Congratulations, You're Hired: Julien Niles '26

May 8, 2026

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Julien Niles '26 was hacked. The cyber criminal shut down Niles' router, hacked his email, and locked him out of his account. It was a horrible experience, but also one of the most meaningful experiences of Niles' life.

Specialized computer mainframes are built to process enormous volumes of transactions with speed and security. Think about how many purchases are processed by banks and credit card companies every second, or how many travelers are booking and changing flights at any given moment. Much of that activity runs through IBM mainframes.

Systems handling that much sensitive information are prime targets for hackers. Before IBM ships its technology to customers around the world, the company rigorously tests those systems for vulnerabilities. That means employing cybersecurity specialists trained to think like attackers - identifying weaknesses before bad actors can exploit them. Starting on May 26, Niles will be one of the good guys paid to think like a bad guy. He'll be working out of IBM's Poughkeepsie office as a z/OS Security Engineer Intern.

"I went on LinkedIn and found one of the IBM hiring managers, and I messaged her. I told her I wanted to learn more about what she does and we hopped on a call. It went well, and then she passed my resume along to other hiring managers. Sometimes you've got to be proactive in the way you build your network."

"I just had this thought, 'Is there a field where people do this? Where they go after these bad guys?' I started watching these scammer videos online where people troll hackers and catch them. I wanted to be part of scammer payback."

The computer science major chose Siena for the community. It's something he felt during an Accepted Students Day his senior year of high school. His cyber security concentration, along with the rest of the resume he's built through internships and research projects, was more than enough to get the attention of IBM. Niles received his job offer last fall, and since, he's helped his classmates secure their offers as well.

Niles' mom works as a hiring manager at IBM, though not in the security field. Niles got the resumes of several Siena classmates into his mom's hands, and after vetting them, she passed them around to her colleagues. From that connection, four of Niles computer science classmates secured jobs at IBM, including Sushmita Mandal '26.

"I will be joining IBM as a firmware developer intern," said Mandal. "One of the biggest things Siena has given me is a strong sense of community and support. Through my classes, projects, and connections with other students and alumni, I was able to grow both professionally and personally. Julien was also incredibly encouraging throughout the process, and seeing peers succeed motivated me to keep pushing myself."

Added Niles, "Siena has been such a great experience, and I just wanted to give back to the program if I could. That's why I took so much initiative to help my friends find opportunities. I've just always been ambitious, and if I don't have an initiative to work toward, I get anxious. Once I had my job lined up, I just wanted to help others. I wanted to help Saints."

And now Niles will be helping you. Every time you make an online purchase or share sensitive data, remember that Niles is behind the scenes keeping the hackers at bay.