HR The Next Leap
Zero Networks: “We expect people to arrive already capable while removing the very rungs they used to climb to get there”
Dana Matalon Goren, VP HR at Zero Networks, explains the current two-speed labor market and the generational values redefining the workplace perk environment, as part of CTech’s HR: The Next Leap series.
“AI hasn’t so much erased jobs as it has consumed the entry-level tasks that were always the apprenticeship layer of our profession,” says Dana Matalon Goren, VP HR at cybersecurity startup Zero Networks. Referring to this phenomenon as the “‘broken rung’ at the bottom of the ladder,” she warns that this “experience paradox” threatens to “starve our own senior pipeline five years out.” “We expect people to arrive already capable, while removing the very rungs they used to climb to get there,” Matalon Goren continues.
From active and looming war threats, to AI rapidly and constantly redefining what it means to be productive, running a company in Startup Nation brings with it its own category of challenges and rewards. HR: The Next Leap takes a glimpse into the heart of Startup Nation via the HR professionals shaping its culture. We survey the executives whose jobs are more demanding and more vital than ever, as they heed the future-proofing of their workforce, while simultaneously ensuring business continuity and employee wellbeing during relentlessly unprecedented times.
Assessing other contemporary workplace trends, Matalon Goren notes that the “‘end of perks’ is being misdiagnosed as a budget story when it’s really a values story, a generational reset of the employer value proposition.” Specifically, she highlights a younger generation opting out of “the all-inclusive workplace” in favor of cleaner boundaries between the office and home. From a local standpoint, when it comes to the pressures that have affected business continuity in Israel over the past few years during the country's rolling emergency states, she explains that the reality of Startup Nation should be framed “less as crisis management and more as business continuity built on psychological safety.”
You can read the entire interview below.
Company Name: Zero Networks
Sector: Cybersecurity
Founders: Benny Lakunishok (CEO) and Amir Frankel (CTO)
Year of Founding: 2019
Investment stage: Series C
Total investment to date: Over $100 million
Investors: Pico Ventures, Venrock, Highland Europe, F2 Ventures, USVP
Current number of employees: 180
Open positions: 8 in Israel (Backend Engineer, Backend Engineer – Linux, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, Network Data Analyst, On-Prem Backend Engineer, Senior Backend Engineer, Software Team Lead), 3 in EMEA, 6 in the US
Website: https://zeronetworks.com/
Social Media: LinkedIn, Facebook
As of March 2026, the market officially shifted into an 'employer's market'. How have your screening criteria changed, and do candidates - including senior-level ones - still hold any leverage in negotiating salaries and terms?
I’d push back gently on the premise. The aggregate numbers may point to an “employer’s market,” but talent has never behaved like a commodity market. It’s deeply segmented. What we’re really seeing is a two-speed labor market: surplus at the generalist end, persistent scarcity at the specialist and senior end. So our screening hasn’t loosened, it’s sharpened. We’ve moved further toward skills-based, capability-led hiring rather than filtering on résumé pedigree, which actually raises the bar. And to the heart of your question: senior candidates with demonstrable, hard-to-replace expertise still hold real leverage and still negotiate accordingly. A soft headline market doesn’t dissolve scarcity where it genuinely exists, and that’s where our best people sit.
How have/are you managing operational continuity and recruitment while the economy navigates the emergency state triggered by the conflict with Iran? With the threat of escalation looming at any moment, how are you and have you been handling everything from interviews interrupted by sirens to managing teams thinned by massive, ongoing reserve duty?
I’d frame this less as crisis management and more as business continuity built on psychological safety. The mechanics are almost mundane by now: interviews paused for sirens, people stepping into a protected space mid-sentence and resuming, rescheduling, processes kept asynchronous so no single interruption derails anything. We’ve engineered redundancy into teams precisely because reserve duty can thin them overnight. We manage “bus factor” as a standing assumption, not an exception.
But the part that has stayed with me is the human dimension, and it shows up most in our global interviews, where I’m in Israel and the candidate is abroad. These are people on the far side of the conflict, with no personal stake in it, and yet whenever a siren has forced us to cut a conversation short, they’ve responded with real understanding and genuine concern. That kind of unsolicited empathy from the other end of a video call says something about candidate experience that no process design can manufacture. Ultimately, continuity here rests on resilience and goodwill far more than on any playbook, and protecting the people carrying a double load, between the desk and the home front, is the whole job.
Beyond the role of empowering employees, which roles has AI eliminated over the past year, what percentage of your workforce was reskilled to avoid being phased out, and how has this impacted entry-level hiring?
The more interesting story for us isn’t roles eliminated, it’s the “broken rung” at the bottom of the ladder. AI hasn’t so much erased jobs as it has consumed the entry-level tasks that were always the apprenticeship layer of our profession. The work a junior used to cut their teeth on is now the work AI does fastest, which quietly raises the floor for entry and explains why we haven’t opened junior recruitment. And that genuinely worries me, because it creates an experience paradox: we expect people to arrive already capable, while removing the very rungs they used to climb to get there. If the industry lets the apprenticeship model break, we starve our own senior pipeline five years out. To my mind, designing a deliberate on-ramp for early-career talent – pairing them with AI rather than pitting them against it – is one of the defining HR challenges of this moment, not a nice-to-have.
Against the backdrop of the unstable security and political climate, are you seeing an increase in relocation requests or 'quiet quitting' by top-tier talent moving abroad, and what is the most proactive step you are taking to retain them in Israel?
I’d separate two things that often get blurred: flight and disengagement. On flight – yes, relocation comes up more than it used to. To be concrete: at the start of the war, two employees asked to relocate and work from abroad, and we enabled it without hesitation. When the ceasefire took hold, both returned to the office and to work as usual. I read that as the system working exactly as it should. People needed room to feel safe, and once the ground steadied, they came back.
On “quiet quitting,” I’d be careful. What I mostly see isn’t disengagement; it’s rational people weighing their options under uncertainty, which is healthy, not disloyal. So our retention work isn’t about golden handcuffs or reactive counteroffers, it’s about giving people reasons to stay before they have reasons to leave. We lean on the logic of stay interviews: ask early, listen honestly, and treat flexibility and belonging as the real currency. In this climate, the single most proactive thing we do is be present and human. People stay where they feel seen, not where they’re merely paid.
In an era where stability has replaced flashy perks, how are you addressing the deep mental burnout of employees torn between the professional and security fronts, and what is the most critical benefit you offer today in place of the bonuses that have vanished?
I think the “end of perks” is being misdiagnosed as a budget story when it’s really a values story – a generational reset of the employer value proposition. The younger generation has quietly opted out of the all-inclusive workplace, the company that wants to be your gym, your social circle and your second family. They want a job and they want a home, and they want a clean, defensible boundary between the two. So our total-rewards thinking has shifted from extrinsic perks toward what people actually value now: autonomy, flexibility, and time sovereignty.
Against that backdrop, the most critical benefit we offer isn’t a benefit in the old sense at all , it’s the protection of recovery. The wellbeing research is blunt about this: what restores people isn’t a wellness app, it’s genuine psychological detachment, the ability to fully switch off without guilt or a buzzing phone. So we guard people’s off-hours, we resist the “we’re a family” narrative that quietly erodes boundaries, and we make space to actually recover. For employees pulled between the professional front and the security front, that permission to disconnect is the most valuable thing we can give.
