# Justin Bowen

Security & Infrastructure Leader · Dallas, TX

- Email: justin.bowen.1337@gmail.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/PenguinzTech
- Org GitHub: https://github.com/penguintechinc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinbowendfw/
- Company: https://penguintech.io
- GIAC verification: https://www.giac.org/certified-professional/justin-a-bowen/133452
- Resume: https://justin.vet/JustinBowen-Resume.pdf (updated 2026-08-26)
- Availability: Open — Open to Senior Individual Contributor and Senior Management roles in security engineering, infrastructure, and AI security.

## Headline

Twenty years of security, across the whole stack and most of the industry.

Network engineering through blue team, red team, cloud, application security, and governance. I get called in for two things: moving something large without breaking it, and building a security program where none exists yet. Neither is really a technology problem — both are problems of timing and approach.

## About

I started as a network engineer and never really left. The habit of reading a packet capture before reading a dashboard is the thing that has made every security role since make sense — detection, response, architecture, and eventually policy all rest on knowing what the wire is actually doing.

That path ran through the Air Force and then the Washington and Texas Air National Guard for sixteen years, most of it concurrent with civilian work. I stood up a unit's first Red Team, rebuilt its Weapons and Tactics program, and rebuilt its cyber training program from close to zero. Those two tracks fed each other constantly.

Today I write and publish open source through Penguin Technologies — Zero Trust connectivity, AI proxying and governance, hybrid cloud infrastructure — and contribute to Cloud Security Alliance guidance on AI and Zero Trust security.

## At a Glance

- Years in the field: 20+
- Years in uniform: 16
- Leading teams: 9 yrs (6 senior · 3 manager)
- Based in: Dallas, TX

## Sectors

- Defense & government — USAF · L3 Stratis
- Big Tech / FAANG — Amazon · Uber
- Banking — Protiviti clients
- Fintech — Protiviti clients
- Healthcare — Protiviti clients
- Aviation — Alaska Airlines
- Retail — REI
- Security vendor — Trustwave
- Consumer apps — Raya App

## Recognition

- **Top Cyber Security Operator** — United States Air Force, 2016. Selected as the top cyber security operator across the entire US Air Force.

## What I get called in for

Something large has to move without breaking, or something has to exist that does not yet. Most of my career has been one or the other, often both at once.

### Modern migrations

Moving something large, live, and load-bearing — without stopping the business that depends on it.

- Amazon Corporate to AWS — Amazon, 2014–2015
- Hardware estate to cloud — Uber, 2020–2025
- AI adoption, controls, and governance — Raya App, 2025–2026
- Enterprise cloud migrations for client environments — Protiviti, 2018–2020

### Greenfield

No program, no coverage, no precedent. Sometimes a whole company, sometimes a single domain, sometimes a mission — and more than once, a capability the service did not have yet.

- A whole company — security program from zero — Raya App, 2025–2026
- A space — infrastructure security — Uber, 2020–2025
- Founding member, USAF Cyber Protection Teams — USAF / Washington Air National Guard, 2015–2017
- Founding member of a Red Team on active duty — US Air Force, 2010–2012
- The unit's inaugural Red Team — Washington Air National Guard, 2017–2020

Both reward the same instinct: judging how much change an organization can take, in what order, and at what pace. Move too fast and something important breaks. Move too slow and the window closes. Most of the work is finding that line and then holding to it under pressure.

## Leadership Model

Nine years leading people across two tiers. Senior leadership here means Head of / Senior Manager (NCOIC) scope — owning a program and its people — and deliberately stops short of executive or commissioned-officer level.

### Senior leadership (6 years)

Scope: Head of Information Security · Senior Manager (NCOIC)

Program ownership end to end: strategy, budget-adjacent decisions, policy authority, and the people who carry it. Not an executive or officer role.

Roles: Head of Information Security / Founding Security Engineer, Raya App, Inc. (April 2025 – June 2026); Senior Manager (NCOIC) — Cyber Security Training, Texas Air National Guard (2022 – 2023); Senior Manager (NCOIC) & Technical Lead, Washington Air National Guard (2020 – 2022)

### Management (3 years)

Scope: Manager · Technical Lead Manager

Direct team leadership — hiring, performance, delivery against a roadmap, and staying technical enough to review the work.

Roles: Staff Security Engineer & Technical Lead Manager, Uber Technologies Inc (April 2020 – March 2025); Manager, Technical Security Services, Protiviti Consulting (May 2018 – April 2020); Technical Manager, Red Team, Washington Air National Guard (2017 – 2020)

## Experience

Every role, newest first. Detailed roles carry their full highlight list; earlier-career roles are compact.

### Raya App, Inc. — Head of Information Security / Founding Security Engineer

*April 2025 – June 2026 · track: industry · leadership: senior*

Built a complete information security program from inception.

- Established a comprehensive information security program from inception, covering all domains and governance frameworks from a technical and program leadership perspective.
- Implemented AI security controls through hooks, proxies, and local client configurations to ensure secure model adoption.
- Deployed and optimized EDR, NDR, CDR, CNAPP, and MDR solutions alongside a modern Mobile Device Management (MDM) suite.
- Authored and enacted 23+ security policies and standards to formalize organizational security posture.
- Optimized CI/CD pipelines by integrating security automation, AI, and IaC (Terraform / Ansible), significantly reducing production vulnerabilities and security gaps.
- Directed Application and API security improvements, enhancing the resilience of core product offerings.
- Led incident response workstreams, achieving successful resolution of critical incidents within hours of detection.
- Collaborated with the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) on AI Security documentation and steered internal AI strategy across business units.
- Documented and executed a strategy for migrating to centralized SSO for streamlined login and role assignments.
- Built a self-service AI suite integrating 15+ linters and security scanners, automating localized security reviews and development workflows and reducing late stage security blockers.

### Texas Air National Guard — Senior Manager (NCOIC) — Cyber Security Training

*2022 – 2023 · track: military · leadership: senior*

Rebuilt the unit's cyber security training program.

- Rebuilt training program from near zero.
- Prepared a 30-person team that successfully completed cyber security quick reaction force missions.
- Managed training programs and 1:1 training for 30 technical leads.

### Uber Technologies Inc — Staff Security Engineer & Technical Lead Manager

*April 2020 – March 2025 · track: industry · leadership: manager*

Global network security operations across Uber and its subsidiaries.

- Directed global network security operations for Uber and its subsidiaries, managing 12+ concurrent technical projects.
- Architected and led execution against a 5-year security roadmap encompassing cloud and physical network infrastructure company-wide.
- Created a security performance testing framework that reduced endpoint-related support tickets by 50%.
- Developed a serverless detection system that proactively intercepted over 1,000 malicious files.
- Spearheaded infrastructure redesigns to enhance platform resilience and mitigate large-scale attack vectors.
- Deployed enterprise-scale Zero Trust and SASE solutions including Zscaler and iBoss.

### Washington Air National Guard — Senior Manager (NCOIC) & Technical Lead

*2020 – 2022 · track: military · leadership: senior*

Rebuilt the Weapons and Tactics program; led a 30-person blue team.

- Rebuilt the Weapons and Tactics (WepTac) program; operational oversight and technical audits.
- Identified and remediated 10+ critical technical discrepancies through rigorous internal auditing.
- Managed and trained a 30-person security blue team to defend against nation-state Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs).
- Rebuilt deployments and usage with IaC / CaC (Ansible).

### Protiviti Consulting — Manager, Technical Security Services

*May 2018 – April 2020 · track: industry · leadership: manager*

Incident response, threat hunting, and security architecture for client environments.

- Directed incident response and proactive threat hunting engagements for specialized client environments, as well as automation and orchestration across multiple domains.
- Designed and implemented enterprise security architectures for large-scale cloud migrations.
- Standardized company-wide monitoring and automation workflows to improve operational efficiency.

### Washington Air National Guard — Technical Manager, Red Team

*2017 – 2020 · track: military · leadership: manager*

Stood up the unit's first Red Team and trained USAF security personnel.

- Established the unit's inaugural Red Team and provided training to security personnel across the USAF.
- Executed dozens of threat detection engagements, authoring over 100 custom detection rules.
- Led high-impact Purple Team exercises to validate and improve defense-in-depth strategies.

- **Alaska Airlines** — Network Security Engineer (2017 – 2018) · track: industry · leadership: ic
- **REI** — Blue Team Lead (2015 – 2017) · track: industry · leadership: manager
- **Washington Air National Guard** — Cyber Security Technical Lead, Cyber Protection Team (2015 – 2017) · track: military · leadership: manager
- **Amazon Inc.** — Enterprise Security Engineer 2 (2014 – 2015) · track: industry · leadership: ic
- **Trustwave, Inc.** — Senior Threat Network Security Engineer (2013 – 2014) · track: industry · leadership: ic
- **USAF Reserves, INOSC–West** — Enterprise Network Security Lead and Auditor (2012 – 2015) · track: military · leadership: ic
- **L3 Stratis** — Enterprise System Security Engineer (2012 – 2013) · track: industry · leadership: ic
- **U.S. Air Force, Active Duty** — Founding Member, Red Team — Network Security (2010 – 2012) · track: military · leadership: ic
- **U.S. Air Force, Active Duty** — Site Lead Network Engineer (2009 – 2010) · track: military · leadership: ic
- **U.S. Air Force, Active Duty** — Network and System Engineer (2008 – 2009) · track: military · leadership: ic
- **U.S. Air Force, Active Duty** — Enlisted — basic training and technical school (2007 – 2008) · track: military · leadership: ic
- **Awardspace Web Hosting** — Forum Support Moderator (2006 – 2007) · track: industry · leadership: ic

## Depth of Experience

- Infrastructure Security — 18 years
- Incident Response — 13 years
- Threat Detection — 13 years
- Cloud Security — 5 years
- Application Security — 5 years

## Certifications

GIAC-verified record: https://www.giac.org/certified-professional/justin-a-bowen/133452

- GCWN (GIAC-verified)
- GPEN (GIAC-verified)
- GCIH (GIAC-verified)
- GCFA (GIAC-verified)
- GXPN (GIAC-verified)
- Security+
- A+
- Network+
- Project+
- Cloud+
- CKA
- LPIC

## Languages

- Bash — 20 years
- Python — 18 years
- JavaScript — 12 years
- Go — 7 years
- x86 Assembly — 3 years
- PHP — 3 years
- Perl — 2 years
- Rust — 1 years
- Ruby — Working familiarity
- Crystal — Working familiarity

## Skills

### Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI, Vultr, OpenStack, Kubernetes, Cloud-Native Security, Multi-Cloud Governance

### Artificial Intelligence

AI Security, LLM Security, AI Governance, Ollama, llama.cpp, Claude, Gemini, OpenAI, Mistral, AI Sandboxing, Cluster Hardening, Guardrails

### Networking

TCP/IP, SASE, SSE, DMVPN, PKI, Wireguard, IPSEC, Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Envoy, Cilium, eBPF, Micro-segmentation, SDN, Identity-Aware Proxy

### Systems Security

CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Iru, FleetDM, macOS, Linux, Windows

### Programming

Python, Go, Bash, Rust, JavaScript, x86 Assembly, PHP, Perl, Ruby, Crystal

### Automation & Tooling

Ansible, Terraform, OpenTofu, n8n, Apache NiFi, UiPath, Splunk, ELK, LogRhythm, Zscaler, iBoss, Wiz

### Detection & Response

Threat Intelligence, Incident Response, Threat Hunting, Regex, Snort, Splunk, ELK, LogRhythm, FireEye, Purple Teaming

### Product Security

RASP, Approov, AppDome, Cloudflare, Bot Prevention, REST API Protection, gRPC API Protection, GraphQL API Protection

### Identity & Access

Okta, SSO, SAML, OIDC, OAuth2, SPIFFE/SPIRE, JWT, Authentication Proxies

### DevSecOps

GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Wiz, Socket.dev, Snyk, Software Supply Chain Security

### Governance, Risk & Compliance

Zero Trust, NIST, ISO 27001, PCI v4, HIPAA, NYDFS, CSA STAR, SOC 2, Policy & Standards Authoring

## Education

- Western Governors University — Bachelor of Science, Network Engineering and Security
- Regis University — Bachelor of Science, Computer Science (Minor in Psychology)
- United States Air Force — Associate of Science, Cyber Defense Operations

## Project Portfolio

### Platform & infrastructure

Hybrid cloud, connectivity, and the plumbing underneath both.

- **tobogganing** (penguintechinc, Python, 6 stars) — Zero Trust connectivity for clusters — intra, inter, and external — built on Wireguard and Ziti with policy enforcement from day one. Absorbed Squawk (secure DNS) and WaddlePerf (network path measurement) in 2026. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/tobogganing
- **penguincloud** (penguintechinc, Python, 1 star) — One management plane for the whole Penguin stack — the deployable hybrid cloud for MSPs and enterprises that want their own, not someone else's. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/penguincloud
- **nest** (penguintechinc, Go, 0 stars) — Multi-cloud and multi-strategy solution for deploying database, caching and storage solutions to local kubernetes or public cloud environment in a single management pane of glass! — https://github.com/penguintechinc/nest
- **penguin** (penguintechinc, Go, 0 stars) — Our modular desktop agent written in Rust to house all penguin product modular packages for windows, mac, and linux. It co-exists with OTel and FleetDM to provide full desktop management. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/penguin
- **gough** (penguintechinc, Python, 0 stars) — Hypervisor solution which can provision hardware or directly on top of VMs a solution for k8s and VMs! — https://github.com/penguintechinc/gough
- **penguin-libs** (penguintechinc, Python, 0 stars) — Penguin Tech monorepo for shared libraries for all languages (React/JS, Python, Go) — https://github.com/penguintechinc/penguin-libs
- **license-server** (penguintechinc, Python, 0 stars) — The license server for premium features within PenguinCloud — https://github.com/penguintechinc/license-server
- **penguin-signoz** (penguintechinc, Makefile, 0 stars) — SigNoz OpenTelemetry observability deployment configs — https://github.com/penguintechinc/penguin-signoz

### Security & detection

Scanning, secrets, endpoint telemetry, and Zero Trust enforcement.

- **skauswatch** (penguintechinc, Python, 0 stars) — Cloud security platform combining S3 malware scanning (ClamAV/YARA) with threat intel enrichment, vulnerability detection, EDR endpoint monitoring, JIT secrets management, and AI-assisted code review. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/skauswatch
- **squawk** (penguintechinc, Python, 3 stars) [ARCHIVED] — A secure private and public DNS management system with optional authentication requirements and per user access controls. **August 2026**: Merged into Tobogganing . — https://github.com/penguintechinc/squawk
- **waddleperf** (PenguinzTech, Python, 4 stars) [ARCHIVED] — Merged into Toboganning. Comprehensive open source network performance monitoring platform for measuring real-world user experience between endpoints. Features multi-tier diagnostics, bandwidth testing, and connectivity analysis with Docker-based deployment. Supports HTTP/TCP/UDP/ICMP protocols with S3 integration and geographic IP analysis — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/waddleperf
- **marchproxy** (PenguinzTech, Go, 0 stars) [ARCHIVED] — A proxy suite for ingress, egress at the L4 and L7 layer handling DB connections, APIs, web, network, and more at extreme speeds and modern security practices. — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/marchproxy

### AI & agents

Proxying, governing, and securing model access.

- **waddleai** (penguintechinc, Python, 1 star) — An async Quart AI management platform: multi-provider routing across Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock and Vertex, with Granite/Gemma request security, token and quota accounting, caching, and node fleet management for Ollama and llama.cpp. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/waddleai
- **claude-gemini** (PenguinzTech, Python, 0 stars) — MCP and skills for injecting Gemini as a researcher, image/video/audio generator via MCP, designed for claude code.. but likely will work with anything that supports claude style skills and MCP servers! — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/claude-gemini

### Knowledge & community

Tools for teams to keep track of what they know and who they talk to.

- **elder** (penguintechinc, Python, 3 stars) — Workstream, issue, relationship, entity, and document management in one place, with native MCP integration so agents can read and write the same knowledge base people do. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/elder
- **waddlebot** (penguintechinc, Python, 2 stars) — Waddles is a scalable next-gen multi-platform chatbot and community management framework for Twitch, Discord, Slack & YouTube. AI-powered, loyalty systems, workflows, minigames. Kubernetes-ready, and more!. — https://github.com/penguintechinc/waddlebot
- **icecharts** (PenguinzTech, TypeScript, 0 stars) [ARCHIVED] — Enterprise diagramming and visual workflow automation platform with node-based editor. React frontend, Flask backend, multi-database support. — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/icecharts

### Linux & hardware

Kernel patches and desktop fixes for hardware that shipped half-supported.

- **x1e-pd-fix** (PenguinzTech, C, 2 stars) — A Linux kernel module fixing USB-C Power Delivery negotiation on Snapdragon X Elite laptops — machines that shipped charging at ~12W instead of 60W. Covers ASUS Vivobook S, Dell Latitude 7455, and ThinkPad T14s Gen 6. — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/x1e-pd-fix
- **battery-wattage-gnome** (PenguinzTech, JavaScript, 0 stars) — GNOME Shell extension showing real-time battery and charger wattage in the top panel. Designed for Snapdragon X Elite but works on any Linux laptop. — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/battery-wattage-gnome
- **gdrive-mount** (PenguinzTech, Shell, 0 stars) — Mount Google Drive as a real local FUSE filesystem on Linux — works with all apps including Flatpak sandboxes — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/gdrive-mount
- **beacn-utility** (PenguinzTech, Rust, 0 stars) — A tool for configuring Beacn devices on Linux — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/beacn-utility
- **penguin-beacn-mixer** (PenguinzTech, Python, 0 stars) — GNOME Shell extension + Python D-Bus daemon for controlling BEACN Mix / Mix Create audio interfaces — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/penguin-beacn-mixer
- **egpu-fix** (PenguinzTech, Shell, 0 stars) — Fix script for NVIDIA eGPU (Razer Core X / RTX 5070) Thunderbolt 3 broken PCIe link state on Ubuntu — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/egpu-fix
- **igpu-chromium-crash** (PenguinzTech, Shell, 0 stars) — Fix for AMD iGPU + Chrome causing GNOME desktop crashes on Linux (amdgpu ring hang) — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/igpu-chromium-crash
- **linux-audio** (PenguinzTech, n/a, 0 stars) — PenguinZTech Linux audio knowledge base — PipeWire, OBS, USB mixer routing and recovery — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/linux-audio

### Streaming & control surfaces

Stream deck plugins and broadcast tooling, mostly in Rust.

- **twitch-opendeck** (PenguinzTech, Rust, 1 star) — OpenDeck plugin for Twitch stream control — chat, ads, clips, markers, Shield Mode, and more — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/twitch-opendeck
- **obs-opendeck** (PenguinzTech, Rust, 0 stars) — OBS WebSocket OpenDeck plugin — 17 actions for OBS Studio control via obs-websocket v5 — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/obs-opendeck
- **kick-opendeck** (PenguinzTech, HTML, 0 stars) — Kick stream control plugin for OpenDeck — chat messages, viewer count, slow mode, ban/unban users, mute users — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/kick-opendeck
- **youtube-opendeck** (PenguinzTech, HTML, 0 stars) — YouTube Live stream control plugin for OpenDeck — chat messages, viewer count, ad breaks, ban/unban users, add moderators — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/youtube-opendeck
- **aitum-obs-plugin-ubuntu25** (PenguinzTech, Shell, 0 stars) — Build script for obs-aitum-stream-suite 1.1.0 on Ubuntu 25.10 (questing) with obsproject PPA — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/aitum-obs-plugin-ubuntu25

### Labs & side quests

Game servers, experiments, and things built to scratch an itch.

- **penguin-rust-base** (PenguinzTech, C#, 2 stars) — Rust dedicated server with Oxide + umod plugins — community base image — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/penguin-rust-base
- **penguin-rust-plugins** (PenguinzTech, C#, 0 stars) — Third-party security scanning and redistribution layer for Oxide (Rust game server) plugins from umod.org. Not affiliated with upstream plugin authors. — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/penguin-rust-plugins
- **security-game** (PenguinzTech, GDScript, 0 stars) —  — https://github.com/PenguinzTech/security-game

## Short Links

- https://justin.vet/github → https://github.com/PenguinzTech (GitHub) — Personal repositories — Linux, kernel, hardware, streaming tools.
- https://justin.vet/org → https://github.com/penguintechinc (Penguin Technologies on GitHub) — The organization behind Tobogganing, WaddleAI, Elder, and PenguinCloud.
- https://justin.vet/book → https://calendar.app.google/BoEWaAcyULK1YQbi6 (Book time) — Grab a slot on my calendar.
- https://justin.vet/linkedin → https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinbowendfw/ (LinkedIn) — Career history and professional network.
- https://justin.vet/giac → https://www.giac.org/certified-professional/justin-a-bowen/133452 (GIAC certifications) — Verified GIAC/SANS certification record — GCWN, GPEN, GCIH, GCFA, GXPN.
- https://justin.vet/resume → /JustinBowen-Resume.pdf (Resume) — Current resume, PDF.
- https://justin.vet/email → mailto:justin.bowen.1337@gmail.com (Email) — Direct email.
- https://justin.vet/company → https://penguintech.io (Penguin Technologies) — Company site.
- https://justin.vet/twitch → https://twitch.tv/PenguinzPlays (Twitch) — Streaming.
- https://justin.vet/x → https://x.com/PenguinzPlays (X) — Occasional posting.

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