than actuaries, and it’s important to blend these methods to succeed as a business that has many industries rolled into one.

At-Bay is hiring! Check out our careers page to learn more and explore current job openings.

About At-Bay

At-Bay is the InsurSec provider for the digital age. By combining world-class technology with industry-leading insurance and security expertise, At-Bay was designed from the ground up to empower businesses of every size to meet cyber risk head on. Our InsurSec approach provides end-to-end protection for modern businesses. It’s a force multiplier that includes security, threat intelligence, and human experts to close the SMB cybersecurity gap — all as part of their insurance policy.