Laurence Avent

Security Engineer

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Summary

Experienced Security professional seeking a contract Security Engineering role. I have experience with IAM, both in GCP and AWS environments, securing cloud infrastructure including WAF's, VPC's, etc, and performing vulnerability scanning and threat intelligence work. I have scripting skills and can rapidly get up to speed in a new environment as well as excellent stakeholder management skills, with a background in supporting technical and non-technical users with a range of software packages in both enterprise and startup contexts.

Skills

  • Languages: Rust, SQL, Terraform, Python, TypeScript, Markdown, LaTeX, Claude prompting
  • Technologies: AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, DataDog, Sentry
  • Software and tools: BurpSuite, nmap, Developer Tools, OpsGenie, HexNode MDM, Drata GRC, IAM

Projects

  1. Liquid Neural Networks [WIP] implementation in Rust
    LNN GitHub Project
    Writing a Liquid Neural Networks implementation in Rust to push the limits of Claude-assisted coding, expand Rust development knowledge, and gain hands-on ML experience in Rust.
  2. WAF Vulnerability Write-up
    Medium Writeup
    Discussion of the mechanics of a WAF bypass vulnerability discovered when responding to the Log4Shell 0-day vulnerability.
  3. Technical documentation for Terraforming the Encord AWS Integration
    Encord Documentation
    Technical documentation written in markdown and compiled with Docusaurus and later ReadMe to explain how to Terraform the Encord AWS S3 Private Cloud Integration.
  4. Project Euler problems solved in Python
    ProjectEuler Github Project
    Solving the first 10 ProjectEuler maths problems with Python scripts and writing a quine.

Experience

Security Engineer, Educational Technology company

Apr/2024 – Present | Undisclosed | Remote, UK

  • Implementing and maintaining security controls in a highly segmented AWS environment
  • Owning the IAM and security posture of the company
  • Performing vulnerability scanning and threat intelligence work
  • Finding and fixing security issues in the cloud infrastructure
  • Investigating and remediating security events in the SIEM
  • Working with the DevOps team to ensure security is built into the CI/CD pipeline

Technologies: Rapid7, Microsoft Defender, SIEM, Terraform, Sophos Central, Kandji MDM, Python scripting

Career Gap

Nov/2023 – Apr/2024 | Personal Projects | Remote, UK

Time out from employment to focus on personal projects and self-directed learning

Skill and Technologies: Rust, AI/Machine Learning, TypeScript, etc

Security and Compliance Engineer, AI Computer Vision Startup

Nov/2022 – Oct/2023 | Encord (YC 2021) | Remote, UK

  • Owned SOC 2 Type 2 audit readiness, audit, successful certification and continuous compliance
  • Monitored GCP logs for signs of malicious activity and developed a custom GCP WAF rule set
  • Pentested the web application and infrastructure using nmap, BurpSuite and Chrome Dev Tools
  • Owned GCP IAM, vulnerability scanning, management and remediation
  • Answered security and compliance related questions from customers and prospects
  • Handled inbound whitehat and greyhat disclosures
  • Performed Support Engineering and other customer-facing duties and documentation
  • Created and shared request flow diagrams using Plant UML

Technologies: SQL, Postgres, SOC 2, GCP, AI/Machine Learning, Cloud Armor, Firebase

Support Engineer (Solutions Engineering)

Feb/2021 – Nov/2022 | Kobalt Music | London, UK

  • Drove critical security improvements and helped set up the Security Incident Response Team
  • Coordinated the Log4Shell 0-day vulnerability response, awarded a spot bonus
  • Identified and fixed a WAF bypass vulnerability on our cloud infrastructure
  • Owned the successful implementation of new Incident Management tooling (OpsGenie)
  • Managed production incidents, ran post-mortems and performed root cause analysis
  • Investigated and fixed bugs in legacy internal Java/PL-SQL application on managed Oracle servers
  • Investigated and fixed performance issues using DataDog, OEM, SQL Plan Management

Technologies: OpsGenie, Jira, AWS, Vulnerability Management, PL-SQL, Oracle, Java

Support Engineer

July/2019 – Jan/2021 | Reciprocity d.o.o. | Ljubljana, Slovenia

  • Primary contact supporting 250+ SaaS customers with core GRC application and integrations
  • Built relationships with colleagues and customers
  • Worked with Product teams to define and prioritize product enhancements
  • Debugged customer issues, ensuring accurate diagnosis and timely fixes
  • Managed incidents and contributed to Root Cause Analysis
  • Assisted CISOs with cyber risk management and compliance
  • Produced internal run books and shared best practices
  • Trained internal stakeholders on application updates and support tools

Technologies: Incident Management, ZenDesk, Debugging, Customer Support, DataDog, Sentry

Business Intelligence Analyst

Feb/2019 – Jul/2019 | Capita PLC | Bristol, UK

  • Provided MI reporting to stakeholders across key accounts
  • Used SQL queries to shift from Excel-based analysis to scheduled, custom reporting
  • Supported infosec colleagues with quarterly user account access recertification
  • Ran and fixed Excel VBA macros in legacy workbooks

Technologies: Business Intelligence, IAM, SQL

Data Management Team Lead

June/2018 – Jan/2019 | TVS Supply Chain Solutions | Bristol, UK

  • Led a team in a BPSS Cleared role
  • Delivered ERP transformation project, providing management information and mapping processes
  • Investigated and solved master data issues

Skills: Data Management, Root Cause Analysis, Team Leadership

Paralegal

April/2017 – March/2018 | Womble Bond Dickinson LLP | Plymouth, UK

  • Assisted the Legal Director with current awareness on Brexit and contract law matters
  • Researched techno-legal implementations of emergent technologies
  • Automated contracts and legal letter drafting using Exari
  • Produced client-facing GDPR content

Skills: Legal Awareness, GDPR, Article writing

Education

2,1 BSc (Hons), Marine Studies (Merchant Shipping)

Sept/2007 – June/2011 | University of Plymouth

Key takeaways:

  • Scientific studies in oceanography, tides, wave theory, meteorology and Astro Nav
  • Signals (propagation, degradation and limitations) and their use in navigational methods
  • Report writing, research skills, and use of precise writing styles within technical documents
  • Critical thinking, problem solving and performing appraisal/validation studies in the real world

Hobbies

  • Climbing - Primarily Bouldering, some Trad and Sport in and around the southwest
  • Guitar - Self-taught Acoustic guitar with shaky vocals
  • Writing - Blogging on a range of technical and philosophical topics
  • Reading - Favourite authors include: Steinbeck, Krishnamurti, Anaxagorou, Gleick, Huxley, Thoreau, and Feynman
  • Hiking and Camping - Running away to Dartmoor or Cornwall with my tent, hiking boots and stove
  • Martial Arts - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wing Chun Kung Fu, Filipino Escrima
  • Misc Code Projects - Experimenting with Rust, NextJS, PostgreSQL, Wrangler and Cloudflare Pages and Workers