Michael D. Sargent
Manchester,MD
Summary
Accomplished Lead Platform Engineer and U.S. Air Force Veteran with a proven track record of architecting and scaling secure AWS environments, driving 20% cost reductions, and delivering 99.99% uptime for mission-critical applications. Brings over seven years of experience combining hands-on cloud engineering with leadership skills honed through military service, including leading cross-functional teams, mentoring engineers, and driving high-stakes technical initiatives under pressure.
Overview
7
7
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Lead Platform Engineer
Accenture Federal Services (AFS)
Fort Meade, MD
05.2024 - Current
- Architected and deployed secure, reliable, and scalable AWS platforms across multiple accounts, supporting 250+ EC2 instances and 35+ mission-critical applications with 99.99% uptime in compliance with the AWS Well-Architected Framework and NIST RMF.
- Designed cost-optimized cloud solutions by leveraging broad expertise across AWS services (EC2, EKS, Lambda, DynamoDB, RDS, etc.), reducing infrastructure costs by 20% while enabling resilient, event-driven architectures.
- Modernized multi-account provisioning with Terraform and GitLab CI/CD, creating reusable modules and automated pipelines that cut deployment time by 90%+ and delivered consistent, auditable infrastructure builds.
- Engineered secure system baselines by automating DISA STIG and CIS benchmark compliance for RHEL8, Ubuntu, and Amazon Linux 2023 AMIs, achieving 100% hardened image compliance across production environments.
- Built and operated an 8-node ELK SIEM cluster ingesting logs from 200+ systems, improving security incident detection speed by 40% and centralizing observability for mission applications.
Exploitation Analyst (EA)
United States Air Force
Fort Meade, MD
06.2018 - 06.2024
- Architected and deployed complex virtualized environments using VMs to simulate Windows, Linux, and routing-based devices, enabling realistic network segmentation, traffic flow modeling, and testing of secure communication architectures across multi-tiered systems.
- Led and orchestrated cyber range and threat emulation exercises using VM-based networks to replicate real-world attack surfaces, driving strategic penetration testing, red teaming, and vulnerability assessments to validate architectural resilience.
- Developed and maintained custom virtualized tooling environments, including shellcode loaders and payload delivery systems, to test EDR evasion techniques and validate endpoint defenses in Windows and Linux VM targets.
- Mentored junior analyst in virtual environment configuration and network simulation techniques, enabling them to model, deploy, and assess enterprise-like networks within isolated lab environments.
- Applied deep knowledge of operating systems and virtual network components to optimize testing scenarios across diverse platforms, enabling targeted exploitation, secure routing validation, and protocol analysis for mission-focused assessments.
Offensive Security Operator – Full Time
SIXGEN - Skillbridge
Remote
01.2024 - 04.2024
- Utilized virtualized environments and AWS cloud services to design and analyze IT infrastructure, modeling network topologies and system architectures (Windows, Linux, routing devices) to define system boundaries and assess cybersecurity controls, leveraging Terraform and Packer for automated provisioning of VMs and AWS resources.
- Applied advanced knowledge of network and system security mechanisms within VM and AWS-based labs to validate protections such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and access control models across segmented environments, using Ansible for automated configuration management and security hardening.
- Simulated evasion strategies and adversary behaviors in virtualized and cloud networks to assess visibility, monitor system performance, and detect exploitation techniques across diverse endpoint and network layers.
- Configured and analyzed virtual security appliances and cloud-native security tools, performing in-depth configuration assessments and network architecture reviews to drive effective scanning, hardening, and vulnerability analysis in automated, hybrid lab environments.
Education
Master of Science - Information Security Engineering
SANS Technology Institute
Rockville, MD12.2026
Graduate Certificate - Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking
SANS Technology Institute
Rockville, MD12.2024
BS - COMPUTER NETWORKS AND CYBER SECURITY
University of Maryland Global Campus
Adelphi, MD05.2023
Skills
- Cloud services (AWS)
- Container orchestration (Kubernetes)
- Scripting (Bash and Python)
- Configuration management (Ansible, Packer, and Terraform)
- Continuous integration (GitLab CI and GitHub Actions)
- Log management (ELK stack)
- Monitoring and visualization (Prometheus, Grafana)
- Linux OS expertise (RHEL, Debian)
Certification
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate (AWS SAA), 07/25
- GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC), 06/25
- GIAC Cloud Security Automation (GCSA), 03/25
- GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN), 12/24
- GIAC Certified Incident Handler (GCIH), 04/24
- GIAC Penetration Tester (GPEN), 12/23
- GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware (GREM), 10/23
- GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT), 04/23
- Joint Cyber Analyst Course (JCAC), 09/19
Timeline
Lead Platform Engineer
Accenture Federal Services (AFS)
05.2024 - Current
Offensive Security Operator – Full Time
SIXGEN - Skillbridge
01.2024 - 04.2024
Exploitation Analyst (EA)
United States Air Force
06.2018 - 06.2024
Master of Science - Information Security Engineering
SANS Technology Institute
Graduate Certificate - Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking
SANS Technology Institute
BS - COMPUTER NETWORKS AND CYBER SECURITY
University of Maryland Global Campus
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