KEVIN EKBATANI
Austin,TX
Summary
Experienced cybersecurity professional with a proven track record in hyper-growth startups, specializing in cutting-edge solutions for network, endpoint, and cloud security. A dynamic security evangelist with a passion for delivering compelling public speaking engagements, driving innovation in threat intelligence, and empowering the cybersecurity community through educational initiatives. A results-driven Sales Engineer who excels at turning technical solutions into closed deals, driving revenue growth for cybersecurity vendors.
I also spend time as an adjunct professor, a passion project where I'm committed to education and sharing industry knowledge with future professionals and fostering a passion for security.
Overview
10
10
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Security Specialist
Arista Networks
04.2021 - Current
- Security overlay responsible for Arista Zero Trust solution (ZTN)- Network Detection & Response, Network Access Control, and Network Segmentation solutions
- Presenting demos for ZTN solutions and performing POVs
- Managing pipeline for ZTN products across multiple regions and helping account representative build competitive bill of materials.
- Public Speaking, Threat Research, Blogging and technical white papers supporting sales enablement, GTM (go to market), and internal office of the CTO initiatives
- Presented at Arista Webinar series across North America, "Cyber Resilience for Zero Trust Security", spanning several regions in the US with tens of thousands of attendees.
- Providing training seminars at local trade shows, conferences, and educational institutions on various topics such as: "Passwords Revealed: Xray Vision and Network Goggles", "Uncovering Ransomware Before the Encryption event", "Zero Trust and Cyber Resilience". Majority of the content was authored based on a culmination of over 100 hours threat hunting within the SOC.
Adjunct Professor
University Of Texas At Austin
04.2021 - Current
- Adjunct Professor for the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Computer Science Division
- Teaching undergraduate cybersecurity courses and enabling students to incubate start-up solutions around real world cyber security challenges.
- Instructing students to build prototype a technical solution and create a business plan to shepherd their solution from idea to reality
- Enablement and real life lectures around every pillar of the business in a cybersecurity practice- Technical Solution, Finance, Sales, Marketing, Human Resources
Enterprise Security Engineer
Vectra AI
08.2019 - 04.2021
- FY2020: North American Top 3 Performer with 124% quota attainment ($746K/$600K). ADS $206K.
- Pre/Post-sales engineering support for US Central / East for all aspects of sales cycle including demos, POVs, red-team exercises, RFPs, and account health.
- Drove partner engagement and awareness around Network Detection and Response / relevant cyberattack campaigns.
- Conducted architecture reviews with SOC and network engineers in order to recommend on-prem appliances and sensors for traffic collection based on directionality and bandwidth expectations.
- During POVs presented live red-team labs that showed an entire attacker lifecycle from start to finish to demonstrate where Vectra is relevant in the kill-chain.
- Generated triage filter reports for enterprise accounts to help create custom filters to suppress alerts for approved business practices.
- For integrations required in-depth knowledge and deployments for the following products: VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, Splunk, AWS, Azure, Office365, Carbon Black Response, Crowdstrike Falcon, Defender ATP, SentinelOne, Phantom, and Demisto.
Sales Engineer
Cylance Inc
08.2016 - 03.2019
- $6.58 million product / services bookings for FY2017, $6.47 million FY 2018.
- Average technical win rate- 81% (Global leader).
- Over 160 POCs completed since tenure (All-time leader).
- Covering Mid-Market North America, supporting 12 sales reps.
- Responsible for proof of concepts, working with AV admins to deploy and configure Cylance Protect agents into live production environments.
- Present technical demo to prospective customers, illustrating malware efficacy and management console core features.
- Provide tier 1-3 technical support during pre-sales process.
- Upsell new product features and add-ons (EDR, identity systems) to current customers along with technical support for renewal discussions.
- Mine false negatives / positives exposed during customer testing to ensure integrity of math models.
Pre-Sales Engineer
DesignDATA
08.2015 - 07.2016
- Supported two sales reps covering associations and non-profits in the DC, VA, MD area
- Conducting network assessments to gather information about environment and compatibility with data center infrastructure
- Evaluated server architecture, network switches, access points, workstation diagnostics, strength of connectivity to various data centers
- Responding to RFP / RFI requests by creating work orders for prospective client based on pre-sales assessment- including end user equipment, infrastructure gear, remote access clients, and application server architecture to effectively define on-boarding time cycle.
- Establishing strong business relationships with partners and 3rd party vendors in the region.
- Monthly recurring revenue generated: $20,982.
Account Executive
EGuard Technology Services
07.2014 - 08.2015
- Worked primarily with CEO in generating business proposals based on user size, server architecture, and hours of support.
- Designed and implemented new server and backup standards for core business services.
- Recommend server architectural improvements, network design solutions, Voice over IP, and backup disaster recovery solutions.
- Subcontracted developers for projects involving database migration, CRM consulting, mobile application development, and website maintenance.
- Met with an average of 2 clients per week consistently, resulting in a 95% client retention rate (Consulted with nonprofits, lobbying firms, software companies, law firms, doctor offices, etc).
- Worked with marketing manager to drip-market current and prospective clients.
Education
Masters - Cybersecurity
University Of Maryland
Bachelor of Science - Biomedical Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University
Skills
- Networking: L2/L3 switching, TAP/SPAN configuration, DHCP, Kerberos, Netbios, MPLS
- Malware Analysis: VirusTotal, PEview, TCPView, Wireshark, Regshot, Process Monitor, Process hacker
- Virtualization: VMware fusion, ESXi, Hyper-V
- Deployment support: PDQ deploy, SCCM, GPO, Kace
- Malware recompilation: VMprotect, Armadillo, kkrunchy, PElock, mPRESS
- Threat hunting: EDR, custom detection rules, URL / IP analysis, memory analysis, forensic isolation, STIX feeds
Certification
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA A+
- Palo Alto Network Firewall Configuration Management
- Cylance Protect Certified Administrator
- Cylance Malware Analysis Bootcamp
- Vectra Certified Implementation Engineer (VCIE)
Timeline
Security Specialist
Arista Networks
04.2021 - Current
Adjunct Professor
University Of Texas At Austin
04.2021 - Current
Enterprise Security Engineer
Vectra AI
08.2019 - 04.2021
Sales Engineer
Cylance Inc
08.2016 - 03.2019
Pre-Sales Engineer
DesignDATA
08.2015 - 07.2016
Account Executive
EGuard Technology Services
07.2014 - 08.2015
Masters - Cybersecurity
University Of Maryland
Bachelor of Science - Biomedical Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University