Episode 73 — Mudita Khurana — Tech Lead at Airbnb and the person who always says, “I got this”

Mudita Khurana is a Tech Lead for Automated Tooling and Vulnerability Management at Airbnb, where she focuses on building modular, scalable security systems in an era of rapidly evolving AI threats. Before Airbnb, she spent nearly a decade in security roles across Accenture, Meta, and PwC, making bold career pivots along the way, including turning down a PwC return offer to join Facebook’s product security team.

In this episode, Mudita shares her journey from a family of doctors in India to Carnegie Mellon and into the heart of Big Tech security. She discusses what it means to thrive as a non-traditional engineer in a deeply technical field, why she stepped back from management to get closer to the work, and how she thinks about building security tooling that won’t be obsolete in three months.

Jack Clabby and co-host Kayley Melton, recording live from Tampa B-Sides at the University of South Florida, talk with Mudita about imposter syndrome, AI’s curveballs for security teams, leadership without a leadership title, and the importance of community in staying on top of a field that never stops moving. She also reflects on what great mentorship looks like early in a career and why clarity, ownership, and consistency are the leadership qualities she keeps coming back to.

In the Lifestyle Polygraph, Mudita firmly plants her flag in the Harry Potter universe as Hermione, explains why Deadpool doesn’t qualify as a superhero, debates gym vs. nature as a reset strategy, and reveals her dream remote work base: a high-altitude Buddhist mountain town in the Himalayas.

Follow Mudita on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/muditakhurana/