Christopher Esch Cissp, Cisa Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, Us

San Diego, California, Us

Recruited to develop and staff a Security Operations Program from scratch at a rapidly growing company that was in-transition from a startup to a public company. Fully integrated existing toolset and talent, recruited additional staff, and successfully implemented Security Operations and Detection Engineering programs. Responsible for all Security Operations including Detection Engineering and DFIR, Email Security, Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Security Incident and Event Monitoring (SIEM) including 3rd party vendor management.Key Areas of Impact:➣Analyzed current and future Security Operations workload, created and executed a staffing plan to reduce operational risk to Cue➣Developed underlying frameworks and implemented supporting processes and tools for Security Operations➣Analyzed efficacy of existing tools and vendors and identified over $750,000 of annual overspend➣Developed in-house Detection Engineering Program

Chantilly, Virginia, Us

In 2019, I was recruited to rebuild and lead a security team for an IT outsourcing company that services government customers. I am responsible for Security Operations for the County of San Diego environment, including oversight and supervision of the Threat Hunting and Detection, CSIRT, Vulnerability Management, and Compliance teams, in additional to the integration of 24/7 security operations with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP). Key areas of impact to date: JUDICIOUS RECRUITMENT & HIRING PRACTICES: ➣Transitioned existing team to a fully remote workforce➣Re-staffed and re-built a GRC team, integrated 4 new fully remote team members➣Built and scaled a Threat and Vulnerability Management team➣Revamped legacy recruitment and hiring processes to ensure the right talent on-boarded BEST PRACTICES IMPLEMENTATION:➣Matured the Security function and reengineered processes➣Instituted best practice standards, up-leveling security adherence

Chicago, Illinois, Us

I was initially brought in to build Provide Commerce’s inaugural Security program. Within 6 months, my role pivoted, with a new focus on IT Compliance and Governance, following the acquisition by FTD. During this time, I managed a team of 6 in delivering services for an e-commerce company with operations in the U.S., U.K., and Ireland. In the last year, I served as Interim IT Director. During this time, I led the team in delivering in the following key areas of impact: POST-ACQUISITION INTEGRATION: ➣Navigated immense post-deal acquisition IT integration and compliance challenges as the company became part of a publically traded portfolio requiring full Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.➣Supported IT systems supporting an employee base that doubled from 900 to 1,800 employees. SARBANES-OXLEY (SOX) AND PCI COMPLIANCE: ➣Achieved full Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance within an aggressive, 1-year window➣Drove new level of PCI compliance for Cloud Migration projectAGILE TRANSFORMATION: ➣Worked closely with teams as they transitioned from Waterfall to Agile to ensure adequate security and compliance checks included in the CI/CD process.➣Educated various audit teams on the implementation of the Agile process and worked to bridge the gap between expectations and existing legacy audit procedures and current environment.

Monument, Co, Us

Known for my ability to ramp and execute quickly, I was recruited by the COO to build the company’s inaugural security program.Within 1 year of joining, I was promoted to Vice President of Information Technology Systems for a privately owned investment solutions partner with $100M AUM. Reporting directly to the COO, my role quickly expanded to unify and stabilize efforts of the IT organization, holding executive responsibility for IT Engineering, Administration, Customer Support, and Information Security.As VP, I led a team of 19 direct and indirect reports. Key areas of impact included: RIGOR IN BUDGET OPTIMIZATION: ➣ Resourcefully optimized a $2.6M operating IT budget during a period of hyper-growth. ➣ Reduced IT reoccurring costs by >30% by initiating contract restructuring. ➣ Decreased total IT fixed asset footprint by 42% through realignment, consolidation, and virtualization adoption. SLA IMPROVEMENT:➣ Reduced average Initial Incident response time from 2 hours to < 10 minutes. STRONG TEAM ENGAGEMENT: ➣ Consistently achieved the highest employee engagement score in the company, averaging 89%.

Reston, Va, Us

While at SAIC, a defense contractor, I held progressive roles, and in 2005, was officially promoted to lead a team of 9 Information Assurance Analysts in identifying and addressing risks associated with software and hardware systems, while ensuring the safety of both customer information and internal employees to protect SAIC’s digital assets from unauthorized access. Key areas of impact include:STRONG TEAM MANAGEMENT SKILLS:Functioned in a management-level capacity (2003 – 2007), providing team management and leadership needed to drive initiatives to closure, while overseeing all aspects of recruitment, performance management, and training. It was during this time that I realized how much I enjoyed building, developing, and leading teams, and from there continued on the management and leadership track. SARBANES-OXELY (SOX) COMPLIANCE & AUDIT READINESS:➣Ensured Sarbanes-Oxley compliance following IPO in 2006➣Improved audit readiness as IT Team Lead for a SAS 70 Type II project. SECURITY COMPLIANCE LEAD FOR M&A: ➣Functioned as IT Security Compliance Lead for mergers and acquisitions.➣Reduced daily monitoring labor hours by 40+% in an environment that grew from 50 to 400+ servers in 1 year.