Fretting Over Cybersecurity, Not the Blues: The Nicolas Barham Story

By day, Nicolas Barham is a SteelCloud Client Executive, serving mainly System Integrators and Air Force clients. By night he’s a soccer playing blues guitarist with a penchant for philosophy. If any of that sounds incompatible, it’s only because you haven’t met Nicolas Barham yet. His after-hours interests are the secret sauce that fuels a level of dedication, service and sense of mission that’s hard to find anywhere else. Read on to learn what Nic does for SteelCloud. And then go back 100 years to the golden era of blues for a lesson in guitar. This is a “Faces of SteelCloud” profile you won’t want to miss!

What does a Client Executive do at SteelCloud? 

As a Client Executive, I work primarily on Air Force accounts. At SteelCloud that means we service the entire client lifecycle. We bring the business in. We have executive decision power on how the accounts are run and how to make them successful for clients. We also lead efforts around strategic partnerships. So, we are essentially in charge of the whole account, making final decisions in tandem with customers and conducting strategy to ensure the accounts are successful.

Why do you love doing what you do? 

Oh, that that’s a good question. One answer is that it’s a competitive job. I’m a big soccer fan and this has the same kind of pressure. (Nic’s favorite teams are Liverpool and Santos FC.) You have a limited amount of time to deploy winning, creative strategies. There are quarterly goals to meet. You have to stand out from the competition. And anything that isn’t your best is failure. That’s why it’s like soccer.

My second answer is that I’m an immigrant to this country. I was born in the UK and grew up in the US after coming from Brazil at a very early age. My parents worked very hard to get the opportunity to come to the US. They saw this country as a place where my brother and I would receive a better education, a better quality of life and, ultimately, have more options as we as we grew older. I feel like there’s nothing more American than that story of coming to the US for a better life. Now I am a US citizen, and I feel as American as someone whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. I never served in any sort of combat. But I am doing my modest part to repay this country by protecting the warfighter through cybersecurity automation. It brings more meaning to the job for me. It’s important work to protect those who protect us.

Why do you love doing that at SteelCloud? 

What I like about working at SteelCloud is the competitive nature of the industry, as I mentioned before. But SteelCloud has also given me autonomy at an early age, which makes me feel more confident in my ability to do my work to standards befitting our warfighters. In fact, SteelCloud should be the benchmark of how companies are run. It’s a company that’s exceptional, both in terms of human resources as well as being high performing in terms of revenue. (SteelCloud was named a Washington Post Top Workplace in 2024.)

What do you think SteelCloud does best? 

STIG automation. And I’m not just talking about ConfigOS, the product. SteelCloud is singularly focused on cybersecurity automation. They are not seduced by the latest buzzwords or fads. They are laser focused on cybersecurity and addressing the problems people in our industry are having. Our product evolves over time with DoD trends and mandates, but we remain focused on cybersecurity automation and aren’t distracted by whatever is hot in the moment.

You hold a degree in Moral Philosophy. How does that help you in your career?

It helps a lot of ways. It taught me to think outside the box and use logic to my advantage. Logical syllogisms have become a big friend of mine in sales. You’re making an argument and you need to support it. It has also helped me read situations in different ways. It helps you really uncover the “why” in situations and solve problems. So there are a lot of soft skills that you learn through philosophy courses that support sales and problem solving.

In your off hours, you are a subject matter expert in pre-war blues history. Who is your favorite blues guitarist?

That’s hard to say, because I always switch around with that. I’d say it’s a tie between Blind Blake and Memphis Minnie. Blake was a master of syncopation, so he was of a school of blues which kind of flirts with ragtime—what they call Piedmont style. One hand goes up and down the neck of the guitar making really complex movements while the thumb of his other hand is keeping a steady rhythm. It’s a really cool contrast and he plays riffs other guitarists wouldn’t think of playing. Memphis Minnie had similar qualities and a really good slide. Her rhythm inspired artists like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddly, who brought the blues into rock and roll. Both Blake and Minnie were prolific in the 1920s, which I consider to be the richest era for blues.

When Nic is not at SteelCloud you’re likely to find him playing competitive soccer, beasting a Delta Blues slide guitar or otherwise exercising his creative side in his home of Austin, Texas. One of the things Nic values about SteelCloud is the work/life balance that allows him to pursue his many interests. This is the life his parents envisioned for him when they came here from Brazil and Nic is proud to be living it.

Connect with Nic on LinkedIn!