- Kernel Programming
- eBPF & BPF programming
- TPU hardware architecture
- Offensive Security Research
- Malware Development
- Shell code
- Code Review
- Programming Languages (studying features and creating new ones)
- Compilers & Interpreters
Adam Smith
Reston,VA
Summary
Principal Cloud Security Engineer and Tech Lead with 10+ years designing, building, and securing complex, scalable cloud-native systems across multi-cloud environments (AWS/Azure/GCP, Kubernetes). Proven ability leading large projects (3+ years), implementing robust CI/CD pipelines and build systems using IaC (Terraform, Ansible, Helm), and managing distributed data pipelines (MageAI, Fluvio, Memphis). Passionate about delivering secure, reliable, and efficient infrastructure to support demanding, large-scale workloads and diverse stakeholder goals.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Principal Cloud Forensics Engineer
Raytheon
03.2024 - Current
- Developed positive working relationships with stakeholders to effectively coordinate work activities.
- Collaboratively architected cloud native tools focused on automating the deployment and maintenance of DFIR toolkits.
- Wrote, reviewed and edited technical document in accordance with template requirements.
- Analyzed and interpreted customer requirements to develop engineering solutions.
- Conducted technical evaluations of engineering designs and test results.
- Trained and mentored junior engineers, providing guidance and direction.
Cloud Forensics Engineer
Raytheon
08.2023 - 03.2024
- Architect, Develop, and collaborate on cloud focused tools to speed up, document, and reinforce trust in the forensic investigation process through automation.
- Conduct forensic analysis & threat hunting, in customer environments with a focus on cloud logs & identity.
- Partner with cross-functional units to design, develop, and implement advanced cloud-native tooling to enhance analysis efficiency while retaining maintainability.
Cyber Capabilities Developer
Air Force Reserves
09.2018 - Current
- Conducted full spectrum exercise planning for groups of up to 50.
- Carried out authorized offensive cyber effects to discover vulnerabilities in strategic partner IT infrastructures.
- Architected, developed, and implemented training ranges in cloud hosted environments for strategic partners.
- Participated in joint cross domain war games to simulate battlefield scenarios with cyber domain effects considered.
- Provide mentorship to junior airmen on engineering topics and act as a technical leader.
DevOps Engineer III
Greymatter.io
12.2022 - 08.2023
- Architect and Develop tools to gather metrics & help increase presence of automation in troubleshooting.
- Carry out service level troubleshooting and conduct rollback actions to latest stable versions when instability occurs.
- Conduct code reviews of customer applications.
Host Forensics Analyst
Raytheon
03.2022 - 08.2023
- Conduct deep dive forensic analysis & threat hunting.
- Architect and Develop tools to enhance the forensic investigation process & help increase presence of automation in investigations.
- Implement AMI hardening strategies for cloud based machines.
- Conduct self-directed research on gap topics, including Kubernetes vulnerabilities, cloud native architectures, container-based investigation and attacks.
Teaching Assistant
2U
12.2020 - 02.2023
- Provide subject matter expertise, providing crafted hints to help students better understand how to find answers themselves.
- Troubleshot cloud based & locally hosted virtual labs.
- While developing, distributing, and code reviewing IaC packages for students to utilize.
- Leverage terraform to help manage ‘snapshots’ for students' cloud environments. Enabling students the freedom to experiment and deviate from prescribed actions, while still being able to return to a point in time with their.
Network Security Analyst
Leidos
01.2020 - 03.2022
- Conduct live full spectrum traffic analysis & threat hunting.
- Triage events, generate cyber threat intelligence, and participate in incident response.
- Reverse Engineer captured artifacts, utilizing python, bash, and powershell to assist in investigation.
Remote Systems Administrator
ACI Federal
08.2018 - 12.2019
- Maintain & enrich skills with Windows administration tools.
- Utilize powershell & MS-DOS to streamline remote administration tasks.
- Manage Active Directory profiles.
Cloud Support Technician
Ad Astra Information Systems
06.2019 - 11.2019
- Created user accounts and assigned permissions.
- Installed, configured and maintained computer systems and network connections.
- Configured and tested new software and hardware.
- Installed and configured operating systems and applications.
SIGINT Operator/Analyst
United State Marine Corps
06.2012 - 06.2017
- Exploit communications signals and digital network systems by engaging in collection, processing, exploitation, and analysis.
- Engaged in wifi penetration testing.
- Perform analysis of gathered intelligence and triage events.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Cyber Security & Information Assurance
Western Governors University
05-2023
Graduate Certificate - Cloud Security
SANS Technology Institute
05-2025
Skills
- IaC (Terraform, Ansible, Helm)
- Cloud Architecture (AWS, Azure, GCP)
- Cloud Native Components (Kuberenetes, Service Meshes, Runtimes, CNI)
- Low Level Languages (Rust, C, C, Go)
- SE/DevOps (git-scm, pre-commit, CI/CD)
- Virtualization (proxmox, vSphere, Docker)
- Search Systems (Splunk, Elastic Stack, Meillisearch)
- System internals (Linux, Window, MacOS)
- Query Languages (SQL, KQL, GraphQL, Gremlin, Cypher)
- High Level Languages (Python, TS/JS)
- Shell Languages ( PowerShell, Bash)
Certification
- in-progress: GMLE, GCP-CloudEng
- GIAC: GCFR, GPCS, GCLD, GMOB, GCFA, GCIH, GSEC
- AWS: SAA, SOA, DEV, SAP, AIP, MLE
- ISC2: SSCP
- CompTIA: CySA+, Pentest+, Sec+, Net+, A+
Interests
Timeline
Principal Cloud Forensics Engineer
Raytheon
03.2024 - Current
Cloud Forensics Engineer
Raytheon
08.2023 - 03.2024
DevOps Engineer III
Greymatter.io
12.2022 - 08.2023
Host Forensics Analyst
Raytheon
03.2022 - 08.2023
Teaching Assistant
2U
12.2020 - 02.2023
Network Security Analyst
Leidos
01.2020 - 03.2022
Cloud Support Technician
Ad Astra Information Systems
06.2019 - 11.2019
Cyber Capabilities Developer
Air Force Reserves
09.2018 - Current
Remote Systems Administrator
ACI Federal
08.2018 - 12.2019
SIGINT Operator/Analyst
United State Marine Corps
06.2012 - 06.2017
Bachelor of Science - Cyber Security & Information Assurance
Western Governors University
Graduate Certificate - Cloud Security
SANS Technology Institute
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