Kristal York

Director of Operations: Engineering, Product & GTM @ JupiterOne | AI + lean ops + agile = velocity without chaos | The connective tissue between building it, shipping it, and selling it

New York City Metropolitan Area

About

I run the connective tissue. At JupiterOne, I lead Operations across Engineering, Product, and Go-To-Market — the layer underneath the org chart that turns strategy into shipped software and shipped software into revenue. Most companies treat Engineering, Product, and GTM as three separate operating systems, then wonder why the roadmap doesn't match the pipeline, why marketing is selling something product hasn't built, or why CS is supporting features sales didn't know existed. My job is to make those one system — with shared metrics, shared cadence, shared tooling, and AI doing the heavy lifting on the knowledge work in between. JupiterOne is solving one of the hardest problems in cybersecurity: helping security teams surface the risks that actually matter across AI Attack Surface Management, Unified Vulnerability Management, and Continuous Controls Management. The product is technical, the buyers are sophisticated, and the operating model has to be tight from PRD to pipeline. Right now I'm helping lead our team through the shift to an Agentic SDLC — rebuilding how we plan, build, ship, and sell around AI agents that own real work end-to-end, with humans focused on judgment, taste, and strategy. A few things I've come to believe after 15+ years across insurance, financial services, global mobility, retail, and now cybersecurity: Speed and quality aren't a trade-off — they're a systems problem. Teams choose between moving fast and building something that lasts because their operating model forces the choice. It doesn't have to. AI is the new leverage point for operations. I'm deep in building AI agents, automations, and plugins that turn repetitive cross-functional work — Jira triage, tracking plan design, telemetry instrumentation, competitive briefs, stakeholder updates, pipeline reviews, sales call prep, customer escalations — into background tasks. Engineering, Product, and GTM perform best when they share an operating model. Same metrics frame. Same prioritization language. Same source of truth. The intersection is where compounding advantage lives. Outside JupiterOne, through Skylark Trio, I advise startup founders and CTOs who need to move fast without chaos — on the operating model that aligns product strategy, engineering velocity, and GTM execution, plus the AI tooling that lets a small team punch above its weight. If you're a founder, CTO, COO, or fellow ops leader thinking about how to ship faster, sell smarter, or weave AI into how your team actually works — let's talk.

Experience

  • JupiterOne (3 yrs 9 mos)
    • Director of Operations, Engineering, Product and GTM
      Oct 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 9 mos

      Leading Operations across Engineering, Product, and Go-To-Market for an AI-powered cybersecurity platform spanning AI Attack Surface Management, Unified Vulnerability Management, and Continuous Controls Management. Helping lead the team through the shift to an Agentic SDLC — rebuilding how we plan, build, ship, and sell around AI agents that own real work end-to-end, with humans focused on judgment, taste, and strategy. What I'm doing day-to-day: • Architecting the cross-functional operating model — shared metrics, prioritization frameworks, planning cadence, and source-of-truth tooling that align build motion with sell motion across Engineering, Product, Sales, Marketing, and CS • Driving the Agentic SDLC transformation — designing the workflows, guardrails, and feedback loops that let AI agents take real ownership of SDLC work (spec writing, triage, instrumentation, review, release comms) while raising quality, not lowering it • Building and deploying AI agents, automations, and plugins that compress knowledge work across functions — Jira triage, tracking plan design, telemetry instrumentation, competitive intelligence, pipeline review, sales call prep, customer escalation handling • Driving product telemetry and analytics strategy — tracking plan design, instrumentation guides, and turning product data into shipping and GTM decisions • Partnering with Engineering, Product, Sales, Marketing, and CS leadership to remove friction, accelerate decisions, and increase throughput across the entire build-to-revenue motion

    • Principal, Product Management Excellence
      Jan 2023 - Oct 2023 · 10 mos

      • Built JupiterOne's product management process and operating cadence — standards for PRDs, roadmaps, research synthesis, and stakeholder communication • Coached PMs on prioritization frameworks, metrics literacy, and writing specs engineering can actually build from • Laid the foundation for the engineering operations function that I now lead

    • Engineering Excellence Consultant
      Oct 2022 - Jan 2023 · 4 mos

  • Founder/ Owner leading Product Journeys at Skylark Trio LLC
    Aug 2021 - Present · 4 yrs 11 mos

    Monitored progress in development and launch of over 12 products to market. Optimized over 70 touchpoints for a better user experience by directing digital transformation of data roadmap with client, Merz Aesthetics.

  • Innovation Advisory Consultant - Design Thinking, Product Coach at Vaco
    May 2021 - Dec 2022 · 1 yr 8 mos

    Vaco Raleigh focuses on providing technical talent solutions to their clients. I am brought in when a client needs a product created quickly and cannot wait for a team to be built. We partner with the client to define products, build a plan for delivery using the latest technologies, and build a team with great leaders we have ready to run a project.

  • Chief Operating Officer - Financials & Account Management at Monkey Bread Technologies
    Oct 2017 - Aug 2021 · 3 yrs 11 mos

  • Founder/ Owner - Chief Product Strategy Officer -Design Thinking & Product Ownership at Kapok Digital
    Jul 2016 - Aug 2021 · 5 yrs 2 mos

    Yielded over $15M in revenue by supervising teams in delivering services for 40 clients. Created a digital platform to support over 8,800 employees in geographic relocation. Standardized 50,000 Coke Freestyle soda machines in only 2 months by leading an engineering team in building a digital software solution. Increased daily active users 600% for “Mamava Pods” (airport nursing stations) and won Best Mobile App Awards January 2019 for “Best Designed Mobile App”. Produced 25 web solutions, including 15 mobile applications, 3 AI Bots, and 2 IoT applications, with dozens of new releases every month. Oversaw project teams to ensure alignment between requirements, design, and development to ensure on-time project delivery within client budgets.