# Martin Mao

> Martin Mao co-founded Chronosphere with Rob Skillington in 2019 after leading observability engineering at Uber, where their team created and operated M3. Previously at AWS, Microsoft and Google, the Seattle-based executive became Palo Alto Networks SVP and GM of Observability when the Chronosphere acquisition closed in January 2026. His public accounts trace his development from programmer to CEO, his focus on telemetry costs and his evolving approach to AI-assisted investigation.

- **Role:** SVP, GM Observability at Palo Alto Networks
- **Organizations:** Palo Alto Networks, Chronosphere, Uber, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google
- **Nationality:** Australian
- **Education:** University of New South Wales
- **Known for:** Co-founded Chronosphere in 2019., Led Uber teams that built and operated the M3 metrics platform., Helped build early capabilities that became AWS Systems Manager.

## Career timeline

- **2009** — Described a Microsoft internship that led to a full-time role; worked on the transition to Office 365.
- **2013–2015** — Technical lead on EC2 and AWS Systems Manager at Amazon Web Services.
- **2015–2019** — Led development and SRE teams at Uber that created and operated M3.
- **2019** — Co-founded Chronosphere with Rob Skillington in May; became CEO.
- **2021** — Chronosphere announced general availability and $43.4 million Series B; later raised a $200 million Series C.
- **2025** — Palo Alto Networks announced an agreement to acquire Chronosphere for $3.35 billion on November 19.
- **2026** — Acquisition closed January 29; Mao joined Palo Alto Networks as SVP, GM Observability. Introduced Cortex XCOR in an October 1 blog post.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Chronosphere in 2019.
- Led Uber teams that built and operated the M3 metrics platform.
- Helped build early capabilities that became AWS Systems Manager.
- Led Chronosphere through an announced $3.35 billion acquisition by Palo Alto Networks, completed in January 2026.
- Co-authored Cloud Native Observability, published by O’Reilly.

## Latest updates

- **2026-10** — On October 1, Mao introduced Cortex XCOR in a Palo Alto Networks blog post and described a shift toward using its conversational interface as his primary product interface.
- **2026-01** — Palo Alto Networks completed its Chronosphere acquisition on January 29; Mao joined as SVP, GM Observability.
- **2025-11** — Palo Alto Networks announced the $3.35 billion acquisition agreement on November 19.

## Links

- Website: https://chronosphere.io/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinmao
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/martin_c_mao
- GitHub: https://github.com/martin-mao

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/martin-mao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-25