Sangeetha Puligella
Summary
Dynamic Information Security leader with a focus on IT operations, security operations, strategy, and delivery. Skilled in leading cross-functional teams while aligning strategic goals with technical goals, and fostering a growth-oriented environment. Proficient in managing vendor relationships, managing risk, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and improving operational productivity. Exceptional communication abilities facilitate effective client interactions and project success.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Manager – Cyber Security Engineering and Operations
Arlington County Government
09.2022 - Current
- Implement a comprehensive information cybersecurity strategy aligned with business objectives, internal controls, governance, and regulatory requirements.
- Establish and maintain a security governance framework, including policies, procedures, and standards.
- Identify and assess security risks and vulnerabilities and develop strategies to mitigate them.
- Conduct regular security assessments, audits, and work with external audit teams on penetration testing to evaluate the effectiveness of security controls.
- Develop and manage incident response processes and plans.
- Oversee the implementation and management of security technologies and solutions, including firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and encryption protocols across all infrastructure.
- Collaborate with legal, compliance, and internal audit teams to address operational and technical risk issues.
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging threats, vulnerabilities, and regulatory changes, adapting security strategies as needed.
- Manage relationships with external security vendors, auditors, and regulatory agencies.
- Build, lead, and mentor high-performing security, compliance, SecOps, and SecEngg teams- fostering a culture of innovation and industry leadership.
- Manage and monitor governance, risk, and compliance activities - i.e. risk management, compliance, security training, and awareness programs for employees and county constituents.
- Conduct annual National Cyber Security Review (NCSR) assessment to measure maturity of the security posture based on NIST framework.
- Perform Locality Election Security Standards (LESS) assessment to ensure County infrastructure and security is optimal to support local, state and national elections.
Manager – Information Security Operations
Fannie Mae
06.2021 - 09.2022
- Oversee day to day Information Security Operations (ISO) for End point, Cloud security and Data protection across on-prem, cloud and SaaS based tools and technologies while providing 24X7 monitoring and support.
- Create and manage incident response for security incidents and ensure timely triage, remediation, and communication to all stakeholders.
- Manage stakeholder expectations while consistently working with Threat Detection and Response (TDR) team, Vulnerability and Threat Management (VTM) team, Audit and Risk team as well as Business Infosec team.
- Plan, onboard and operationalize security tools and technologies for SIEM, thread detection, threat management, vulnerability management and cloud security.
- Standardize Infosec operational activities by ensuring single source for knowledge articles, establishing Incident/Change/Problem management standards.
- Lead, plan and manage enterprise-wide security operations projects and cloud migrations for on-prem security tools and technologies while consistently balancing security risk with operational risk.
- Collaborate with legal, compliance, and internal audit teams to address technical risk issues.
- Implement regular reporting mechanisms to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to engage stakeholders across the organization.
- Develop the Information Security roadmap to identify gaps in security and guide the implementation of risk remediation initiatives.
- Collaborate across departments and influence security decisions while understanding the needs of the business.
- Coach team members and provide leadership support to employees to achieve and exceed established results while aligning with the organization’s Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
Manager – Application Support and Business Communications
Fannie Mae
06.2015 - 06.2021
- Responsible for team compliance with enterprise vision and governance policies/procedures/regulations, schedules, service delivery quality, and stakeholder engagement plans/actions in accordance with the contract documents and meet performance metrics set forth in the SLAs.
- Manage day to day Enterprise-wide Incident and Problem management operational activities by triaging business impacting incidents.
- Manage cross functional collaboration across application development, infrastructure, security, network and business teams.
- Responsible for executive communications involving VPs, SVPs and above, on Severity 2 and Severity 1 incidents.
- Function as a central point of contact for all critical and high priority Production Incident calls by ensuring the appropriate support personnel are involved for trouble shooting and stay focused on service restoration.
- Manage the application lifecycle, providing application support, troubleshooting issues, performing root cause analysis, and ensuring prompt resolution.
- Initiate, drive, and document technical and application Incident postmortem sessions for high and critical severity Incidents involving application support, infrastructure support and business teams.
Manager – IT Service Operations
National Student Clearing House
04.2011 - 04.2015
- Spearheaded ITSM transformation in the areas of Change, Configuration, Release, Incident and Problem management, along with Operations Support and ensured IT service strategy aligned with business objectives.
- Hired, mentored, and performed annual performance reviews for staff members and participated in budget planning.
- Managed Application Production Support team for NSC. This included providing production support to all applications (web based as well as back end) and Service areas, to ensure tickets assigned to the team were completed within agreed upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
- Organized, influenced, and motivated critical stakeholders and participants of the STO processes to take part enthusiastically, and with common objectives.
- Charted the effort to automate Build and Deployment process from Development to Production environments which significantly reduced cost, resources, and time for NSC.
- Advocated the establishment of Continuous Integration process including identifying resources and tools.
- Transformed IT Service Desk for standardizing workstation imaging, procurement, and Service request processes.
- Formalized Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as well as documented Plans, Processes and Policies for STO functionalities.
- Implemented operational metrics to align with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Success Factors (CSFs).
Manger, Service Transitions and Operations
OnPoint Consulting - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
08.2009 - 04.2011
- Managed test automation team and provided recommendations to senior management on how to leverage existing practices thereby increasing Return on Investment (ROI).
- Led release management activities built, tested, and deployed effectively and efficiently.
- Identified, established, documented, and formalized Change, Configuration, Release, Validation, and testing processes.
- Collaborated with business to understand the requirements for various processes and ensured they aligned with technology deliverables.
- Trained the FAA FLITES team on Remedy Incident Management and Change Management.
Software Build / Release Manager – Operations Support
SRA International, Inc.
11.2004 - 07.2009
- Company Overview: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Led ICAM (Internal Change Authorization Meeting) and CCB (Change Control Board) on a biweekly basis to review all changes across the project.
- Facilitated weekly Software releases from development to production environments.
- Maintained Change management records and Incident tickets assigned to our team as a Queue manager.
- Co-authored documentation required to achieve CMMI level 2 Certification.
- Produced metrics for Senior Management as per the KPI’s established.
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
Bookkeeper & Assistant to Chief Financial Officer
SIU Credit Union
08.2004 - 09.2004
- Tracked daily bookkeeping activities such as Share Draft Exceptions, balancing of ATM transactions, posting, and processing designated G/Ls, A/Ps, A/Rs and payroll postings.
Financial Analyst
KeyCorp
05.2003 - 12.2003
- Designed CRO’s presentation for the senate subcommittee, CFO’s monthly report on Economic Capital and OCC regulation and performed market analysis on borrower trends.
Education
MBA -
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Carbondale, IL08-2004
Master of Science -
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Carbondale, IL08-2002
Bachelor of Science -
Osmania University
India07-1999
Skills
- Leadership and team management
- Employee coaching and mentoring
- Technical program management
- Verbal and written communication
- Budget oversight
- Cybersecurity strategy
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Incident response planning
- Security governance
- Vulnerability management
- Cloud security solutions
- Project management
- Stakeholder engagement
- Disaster recovery planning
- Employee security awareness raining
Education And Certifications
- ISAACA CISM
- ITIL V3 Expert
- AWS Solutions Architect
- AWS Cloud Security Specialist
- CompTIA Security+
- Master’s in Business Administration (MBA)
- Masters of Science (MS)
- Bachelor of Engineering (BE)
Accomplishments
- County Manager's Award - Arlington County Government
- Gold Star award - Fannie Mae
- Silver Star award - Fannie Mae
Languages
English
Professional
Hindi
Professional
Telugu
Professional
Certification
- Certified Information Security Manager )CISM) - ISACA
- AWS Cloud Security Expert
- AWS Solutions Architect
- ITIL Expert
Timeline
Manager – Cyber Security Engineering and Operations
Arlington County Government
09.2022 - Current
Manager – Information Security Operations
Fannie Mae
06.2021 - 09.2022
Manager – Application Support and Business Communications
Fannie Mae
06.2015 - 06.2021
Manager – IT Service Operations
National Student Clearing House
04.2011 - 04.2015
Manger, Service Transitions and Operations
OnPoint Consulting - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
08.2009 - 04.2011
Software Build / Release Manager – Operations Support
SRA International, Inc.
11.2004 - 07.2009
Bookkeeper & Assistant to Chief Financial Officer
SIU Credit Union
08.2004 - 09.2004
Financial Analyst
KeyCorp
05.2003 - 12.2003
MBA -
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Master of Science -
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Bachelor of Science -
Osmania University
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