phia phundamentals

About the phia phamily

Cyber centric.
Intelligence informed.
Technology enabled.

PURPOSE

Enable trust in our connected world and happiness for our phia phamily.

Our phia phamily is at the center of our organization. By providing for our phamily’s satisfaction and success, we set ourselves up to be the best at what we do. We are focused on protecting the technologies that enable our modern life.

Our Values

Balance sustains our phamily

phia’s people-centric approach includes provisions for work-life balance. Our activities, leadership, mentorship, and even benefits are intended to foster the phamily.

Our people are core to everything at phia

We build trust with our people and customers by always doing the right thing, which may not be the easy path. Integrity and humility keep us balanced as we drive to deliver excellence to our clients.

Passion drives our efforts

Each of us is driven by our passion and we invest meaningful time into everything we do. We maintain adaptability and humility with our customers as contributors and leaders in our communities.

Our commitment to what we do is unmatched

Our team members routinely receive accolades from our customers for our relentless efforts to support their mission. We actively look for both opportunities and people who are focused on securing our connected world.

Our culture is our legacy

By applying the principles of trust, humility, integrity, and commitment, we nurture and maximize talent to the benefit of each individual and the company. phia’s leadership fosters a work environment where diversity is valued, quality of life is enhanced, individual aspirations are fulfilled, and the phia phamily is strengthened.

phia culture

At phia, we use the status of being a small business to our advantage. It allows us to do many things that larger companies simply can’t. First and foremost, phia is a phamily, not just a company. Have you ever taken a coffee break with the C-Suite of your company or had a lunchtime coaching session with a department VP? These things are not “special treatment” with phia. This is the norm.

Our goal has always been to hire the best possible candidates so that we succeed in providing excellent service to our clients. We do this by seeking out talented and passionate professionals who not only enjoy the work but are interested in building a better tomorrow for the cybersecurity community and beyond. Many of our employees build friendships based on their shared interest in bettering the cyber world. In fact, a large percentage of our employees and candidates come from employee referrals. We like to think happy people are the best source for new hires!

Have we convinced you to join the phamily yet? Check out our Careers page to learn more about phia perks or a list of available positions.

Learn More And Join The phia phamily

What does it mean to be part of the phia phamily?

In my previous positions, the CEO, COO, Department VP’s, etc., were people to fear. They never had the reputation of being in your corner, and meeting them was a rare occasion. phia is different. Our leadership doesn’t just have a reputation of being approachable but a track record of being available for anyone in the company. Personally, all three owners have visited my home for occasions such as dropping off a housewarming gift, eating dinner with us, or bringing us homemade soup, just because.

As the Employee Engagement Lead, it is my responsibility to make sure everyone in the phamily “feels the love,” so to speak. Since I started at phia in 2016, I have touched nearly every aspect of the company on the corporate side. Add into that the fact that my husband was phia’s first employee ever, and our daughter is “Truong’s favorite employee,” you could say that we really are THE phia phamily. Having all that experience allows me to know our people and best keep them engaged and happy. I can understand their jobs on a level that one would not expect from an admin or marketing person. (Having no previous cybersecurity experience, I earned my Security+ certification within my first year working for phia!) For some of our people, I was part of their interview process; for others, I was the one they called when they had questions about PTO, and more importantly, I have been the person to send them care packages to celebrate their happiest days or support them on their worst days.

My favorite part about working with phia, aside from watching Truong eat bulk amounts of shrimp cocktail and oysters in record time, is that the leadership team has entrusted me with the responsibility of cultivating the idea of the phia phamily. From fancy dinner parties to Renaissance Festivals, Welcome Swag Boxes to gifts for our littlest phamily members, I get to be a part of it all, and I am dedicated to making sure each and every one of our phia phamily members feel welcome, supported, and engaged. At the end of the day, I like to think my job is to carry out the “Happiness for our phia phamily” part of the phia vision.

Testimonial from Meridith Piazza, Marketing Ambassador & Employee Engagement Lead

Giving Back

Philanthropy & Community Engagement

We’re not just into fun events that only benefit us. We enjoy participating in a variety of community events and giving back in other ways. In the past, we have sponsored a virtual conference with the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu. We also have sponsored BSides NOVA for the past few years, where our employees have served as volunteers & organizers and regularly present talks and workshops for the conference. Additionally, we sponsor other BSides security events within the communities where we work. Another philanthropic event close to leadership’s heart is Arlington Cemetery’s Wreaths Across America. We are honored to assist in Remembering and Honoring our nation’s veterans.

In addition to the many in-person and virtual events we participate in, we also look for donation opportunities. When COVID-19 hit, we immediately looked at what was needed within our communities and beyond. We chose to support two organizations, The Foundation for Fairfax County Schools and everyone on, because of their missions to provide access to virtual schooling for as many children as possible.

phia Origins

phia LLC (“phia”) was founded in 2011 by dedicated and passionate “analysts” with unique perspectives on defensive and cyber operational backgrounds.

As a start-up, phia began its young career by providing full-spectrum cybersecurity support to the Secretary of Defense via the Secretary of Defense Communications Office (SDC), which had traditional network operations, along with residences and high-risk travel missions needs. Thus, cybersecurity was paramount to ensure safe and secure operational communications for this organization. During this period, phia established the fundamentals for the company’s growth into other client spaces, including various departments and agencies across the DHS, DoD, LE, and IC communities. Not only does phia collaborate with the “.gov” and “.mil,” but we also continue to maintain our deep connections to the commercial space.

We recognize that passion for data, creativity in problem-solving, and aptitude for analysis are attributes of a successful “threat hunter” in the cyber realm. However, the leadership team understands that the proper environment is needed to foster the unique talents within this realm. Since its inception, phia’s growth has been organic. We’ve been able to walk this steady, measured path primarily due to our focus on developing our people, sense of “phamily,” and our ability to impact our partners and end customers’ missions while balancing valuable business relationships. The notion of phamily as corporate culture is embodied in the company’s name, which is derived from Sophia, the name of one of Truong’s daughters.

The phamily mindset drives phia’s continued growth as a collaborator and contributor in securing an ever more connected world.

Our Leadership

Truong Dang

Chief Executive Officer

Truong Dang is a founding member and Chief Executive Officer of phia LLC (“phia”). He is responsible for establishing phia’s strategic vision and mission. As a local product of the area, he attended high school in Fairfax County. He went on to earn a B.S. in Electrical Engineering degree and M.S. in Telecommunications degree from Virginia Tech and George Mason University, respectively. Truong began his career in cybersecurity, supporting incident response/hunt engagements, assisting cyber threat intelligence analysis, conducting cyber assessments, and executing activities supporting defensive cyber operations. Through his career progression (ever learning) and immigrant background, Truong developed a sense of the importance of protecting our connected world and, equally important, the value of creating the phamily environment for people to grow in pursuit of their passion. He enjoys his blessed life with his family in Fairfax, VA, a wife whom he’s known since high school, and their two bright, talented girls. They are his best achievements and the root of how the phia phamily came to be.

Justin Hoeckle

Chief Operations Officer

Justin Hoeckle serves as the Chief Operations Officer for phia, where he is responsible for implementing phia’s strategic vision and mission. Justin has spent his career in technology, mainly in security, with time also spent being the “IT guy.” Over the last 20+ years, he’s worked at a variety of places supporting educational non-profit, government super-secret squirrel, and Fortune Global 100 organizations. In past lives prior to COO, he’s been a systems administrator, programmer, incident response fly-away team lead, engineer, architect, red teamer, analyst, and scientist. Justin has been blessed to leverage his expertise across both the public and private sectors serving as a Cybersecurity Subject Matter Expert at Sony group, Chief Engineer for DISA, and Acting Branch Chief for JTF-GNO. Justin received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science as Valedictorian and Summa Cum Laude from Western Oregon University in 2005. He graduated with a Master of Science in Security Informatics, Summa Sum Laude at Johns Hopkins University in 2006. In his spare time, Justin enjoys Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain; and is a Sagittarius.

Chad Hein

Chief Strategy Officer

Chad Hein serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for phia, where he is responsible for developing phia’s technical solutions and corporate strategy. Chad grew up in suburban Maryland and fell in love with computers at a young age. His early career, testing fledgling intrusion detection technology, led to long tenures supporting high-level U.S. government cyber centers (DoD-CERT/JTF-GNO/USCYBERCOM and US-CERT/NCCIC/CISA), performing cyber defense technical analysis, operational planning, and advising on cyber capability development and strategy. He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park, an MS in Information Security & Assurance from George Mason University, and various professional and technical certifications. He is phia’s unofficial Chief Party Officer and is key to our “work hard play hard” culture. An avid science nerd, history buff, and collector of antique maps, you’ll find him geeking out on more than just cyber on any given day.

Matthew Jung

Vice President of Growth

Matthew Jung serves as the Vice President of Growth. He is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to mature and expand existing and new markets, promote brand awareness, and increase overall business maturity. Originally from Texas and a Navy Veteran, Matthew believes in the act of service to his family, country, friends, and colleagues. With almost 20 years of supporting various Federal organizations, Matthew’s genesis began in Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) and Cryptography and grew into cybersecurity. Having been blessed to serve in a variety of leadership roles across private and public sectors, his love for the mission of bringing people together has helped organizations achieve exponential growth and bring resilient solutions across the Department of Defense and Homeland Security. He is a ball of energy, a big fan of people, and highly competitive. As energetic as Matthew is, at the end of the day, his joy truly comes from watching people succeed in what they do; if there is a way he can help- he is all in. “Deal.”

Lisa Brown

Vice President of Business Operations

Lisa Brown serves as the Vice President of Business Operations. She is responsible for leading phia’s Support Division which includes multiple departments – HR, Talent, IT, and Finance, which are vital to the success of phia’s business operations. She began her career working in Tenant Improvement Contracting for a national general contractor, and her love for numbers and IT led her to hold various roles in accounting, system administration, project management, and owning her own small business. Over the past three decades, Lisa’s work has spanned industries as diverse as construction, educational non-profit, and cybersecurity. She relentlessly seeks to build the best business processes and platforms to nurture each organization. She enjoys reading Sci-Fi, boating, waterskiing, and snorkeling with her husband, daughter, and two dogs (yep, they come too). She regularly volunteers with her church in service to the community. Lisa is privileged to surround herself with the best people to get the job done.