“I don’t leave work feeling drained. I leave feeling like I’ve actually solved something.”
Keran Wijetunga is a Director and Agentic AI Specialist in Sydney. But in simple terms, he’s a culture builder. He’s a father, a husband, and a problem-solver who’s always learning, and shares that learning with everyone he’s around. His path to Salesforce wasn’t a straight line; it was a series of pivots driven by a refusal to stay in a comfortable box.
“If you had told me five years ago that I’d be talking to CEOs about their AI and digital strategy, I would have laughed,” Keran says. “I never thought I’d be able to have these types of conversations.”
From Product Beginner to Owner
Keran spent a decade in financial services as an analyst. He was good at it, but it was missing something. The turning point came when he stepped into a technology manager role with almost no prior experience. Once he started becoming proficient, he didn’t just manage the tool; he obsessed over it.
When he realized his company’s Salesforce setup was barely scratching the surface, he didn’t wait for a consultant or a manual. He mastered Trailhead then eventually became the go-to person for the platform.
“I stopped looking at technology as a tool I used and started seeing it as a platform I could build on,” Keran explains. “I spent the next four years going deep into how it actually functions.”
The Builder’s Rule: Don’t wait for a title change to start building. If you want to know how something works, go seek out information and learn for yourself.
Trusting Your Curiosity
When a Solution Engineering (SE) role at Salesforce opened up, Keran hesitated. It took some loving encouragement from his wife and a peer’s advice to change his mind: “You understand the platform, you understand the business, and you know what the users actually need. That’s the whole job.”
He made the leap, realizing that his “non-tech” background was actually his greatest technical asset. “Having been a customer in financial services really helped add an important layer to my perspective and experience when I first joined Salesforce,” Keran says.
Solving for “Why”
Today, Keran supports a variety of accounts in financial services. Since he once was the customer, he speaks the language fluently. He knows that in banking, “trust” isn’t an abstract concept, it’s a data problem.
“If I raise a complaint with my bank and get a generic marketing email the next day, that’s a failure of technology to be human,” Keran says. “We build the ‘single source of truth’ that prevents those frictions. We’re not just selling software; we’re fixing broken experiences.”
His day-to-day is a blend of high-level strategy and hands-on tinkering. One morning he’s in the C-suite and later that afternoon, he’s back in the digital testing environment building prototypes and exploring the logic behind Agentforce.
The Energized Builder
For Keran, the “work-life balance” isn’t about doing less; it’s about the quality of the energy he brings home.
“Most of the things I work on are the same topics I’d be reading about on tech blogs anyway,” he says. “When your ‘job’ aligns with your natural curiosity, you don’t come home exhausted. You come home energized for your family.”
His Advice? Stay Curious. The two most essential traits for a Salesforce builder? Empathy and Curiosity.
“The platform is evolving fast — from Data Cloud to Agentforce. It’s impossible to know everything, and that’s the draw. If you’re a lifelong learner, the constant evolution isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.”
The most rewarding career paths are rarely straight lines. They’re built one curiosity-driven decision at a time.
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AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.
