Former NSA director Rob Joyce has joined venture capital firm DataTribe as a venture partner to help identify and grow early-stage startups focused on cybersecurity.

DataTribe, which describes itself as a cyber startup foundry, said Joyce will be a venture partner tasked with finding entrepreneurs developing new and emerging technologies for cyber defense.

Joyce, who retired from the National Security Agency last year, has become active in the private sector, joining cyber-related companies to provide advisory services.

In May last year, Joyce joined OpenAI’s Safety and Security Committee and has provided consulting services to companies like Microsoft, PwC, Beacon Global Strategies and Sandfly Security.

DataTribe’s portfolio of companies include ICS security specialist Dragos, encryption startup Enveil, and digital protection firm BlackCloak.

In addition to overseeing defense measures at the NSA, Joyce led the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) and Computer Network Operations (CNO) organizations, working with internal hackers to penetrate adversary networks to produce foreign intelligence. 

“Playing on both offense and defense gave Joyce better insight into the mind of a hacker, improving our ability to defend against cyber attacks. He will now be able to share this strategic thinking with DataTribe’s portfolio companies and offer them new ways to think about their technologies and services,” the company said.

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