Anthony Nowak

Background

About Anthony Nowak

I’m a security engineering leader and hands-on practitioner with 15+ years of experience building, rebuilding, and scaling vulnerability management and exposure programs across enterprise and early-stage environments. My focus has always been on reducing real risk, not just generating findings—by improving detection quality, validation, prioritization, and the systems that move vulnerabilities from discovery to remediation.I’ve spent much of my career designing risk-based vulnerability workflows that correlate CVEs, CVSS, exploit intelligence, vendor advisories, and compensating controls to assess true business impact. Along the way, I’ve worked extensively with platforms like Qualys, Nessus, Prisma Cloud, Tanium, Illumio, and Splunk, and I’ve built automation and tooling using Python, Bash, REST APIs, and Docker to scale security operations and eliminate manual bottlenecks.I’m comfortable operating as both an individual contributor and a technical leader—owning complex problems end to end, mentoring engineers, and partnering closely with product, infrastructure, and compliance teams. I’ve led vulnerability program rebuilds, supported SOC 1, SOC 2, and PCI efforts, and served as the sole internal security owner in fast-moving environments where pragmatism and judgment mattered as much as technical depth.Outside of work, I’ve volunteered as a firefighter for over a decade, which has reinforced how I approach security: stay calm under pressure, make informed decisions with incomplete information, and always prioritize outcomes over noise. I’m drawn to teams and organizations that value ownership, engineering excellence, and thoughtful risk management.