Wellbeing comes first at SentinelOne – for our customers, our communities, and our colleagues. We are proud to foster a culture of diversity, equality, and understanding for all. Supporting our working parents and the notion of a family’s evolving needs is a key part of that philosophy, and that is why we are extremely proud to be included in this year’s Fortune Best Workplaces for Parents.
Every year, over half a million working parents share their insights on what matters most to them in the workplace in the Trust Index Survey, sponsored by Fortune and Great Place to Work. They discuss the available resources, what they appreciate, and what helps them feel comfortable while balancing work and family demands. Based on their feedback, Fortune selects the best workplaces for parents. This year, SentinelOne has been ranked among the top 70 companies worldwide for working parents.
Equal Opportunity and Understanding
Our gender-neutral parental leave, which provides 16 weeks of fully paid leave for a parent to care for their new child, is undoubtedly a highlight, but it is not the only support we offer, nor is it everything parents need and expect. This year’s survey confirmed that it’s about more than parental leave – days off and flexible arrangements are becoming foundational expectations rather than an added bonus. Parents increasingly emphasize the importance of support from their managers and colleagues, as well as their career growth opportunities not being limited by having children.
We wholeheartedly agree. SentinelOne is a place where you can build a secure future for yourself and your family. We believe in rewarding our Sentinels with industry-leading compensation, amazing benefits, and tools to grow – both professionally and personally. After all, we all are people and family members first.
To celebrate our Fortune Best Workplaces for Parents milestone, we asked our amazing Sentinels to share their own experiences.
Flavien Vivier, Senior Sales Engineer, EMEA
“When I explained to my friends and family that I could take 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave when my son was born, they had a hard time believing it,” said Flavien Vivier, Senior Sales Engineer, and a father to two young boys. “It’s just insane if you think about it. The company pays you for spending quality time with your family. You don’t crunch numbers at that time, you don’t produce value, and they still do it. Both for mothers and fathers, equally. It’s incredible.”
Flavien appreciates SentinelOne’s approach especially because he had a very different experience in the past.
“When my first son was born, I was just starting a new job, and all I got was five days off. At my prior company, I didn’t feel the prior company itself and my manager understood my situation and would accept me being away longer,” said Flavien. “I felt under pressure — you know, you’re new, you have to deliver, and nobody really cares about you having kids.”
Being first-time parents was tough for both Flavien and his wife, who put aside her career as a marketing manager to take care of a baby basically on her own. Flavien describes the birth of his second son as “tremendously different”.
“I was at SentinelOne for a year when I took my 16 weeks parental leave,” Flavien explained. “I was able to support my wife and spend a good deal of time not just with the new baby, but also with my older son. We welcomed this new family member together. To be quite honest, doing the same five days as before would probably put a strain on our relationship. I really cannot stress enough how grateful I am for this opportunity.”
Flavien credits SentinelOne’s company values and family-friendly mindset for his strong work-life balance.
“I am a Sentinel, but I am also a father, and I have to manage both,” he said. “If the nursery or the kindergarten calls that my kid is sick, I need to drop everything and go pick him up. At SentinelOne, this is completely acceptable. My direct manager understands, my colleagues cover for me when necessary as I do for them when they have to take care of their kids. Whatever work I need to get done, I’ll just do later. I’m not being looked at wrong or anything. It makes both my work and my family life much easier.”
Marianne Flanagan, Director of Sales, Strategics, California
Marianne Flanagan, Director of Sales, Strategics, took her parental leave last November when she welcomed her first daughter.
“My personality makes it hard to take time off,” said Marianne. “I had to turn off all notifications on my phone and email and focus on spending time with my family. SentinelOne fully respected that; I felt absolute support across the board. There were colleagues covering my accounts when I was away, and nobody bothered me at all with anything. If anything, it was me checking in from time to time to see how things were going with my customers!”
Marianne describes her parental leave benefit as a “freedom without work distraction” that she greatly appreciated.
“When I speak to my customers, I can see that our parental leave is unusually generous, especially for a US-based company,” said Marianne. “We foster a supportive culture for families. There is respect for taking time off as a parent to really bond with your child.”
Marianne doesn’t feel that she missed out on anything at work while taking parental leave.
“All the accounts I had while I was out I got back when I returned, which was really important, not just financially,” said Marianne. “They didn’t cut me out, didn’t transfer my ownership. I just picked up where I left off. In a high-performance business setting, I think that is still very much on the unique side.”
Taking a break from her work to welcome her first child didn’t slow down Marianne’s career progress in any way – she recently received a promotion and is now a team lead.
“Simultaneously being a new mom with a young child at home didn’t impact my opportunity to be promoted,” she said. “Maybe there are organizations out there that would think: ‘Oh, she’s a new mom, she won’t be working as hard.’ At SentinelOne, we don’t think that way.”
Shilpa D G, Staff Software Engineer, India
“I had my baby in March of this year, about nine months ago,” said Shilpa D G, Staff Software Engineer. “But even before that, I got all the support from my manager and my colleagues that I needed. I planned my maternity leave two weeks prior to my due date. Then my doctor suggested I leave earlier, so I said ‘I need to leave today.’ They didn’t even want me to stay the whole day, but I just had to finish that one last project!”
Shilpa smiled as she recalled that story and described her team as “very caring”.
“They’re always telling me to put my family and my health first,” said Shilpa. “They insist on me speaking up whenever I feel overwhelmed so they can help. They’re really sweet, and I am very lucky to have them and to work for SentinelOne.”
Apart from the understanding and support, what Shilpa appreciates the most is the flexibility she enjoys as a Sentinel working from home.
“I can see my baby growing while spending precious time with her,” said Shilpa. “I have friends who miss their babies dreadfully because they barely see them. They have to work for eight hours and commute in Bangalore traffic, which can easily be two hours there and two hours back. I am extremely fortunate I get to see my baby throughout the day. Thanks to my family support team and my work support team, I am able to manage happily and without any struggle.”
From her experience, working fully remotely is not always possible in India, which makes Shilpa appreciate working from home even more.
“Companies sometimes tend to think that productivity happens in the office, and they don’t allow working from home,” she said. “I have been working remotely for some time now and don’t have any drop in my productivity. When my baby is cranky and I cannot work a full day, I finish the remaining work when she sleeps. And communication with the team is not a problem either, we Slack and Zoom all the time. They’re basically my baby’s uncles and aunties by now.”
Thanks to being kept in the loop and being given the same opportunities as before, Shilpa feels comfortable building her career while raising a child, devoting her fair share of time to both.
Martin Kaňák, Senior Manager, Software Engineering, Czech Republic
Martin Kaňák, Senior Manager Software Engineer, recently returned from parental leave after welcoming his third child. He decided to break up his leave into two parts, one immediately after his child was born while saving the balance for the summer holidays. In the Czech Republic, mothers are entitled to a full maternity leave, while fathers are only allowed two weeks, so they usually have to take days off from their legal vacation entitlement if they wish to stay home with the newborn longer.
“I think that at least in the first year, it is crucial for a baby to be with a parent almost 24/7,” said Martin. “I am very grateful that SentinelOne allows me to be home with my wife for at least four months. I plan to take the second half of my leave in the summer to fully dedicate myself to the children during the holidays, and I am really looking forward to it.”
Martin has a lot of threes in his life right now. He is a father of three and has been working at SentinelOne for over three years. His oldest daughter just started school this year, and his youngest son is only three months old.
“We don’t really have anyone to help out with the children or take them to school or kindergarten,” said Martin. “I wanted my wife to have a peaceful six-week postpartum period, so I took two months off right after my youngest was born. This gave my wife more time to focus on the baby and allowed me to take care of our older children, guiding my daughter through her first days of school as well as being there for my older son, who is four. These two months really helped us establish a new family routine. Apart from that, I also had time to reflect on many things during this time off, including parenting, self-awareness, and my life priorities.”
Offering sixteen weeks of parental leave may seem counterproductive, but Martin feels the exact opposite is true.
“A new addition to the family significantly disrupts the daily household routine, and if you are working while stressed at home due to the new situation, it negatively affects both your work and personal life,” said Martin. “With proper parental leave, you get a chance to find a new balance calmly and without the stress of missing important project deadlines. After the two months of leave I just took, I returned to work more balanced, stress-free, and overall ready to deliver solid results again, which I hope will reflect in the success of my team and the company in general.”
Apart from the parental leave, Martin appreciates the flexibility working at SentinelOne provides.
“I work remotely during flexible working hours, and that is a fantastic benefit,” said Martin. “Three children have different schedules you have to coordinate. Somewhere else this could be very challenging, but at SentinelOne, it is not a problem at all. As long as I do my job and deliver results, no one cares when or from where I work. This is a huge benefit for everyone.”
To learn more about SentinelOne’s award-winning culture and job opportunities, visit our careers page.
