Darren Ford

Management of a team of network engineers across 300+ clients in managed and technical services.

Technical services management

• Management of technical services team (senior engineering team).
• Training and development of TS team in alignment with business strategic partners.
• KPI defining and performance tracking.
• Problem management & SLA management.
• Client management.
• Issue and escalation management.
• Vendor management and engagements.
• Financial tracking of projects and ad-hoc work.
• Project planning and scoping with pre-sales and architects.
• Registration and scheduling of implementations and delivery of projects.
• SIEM & SOAR and use case implementation tracking.
• Planning and on-boarding of clients onto NTT Managed security services.

• Management of Technical services engineers.
  
• Management of Project managers.
• Complete management of projects from registration to completion.
• Project management in alignment with PMP\PMO governance.

• Training and development of TS team in alignment with business strategic partners.

• KPI defining and performance tracking.

• Problem management & SLA management.

• Client management.

• Issue and escalation management.

Head of Services for Security in Gauteng South Africa

• Management of managed and technical services engineering teams.
  
• Client management.
  
• Issue and escalation management.
• Recruitment and talent sourcing.
  
• Presentation of findings and actions specific to EMEA region on Global threat report findings.
• Planning and on-boarding of clients onto NTT Managed security services (Managed SIEM, Managed endpoint, Threat intelligence, Advanced analytics, Global Threat Intelligence platform).
• Integration and on-boarding to NTT SOC (Security operation centre).
• Analysis of monthly GTIC reports (Latest attack vectors, APT's, threat campaigns and vulnerabilities).

Services Manager for Dimension Data Security Gauteng region(endpoint security, perimeter security, and information security management).

• Problem management, SLA and escalation management.
• Recruitment and talent sourcing.
• Interface between team and business unit.
• Creation of standards, standard operating procedures and service desk processes.
• Management of interns (Knowledge transfer, mentoring and skill development).
• General responsibilities: Managed the services team (38 engineers, infosec managers & project managers).
• Management of vendor and 3rd party relationships (Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, Cylance, Crowdstrike, Carbon Black, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Sailpoint, Checkpoint, Fireeye & Cisco).
• Collaboration with NTT Security to align to "go to market".
• Quarterly business reviews for each technology partner.

Team management of overall security services

• Management of operations of "managed service"  vulnerability management team.

• Management of operations of "managed services" information security management team.

• Management of operations of "managed services / technical services" network security team.
  
• Management of operations of "managed services / technical services" endpoint security team.
• Management of remote onsite teams (client site).
  
• Team management, delegation of workload, skill development and coaching.
  

• Recruitment and talent sourcing.

• Interface between team and business unit.

• Problem management, SLA and escalation management.

General responsibilities:  Ensure alignment between all teams, collaboration between all teams to ensure vulnerabilities were addressed and roadmap of remediation for the month was drafted.

Management of vendor and 3rd party relationships (Symantec, McAfee, Microsoft, Cylance)

Reporting of team activities, utilization and profitability to business.

Integration and on boarding to NTT SOC (Security operation centre)

Capacity and availability management across all teams.

• Full management of endpoint security (end to end)
• Team management in accordance with SLA and banking requirements and bench-marking.
  

General responsibilities: Approached and recruited by Dimension Data specifically due to operating in the same capacity previously for Standard bank.

Management of a team of 8 security engineers for the financial institution.

Integration with threat hunter team to ensure coverage and remediation of new found threats.

Integration with vulnerability management team to formulate plans of action and prioritize remediation of vulnerabilities and risks. (According to CVSS metrics).

The role included owning accountability and ownership of major incidents (Outbreaks and critical business downtime) including communication to senior business stakeholders and executive committee.

Presentation and reporting of monthly risk findings, challenges and plan to mitigate.

Endpoint security consultant for several DRS clients...

• Nedbank, Momentum life
• Landrover experience
• Metropolitan life
• Standard Bank
• Nedbank
• UCS

General responsibilities: Consulting and auditing of client endpoint security across entire technology stack against best practice.

Identifying risks and  providing solutions for mitigating gaps. 

Managing incident response on breaches and outbreaks.

Overseeing junior team and interns (Knowledge transfer, mentoring and skill development)

• Team management, delegation of workload.

• Recruitment and talent sourcing.

• Level 3 support of McAfee products.
• Problem management, SLA and escalation management.
• Interface between team and business unit.

General responsibilities: Management of a team of 7 security engineers for the financial institution.

This included defining roles and responsibilities, SLA negotiations and collaboration of team with the banks internal teams (AD, SCCM etc.)

The role included owning accountability and ownership of major incidents (Outbreaks and critical business downtime) including communication to senior business stakeholders and executive committee.

Collaboration between threat hunting and vulnerability management to address risk.

Caretower Ltd (UK)

One of the largest resellers of McAfee and other security products in Europe

I was involved with the support of several security products with the primary focus being McAfee, but also included Safeend, Utimaco and Kaspersky)

General responsibilities: Operated in a team of 4 consultants offering remote and onsite senior technical support for all endpoint security products. (ePO, antivirus , DLP, Encryption, device control)

• Managing the LAN administration team
• Testing of new technology and software
• Implementation of new devices and software
• Server and server environment maintenance
• Delegation of workload
• Escalations and SLA management

General responsibilities: Management of team of 6 who did full I.T support across the Nedbank infrastructure.

IT Strategy and business management (SLA, OLA) and vendor management.

Personal development planning, mentoring and up-skill of diverse team of various skill levels. (Technology training, soft skill training, diversity workshops and  KPI alignment)

LAN administration for the Nedbank sites and branches which covered support on all I.T related products, software applications including in house development and desktop support

• All Microsoft OS's
• All Microsoft Office Suite's
• SQL, Oracle and DB2 support
• Linux support
  
• Banking applications
• All devices including mobile and printer support
• Network and server support (Novell)
  
• Corporate VIP support
• In-branch support including ATM's
• Endpoint security support (McAfee ePO and 3rd party tools)
  

General responsibilities:  Worked in a team of 5 who performed all I.T support for all in-house and 3rd party applications as well as all infrastructure support.

Career kickoff with Dimension Data as an I.T consultant, attending to networking, backup & desktop support for clients including...

• Liberty Life, Trust Bank
• ABSA Bank, B.O.E
• Mutual and Federal
• Quest Solutions
• Blue Turtle

General responsibilities: Desktop support, printer support, network implementations, backup support, server configuration and support & remediation of malware infected devices.