Consulting
I spent almost nine years in security engineering at Amazon Web Services, from 2012 to 2021, through years of very fast growth: first as an engineer, later managing security engineers. I watched a lot of things break at scale, and learned which ones don't have to.
I'm most useful to:
- Teams growing fast. Headcount, traffic or customers are doubling and the old ways of working aren't keeping up. I've seen this many times, at AWS and well beyond it, and I can help you sort what's urgent from what can wait.
- Problems that need security judgment. The risk is real and a checklist won't answer it: what to protect first, what to accept, and how to run a service that people trust with their data, at whatever scale you're heading for.
- Interesting, tangled problems. Ones where software, people and process all have to be understood together.
- Building with AI. Putting it to real work, from single agents to whole systems of tools around them. I build this way every day.
- People building something good. Mission-driven organizations, ethical startups and individual builders. I'll make room for you.
Often the most useful thing I bring is calm: someone in the room who has seen this before, isn't alarmed by it, and can help everyone think clearly again.
If what you want is to grow, in your career or as a person, that's coaching.
$500 an hour. I don't take work that conflicts with my values. Not sure yet? Bring it to office hours, which are free. Or book an hour, or write to me with what you're facing.