Linzi Hansen was researching master's programs in marriage and family therapy when Abnormal came across her radar. She had no cybersecurity background and no obvious reason to pivot to tech. But the more she looked into the company, the more she recognized something familiar: the work was fundamentally about helping people. Four years later, she's a CSI Supervisor — and that instinct is still at the center of everything she does.

From a School Counseling Office to Cybersecurity

Before Linzi knew anything about threat queues or vendor fraud, she was working in a school counseling office, mapping out a path to become a marriage and family therapist. That was the plan. Then someone mentioned Abnormal.

"The more I researched, the more I realized what amazing things the company was doing," Linzi said. "And it actually kind of aligned with something that I already really love to do — and that is help people."

She saw a clear enough thread: a counseling career would let her help people. So would Abnormal. The contexts were different. The core motivation wasn't. She took the leap — and landed in a role where she knew nothing about the field she'd just joined.

Learning a New Language

Linzi describes her first weeks at Abnormal with one phrase: learning a new language.

"I was being bombarded with lots of new information every single day, and it really caused me to stretch," she said. She remembers feeling overwhelmed, but she also remembers something else just as clearly: she wasn't navigating it alone. Her onboarding buddy, her team lead, and her manager were all in it with her, every step.

That experience didn't just get Linzi through onboarding. It shaped the kind of leader she'd eventually become — one who pays close attention to how people are doing, not just how they're performing.

The Work Behind the Work

As a CSI analyst, Linzi spent her days inside threat queues, reviewing messages, making determinations, and flagging attacks. The team doesn't have direct contact with customers, but the stakes are anything but abstract.

She found her footing in the vendor fraud queue, where investigations run deep and outcomes are tangible. Vendor fraud attacks, if they get through, cost customers real money. One day, she flagged an attack. Later, she learned how much that single decision had protected.

"I remember being totally surprised and totally shocked that just one simple message made that big of a difference," she said. "And that everything that I'm doing every single day is keeping our customers safe."

From Analyst to Supervisor

Linzi didn't wait for a clear path. She said yes to projects and new workflows as they surfaced. She built the process as the team's needs evolved. She moved from analyst to senior analyst to team lead — and last May, to CSI Supervisor.

The promotion conversation with her manager, who has been in her corner since day one, is one she won't forget. "She knows my journey, has supported me through every step, and believed in my growth along the way." Now they work alongside each other on the leadership team.

Her week looks nothing like it did as an analyst. Where she once reviewed messages and labeled queues, she now meets with her analysts one on one, checking in, setting up support sessions, making sure they have what they need to succeed. She's more operational now, but no less connected to the work. She's just connected to it differently.

Protecting People, Then Growing Them

What Linzi has built at Abnormal is a kind of dual practice: protection outward, development inward. The same instinct that pulled her toward cybersecurity from a counseling office shows up now in how she runs a 1:1.

She thinks often about the early support she received — the patience, the belief, the people who helped her find her footing in a field she didn't know. Now she's intentional about being that for someone else.

"Sometimes it's not about solving the biggest problem," she said. "It's about helping one person move forward. That's the part of my job that consistently reminds me why this work matters to me."

AI as a Daily Practice, Not a Theory

There isn't a day Linzi doesn't use AI in some aspect of her job.

In her analyst years, AI was already embedded in how the team caught attacks. In her current role, she uses it to build proposals and presentations, create curriculum for programs like Leadership Launchpad, analyze hiring transcripts with less bias, and locate bottlenecks in her own workflow.

She's still learning what it can do, treating that as a feature, not a gap. "I know there is so much more I can do with it. So I'll keep learning and experimenting."

On Culture, and Who Thrives Here

Before she started, people told Linzi the culture at Abnormal was something different. She went in with high expectations. Abnormal exceeded them.

"It is filled with people who are excited about the work that they do, who want to make an impact, who support each other, who ask questions and make mistakes and then start over again the next day."

She's told people more than once: this is the first job that hasn't felt like a burden. Her advice to anyone considering making the jump?

The people who thrive here, she says, are curious, hungry to learn, and willing to show up with big ideas even when they're still figuring things out. People who want to make a difference every day and who love working alongside others who do the same.

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