I protect businesses by building the security they can't afford to get wrong.
I'm Darius. 15+ years shipping production software and securing it. I've been an IC, a team lead, and an engineering manager. I build security tooling from scratch, automate detection and response, and work across engineering, product, and compliance to reduce risk. I'm just as comfortable writing Python in a terminal as I am explaining a threat model to a non-technical executive.
15+
years in software, IT, and security
IC & Lead
individual contributor and team leader
DLP + GRC
data protection and policy management
FedRAMP & SOC 2
compliance environment experience
South Side
Chicago born, raised, and still building
Southside CHI
consulting for local small businesses
Started building young. Never really stopped.
I grew up on the south side of Chicago. Started fixing computers at CPS and was writing code for money by 15. I've been an IC, a team lead, and an engineering manager. I know when to write the code and when to get people aligned.
I didn't set out to work in security. I got here by doing the work that touches it every day. That background, plus the ability to break down complex problems for anyone in the room, is what makes the work land.
Where I'm strongest
Cloud Security & Hardening
I harden cloud environments, reduce standing access, improve identity controls, retire abandoned infrastructure, and build guardrails that prevent risky changes before they become incidents.
Detection Engineering & Response
I build and tune detection pipelines, reduce alert noise, write triage playbooks, and improve on-call response with real operational context.
Incident Response & Readiness
I lead security incident response from containment through lessons learned, with focus on preserving evidence, reducing blast radius, and improving repeatability.
DLP & Data Protection
I implement and manage data loss prevention controls, classify sensitive data, build policies that prevent leakage across endpoints, cloud storage, and AI tools, and make sure the rules actually match how people work.
GRC & Policy Management
I build and maintain governance, risk, and compliance programs that connect policy to real controls. FedRAMP, SOC 2, risk assessments, audit evidence, and security policies that teams can follow without a lawyer.
AWS Architecture & Operations
Beyond security, I design and operate cloud infrastructure: event-driven architectures, microservices, cost optimization, and production systems that teams can actually run.
Communication & Technical Leadership
I can sit in a room with stakeholders, translate technical risk into business language, and get alignment without hiding behind jargon. The work only matters if people understand it.
AI/LLM Security & Automation
I use AI carefully to accelerate triage, documentation, detection logic, and security operations while accounting for prompt injection, data leakage, and misuse risk.
Selected work
Cloud Security / Detection Engineering
Cloud Detection & Alerting Pipeline
Built and tuned a cloud detection and alerting workflow that connected cloud security findings to actionable notifications while reducing low-value noise.
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Incident Response / Security Automation
Automated Incident Response & Escalation
Built automated incident response workflows that escalated security events to the right teams via PagerDuty and Slack, reduced manual triage, and preserved forensic evidence automatically.
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Security Tooling / AI Security
AI-Assisted Code Review & Vulnerability Auditing
Built AI-assisted workflows that helped scale code review, vulnerability auditing, and detection logic authoring beyond what a small security team could do manually.
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Incident Response / Security Operations
Incident Response Runbooks & Tabletop Program
Created practical triage runbooks, severity guidance, escalation paths, and tabletop scenarios based on real operational gaps.
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Cloud Security / IAM
Cloud Security Hardening & Access Reduction
Improved cloud security posture by reducing standing access, strengthening identity controls, and shrinking attack surface from unused infrastructure.
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GRC / Cloud Security
Security Assurance & Compliance Evidence
Translated cloud and security control implementation into clear evidence for enterprise and regulated environments.
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Projects
Cybersecurity Consulting / Community
Southside CHI Solutions
Security-first IT and cloud consulting for Chicago small businesses, with a focus on practical protection, centralized logging, endpoint management, patching, and security education.
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Software / Media Platform
WomenWhoBall
A women's sports media platform concept focused on making information about female athletes easier to discover across high school, college, and professional sports.
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Software / Local Discovery
ChicagoAfterFive
A Chicago nightlife and after-work discovery platform focused on finding restaurants, bars, venues, late-night spots, recurring events, and local experiences.
View project →
The work isn't done when the code runs.
It's done when the people responsible for the system understand it, trust it, and can operate it. That's the bar I hold myself to.