Lee Johnson hunts bugs. Not the kind with six legs, but flaws in computer code. He’s living his life’s dream as a security engineer working on MuleSoft, a Salesforce product, in Phoenix. “This is my passion. I’ve always loved trying to hack into things,” says Johnson.
One of his first assignments was running a penetration test on a company that Salesforce had recently acquired as part of MuleSoft. He reviewed their web application security by looking for common code and networking vulnerabilities and if there were any bugs found our team would send to the software engineering team for patching.
A member of the Navajo Nation from Kaibito, Ariz., Johnson has high hopes. His five-year goal is to be a senior product security manager so he can review and approve the work he’s now doing, which includes writing software updates, incident responses, and Python coding scripts that automate daily tasks.
In the meantime, his next area of focus is honing in on his bug bounty hunting skills.
Growing up on the reservation, Johnson thought he would become a welder or construction worker like most of his family members. But one summer during high school, he had a revelation. While working in construction, he discovered just how hard manual labor can be.
No longer sure of his career goals, Johnson decided to attend Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, N.M. He urges young Indigenous students to take advantage of tribal colleges because of their affordability. After earning an associate degree in network management, he transferred to Dixie State in Utah and graduated with a degree in computer science in 2020.
This cybersecurity expert is grateful for the strong encouragement he received from his parents. He grew up on the reservation, where his father was a tribal councilman for 16 years. “I didn’t think college was for me, but seeing him be a leader inspired me to pursue higher education. He always told me college is the way to go,” says Johnson.
Many of his mother’s ancestors were well-respected medicine men who had deep knowledge of Navajo teachings and ceremonies. He recalls his mother telling him, “With that type of willpower and brainpower in your heritage, you can go to college — no problem. Don’t think you’re not worthy enough to go to college, because you are.”
Looking back, Johnson realizes he fell into his career almost by accident when he took a class on network management at SIPI. “As I kept diving deeper into it, I realized cybersecurity is a part of IT. That’s where I excelled,” he says. “I’m very glad I stumbled into a passion I didn’t know about. If you don’t know what you want to do, take a bunch of classes like I did and see what your strong suits are.”
Seek internships even if you don’t think you’re qualified, is the advice Johnson gives students. Before working on MuleSoft, he did stints at a U.S. national laboratory and a computer technology company, where he discovered that his managers were eager to help him excel. “If you’re presented with an opportunity,” says Johnson, “go for it.”
