Meet a Philadelphia-based Security Engineer

Meet a Security Engineer

Walk us through a typical day in your life.

Early morning, I try to catch up on my email and knock-out anything that could present issues throughout the day. I also get ready for my meetings, which could be one-on-ones with my team, project check-ins, new technology reviews, brainstorming discussions with the other business teams, or vendor presentations. There are constant, welcomed breaks throughout the day, people seeking advice, bouncing ideas, etc. They are always interesting. Before I know it, it’s lunch time. I like to eat lunch at my desk and read my RSS feeds. I follow many security feeds and try to stay current. We also do regular lunch-and-learns to discuss new ideas and tech.

Throughout the day, when I am at my desk, I can be troubleshooting problems, researching technology, focusing on security strategy, creating new processes, coding, and anything in between. Everyone on my team has several engineering projects, large and small, we are driving at any given moment. Our team’s initiatives span endpoint security, identity and access management, and mobility. I really enjoy this variety. I like to make sure that I contribute to my projects every day, even on the busiest day, in order to push our security profile forward.

The day goes by very quickly.

What is unique about your current role?

In my current role, I get to drive strategy. Everyone on my team has several engineering projects, large and small, that we are driving at any given moment. In larger companies it’s rare to find a manager who can still be very much hands on, but at SIG I am constantly switching between team lead responsibilities and technical work. It’s a nice balance between being able to influence the overall security program, mentor team members, and still getting tech work done myself.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

I have been growing bonsai trees for quite some time now. I started this hobby to teach myself patience. Bonsai is a very slow reward hobby, it takes years to see results.