Find a problem that you personally need solved, and solve it! Your greatest passion and inspiration will come from creating solutions that directly impact your own workflow.
Joel’s impact:
Joel Rennich is the director of Jamf’s Mac authentication and account management solution, Jamf Connect. Joel joined Jamf as part of the company’s acquisition of NoMAD (later rebranded to Jamf Connect) which simplifies Jamf’s provisioning process with Apple by allowing the user to authenticate against cloud identity services — it is the leading solution for streamlining Mac authentication and account management. Jamf Connect launched in late 2018, and it is already used by hundreds of customers on tens of thousands of devices. Prior to NoMAD, Joel spent time at Apple as an Enterprise Systems Engineering Manager and was frequently seen speaking at Macworld, WWDC, and other international conferences.
In today’s mobile workforce, IT administrators need a way to more easily manage their devices and keep them secure, without having to worry about connectivity to a corporate network. In an age when not all employees are on-site, but are still required to log into a corporate network to access resources, security can be a challenge. Jamf Connect addresses this by giving admins the flexibility to leverage local users controlled by the same policies that admins depend on from a directory service or identity provider.
Joel was the original developer of Jamf Connect, and he has always worked directly with customers to better understand their specific needs. He then leveraged authentication APIs to determine what could be done.
Why he’s an Up-and-Comer:
Joel was instrumental in ensuring that Jamf Connect made secure authentication on Macs seamless. As the team grew and more developers joined, Joel made sure that the core experience was as smooth as possible even if it wasn’t entirely his code in the application. He is also always thinking about the user experience and employed diligent end user testing to ensure the process feels natural and very Mac-like.
Joel consistently goes out of his way to ensure great results. Whether it’s within the product or part of a customer launch, he is constantly innovating and rolling up his sleeves to take Jamf Connect to the next level.
What’s your number one piece of advice for people just starting their tech careers?
Find a problem that you personally need solved, and solve it! Your greatest passion and inspiration will come from creating solutions that directly impact your own workflow. Additionally you’ll truly have the user experience at heart if you’re living your own products.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Since I could have never predicted where I am today 10 years ago, my only prediction for 10 years from now, is that I won’t be doing what I am now. The tech world, in particular around identity, is changing so rapidly that most of what we think to be possible today will most likely have been eclipsed by newer and better technologies, as such you need to stay flexible with your thinking, your approach and your vision to accommodate.
