Zahra Zafar

Zahra is a Senior Manager of RGS and Commercial Compliance at Rackspace within the Global Enterprise Security Function. As the lead for Rackspace’s federal compliance programs, she has guided the company through Joint Authorization Board and Department of Defense authorizations. Among the strictest and most rigorous in the industry, these milestones have been achieved by only a handful of Platform-as-a-Service providers.

Zahra has expanded her role to include commercial compliance, supporting over a dozen certification and audit programs. She is committed to maintaining the health of each compliance initiative, ensuring they are viewed as strategic assets rather than mere checkbox exercises. Zahra approaches compliance as a catalyst for trust, operational excellence, and continuous improvement, consistently leaving every program stronger than she found it.

Prior to joining Rackspace, Zahra worked as a consultant, where she was an 3PAO assessor and FedRAMP advisor, helping cloud service providers pursue federal authorizations for the first time. Zahra has also held operations management roles in healthcare, where she led the development of a physician-owned joint surgery center. Her leadership significantly boosted the center’s profitability, ultimately contributing to its acquisition by a PE firm — a process in which she played an active role during negotiations. Outside of work, she is a mom of two and has a passion for supporting underprivileged communities