MIT Lincoln Laboratory

2018–2020 · Cybersecurity Sector Manager

The setting

A research environment brings together operational security, specialized technical work, and a national-security mission. My role was to lead cybersecurity services and SOC capabilities across classified and unclassified environments while working with the people those services supported.

My contribution

I led strategy, governance, operations, vulnerability management, and performance measurement, managing a cybersecurity budget exceeding $10 million and more than 30 employees. My remit was cybersecurity; a separate CSO held other security responsibilities.

Operational work

I consolidated overlapping SOC capabilities, normalized procedures, and automated workflows through SOAR. This work connected program direction with the operating practices analysts and engineers used every day, alongside security and compliance documentation for research programs.

Developing the team

I supported staff experiments and created an informal peer presentation lunch. Two people could bring ideas to colleagues over pizza, without management in the room. It was intended to make participation less intimidating and give people a place to develop confidence in their ideas.

That combination of operational discipline and room to experiment remains central to how I think about technical leadership.