Colin Powel
Fort Myers
Summary
Result Driven Cloud Security Engineer with over 6 + years of comprehensive experience in cloud engineering, administration, and cloud security. Skilled at designing and implementing scalable, fault-tolerant AWS cloud architectures, with a strong foundation in RedHat Linux, VMware, Oracle Enterprise Linux/UNIX, and Windows environments. Proficient in installation, configuration, backup/recovery, and security policy enforcement. Passionate about driving innovative security solutions under aggressive timelines within collaborative and dynamic teams. Experienced in integrating DevSecOps practices, risk control frameworks, and leveraging AWS native security tools such as CloudTrail, Guard Duty, Lambda, AWS Config, and Inspector. Hands-on expertise with open-source SIEM platforms, including Splunk and Nagios. Demonstrated ability to architect secure cloud environments utilizing AWS services like CloudFormation, AMIs, EC2, S3, RDS, VPC, and more. Committed to continuous learning and knowledge sharing to enhance team capabilities and maintain security posture.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Cloud Security Engineer
Citibank
01.2022 - Current
- Designed, implemented, and operated security solutions to detect incidents, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations across cloud infrastructure layers, including VMs, containers, and network environments.
- Led improvements to the cloud security and automation stacks by maintaining existing environments and developing new security architectures to enhance detection and response capabilities.
- Maintained ongoing vendor relationships to identify best practices and escalate configuration issues promptly.
- Researched, developed, and tested proof of concepts for emerging security technologies; participated in RFPs for selecting security tools.
- Developed innovative security architectures for multi-cloud and hybrid systems, ensuring robust protection of systems and data.
- Collaborated with development teams to embed secure coding practices and improve application monitoring using Python, Java, and Angular.
- Worked with client IT security teams to ensure robust AWS infrastructure monitoring and assisted with triage of security alerts.
- Built and managed AWS VPCs, including public/private subnets, security groups, network ACLs, internet gateways, OpenVPN, and custom AMIs.
- Managed IAM policies with role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and API access management.
- Configured auto scaling and Elastic Load Balancers to adjust resources based on demand dynamically.
- Set up SNS for notifications and CloudWatch for logs and metrics collection; provisioned both Linux and Windows EC2 instances.
- Ensured high availability, security, performance, and scalability of AWS cloud environments through proactive monitoring and management.
- Automated deployment pipelines for mission-critical applications, reducing manual efforts and errors.
- Designed and maintained tools to automate operational processes, troubleshoot cross-platform issues, and customize software for client hardware environments.
- Assisted in deploying and managing security oversight of next-gen firewalls, IPS, DDoS mitigation, SSL load balancers, WAF, security groups, and NACLs.
- Communicated architecture and security strategies to senior leadership and external stakeholders.
- Encrypted sensitive data such as PII using customer-controlled encryption keys.
- Deep understanding of IAM processes, internal controls, risk management, and industry compliance standards.
- Performed security monitoring, event triage, incident response, and coordinated incident documentation.
- Reduced disaster recovery time by 70% through improved processes and cut environment build times from months to minutes.
- Maintained up-to-date knowledge of public cloud security offerings including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Cloud Engineer Specialist
Ashley Furniture Industries
11.2020 - 01.2022
- Provided direct support for applications and users on RHEL 6/7 servers, resolving technical issues to maintain system availability.
- Managed patching and upgrades with RedHat Support and documented all changes thoroughly on Confluence.
- Tuned and monitored ESXi hosts to optimize virtual machine performance and resource allocation.
- Automated infrastructure deployment and configuration using Ansible, including managing Ansible Galaxy and integrating GitLab with Ansible Tower for CI/CD of playbooks.
- Managed Docker repositories and container lifecycle; transitioned monolithic apps to microservices with Docker Compose to improve scalability.
- Used Terraform for provisioning AWS resources such as EC2, S3, and Route 53; integrated Terraform Atlantis with GitHub Enterprise for automated Terraform workflows.
- Supported cloud migration efforts aimed at reducing physical resource costs by moving to cloud-native environments.
- Monitored AWS resources via CloudWatch by setting alarms and metrics to ensure system health and performance.
- Developed Python scripts for automation involving CSV data processing, API interactions with Active Directory and SQL, and report generation.
- Utilized SCP, SFTP, and FTP protocols for secure and efficient file transfers across the network.
- Installed and configured Nagios monitoring to track critical system metrics like bandwidth, memory, and disk status.
- Deployed and troubleshot essential network services including DHCP, FTP, TFTP, Apache, SSH, and NFS.
- Managed full server lifecycles from provisioning to decommissioning while maintaining compliance.
- Administered storage through Logical Volume Management and SAN, resizing volumes as needed.
- Performed comprehensive system performance analysis using tools such as top, sar, vmstat, netstat, and iostat.
SOC Analyst
Regions Bank
02.2018 - 10.2020
- Performed real-time monitoring of logs from diverse devices, including firewalls, IDS/IPS, Windows/Linux OS, proxy/networking devices, databases, and servers.
- Prevented over 1500 monthly vulnerabilities by analyzing security events and alerts from SIEM, firewalls, and other security tools, enabling rapid detection and response.
- Investigated security incidents to determine scope, severity, and impact, prioritizing true positives over false alarms.
- Utilized Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM) to investigate endpoints, successfully terminating and deleting over 1600 malicious files and processes.
- Researched and evaluated new security tools and technologies, making recommendations for SOC enhancements.
- Investigated VPN alerts and verified activity legitimacy by contacting users.
- Applied MITRE ATT&CK framework for detailed incident analysis.
- Maintained expert knowledge of security platforms including firewall, CASB, proxy, SIEM, and SOAR systems.
- Monitored health of security devices and syslog instances, responding to anomalies per SOPs.
- Investigated phishing campaigns, successfully containing over 1800 phishing emails daily and preventing account takeovers.
- Conducted threat intelligence research using open-source tools to identify emerging threats impacting clients and industries.
- Identified and mitigated over 1500 malicious network activities affecting operations by developing countermeasures.
- Collaborated closely with incident response teams, threat analysts, and penetration testers for timely and effective security responses.
- Conducted risk assessments, vulnerability management, and penetration testing to remediate security gaps.
- Maintained detailed documentation including incident reports, playbooks, and SOPs; continuously improved incident response processes.
- Ensured company-wide adoption of security best practices to mitigate data breach risks.
- Collected and preserved digital evidence for security incidents, ensuring proper tracking aligned with SOC requirements.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
University of Buea
Skills
- AWS
- Azure
- Google Cloud
- BCP & DRP
- PKI
- Cisco Umbrella
- Palo Alto Prisma
- Cortex
- Palo BPA
- AWS Firewall
- Control Tower concepts
- Security Hub
- Security Guardrails
- CloudPassage
- F5
- Barracuda Guardian Angel
- Aviatrix
- Arista CVP/vEOS
- Expedition
- Guardrails Configuration
- Python
- MySQL
- NoSQL (DynamoDB)
- UNIX Shell (bash, sh)
- Windows Shell
- Gradle
- Git
- Docker
- Ansible
- Kubernetes
- Bamboo
- Jenkins
- Puppet
- Slack
- Nagios
- AWS CodeDeploy
- CodeCommit
- CodeBuild
- CodePipeline
- EC2
- EBS
- S3
- IAM
- AMI
- VPC
- VPC Peering
- NACL
- Security Groups
- Route 53
- Auto Scaling Group
- ELB
- SNS
- CloudWatch
- Elastic Beanstalk
- CloudFormation
- Unix
- RHEL (6, 7, 8)
- Oracle Linux (5-8)
- CentOS (6, 7)
- X86_x64 platforms
- MacOS
- Windows
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Microsoft Azure
- Oracle Database (9i-12c, 18c)
- Microsoft SQL Server (2000/2005/2008)
Certification
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
- CompTIA Security+
Personal Information
Title: Cloud Security Engineer
Timeline
Cloud Security Engineer
Citibank
01.2022 - Current
Cloud Engineer Specialist
Ashley Furniture Industries
11.2020 - 01.2022
SOC Analyst
Regions Bank
02.2018 - 10.2020
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science
University of Buea
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