Bailey Dauss Finds His Path at Paladin

Bailey Dauss joined Paladin Data Corporation® this year as a Squad One technical support representative. He’s since earned a promotion as the newest technician on the Managed Network Services team, where he helps customers handle day-to-day connectivity needs and cybersecurity concerns from our Bend, Oregon campus.

Paladin’s scenic Bend campus (by the scenic route)

Bailey took a winding road to get here. Born in California and raised near Las Vegas, he came to Bend via Tempe, Arizona (home, coincidentally, to the other of Paladin’s two office facilities). He spent many years in Tempe, working as a bartender and electrician and eventually meeting his wife and starting a family there.

The Dausses sought a change of climate and lifestyle after the first of their two boys was born. Mulling over options, they considered economic factors and a relative’s glowing review of Bend life just as the lease at their rental home was coming to an unexpected end. The pieces all seemed to fit, so they moved to Bend without ever having visited before.

“I was like, well, this is God’s will, I guess,” says Bailey.

The leap of faith paid off, and Bend provided a comfortable new home base. After a few years exploring different career paths, Bailey decided to return to school and pursue a degree in cybersecurity and networking at Central Oregon Community College. That’s where he finally heard about Paladin – though he admits he reported for his interview with some skepticism.

“Every company says these things like, ‘Oh yeah, we actually care about our employees and we promote from within,’” says Bailey. “Paladin actually does what they say, which is awesome.”

Built-in integrity

As it happens, doing what you say you will do is literally written into Paladin’s core values. Bailey has embodied that kind of integrity himself, earning his promotion by regularly meeting or beating his performance goals. Customers have been ecstatic about Bailey’s work, praising him in Net Promoter Score survey responses for helpful, professional and responsive service. Meanwhile, promoting high performers like Bailey fits hand-in-glove with Paladin’s employee-owned structure, which naturally rewards long-term investment in the people who work here.

“Bailey brings both strong technical aptitude and a solution-oriented mindset to his role,” says HR Training and Development Coordinator Carrie Carson. “He approaches challenges thoughtfully, handles his responsibilities with professionalism, and continues to look for opportunities to learn and improve.”

Keeping Paladin clients’ networks safe

These days, Bailey helps protect Paladin customers from the threats he studies in school. His top piece of advice is simple. 

“The biggest thing: Don’t click on links,” he says. “That’s where 90% of these issues come from is someone gets an e-mail and goes, ‘Oh yeah, I want tickets to a concert…oh no, what just happened to my computer?’”

In other words, according to Bailey: “If you don’t know what it is, don’t click on it.”

He recently helped a customer whose computer was hit by a flood of Trojans, hacking tools and keyloggers. Bailey’s security dashboard recorded about 300 hits in roughly 20 minutes. By the time the store called, the computer was nearly unusable. Bailey told them to disconnect it from the internet right away, which kept the attack from spreading. The PC still had to be wiped and rebuilt. 

Bailey adds that damage to retail stores from cyberattacks can go well beyond simple downtime, which can be expensive enough. Attackers can also steal bank and customer credentials and cost a business a lot of money, not to mention reputational damage. Stopping them early prevents that, affording Paladin Managed Services subscribers a priceless measure of peace of mind. 

As Bailey’s work has shifted full time to network management and guarding against the potential devastation of cyber threats, more insight into Paladin’s approach to business has only reinforced what he was surprised to learn about the company early on. 

“The people here actually care,” he says. “It’s cool to see that dedication to taking care of clients.”