Let’s dig in.

I’m originally from Fort Myers, Florida. Like many in my generation, the post-9/11 world shaped my sense of purpose early. In 2005, I enlisted in the U.S. Army as an infantryman, driven by a desire to serve and protect.

After my service, I entered the world of information technology through hands-on field work with a major ISP, supporting network infrastructure across Southwest Florida. It was during this time that I met the woman who would later become my wife. We eventually moved to Orlando, where I began building a new kind of career—this time on the operations side of enterprise technology. I found early success working in the NOC of one of the largest ISPs in the country, quickly moving up to a team lead position. That momentum continued when I was promoted to Systems Engineer for Core Operations, a role that required relocating my family to Colorado and marked a significant step forward in both technical depth and leadership.

While balancing full-time work and raising a young family, I completed both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance. From there, I transitioned into the public sector as a Network Security Engineer for the Colorado Judicial Branch, where I focused on protecting sensitive networks. Later, I joined Amazon Web Services as a Cloud Support Engineer, working directly with global enterprise clients to secure and optimize their cloud environments. While AWS provided one of the most challenging and rewarding opportunities of my career, evolving internal policies and shifting business priorities eventually diverged from my own professional and personal principles, which remain unchanged.

It was a turning point that reaffirmed the kind of work and impact which I’m committed to pursuing.

Today, I serve in Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure, leveraging a deep foundation in network operations, cloud architecture, and security engineering to protect systems at scale and lead effective response efforts. I hold certifications including Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Cisco CCNA Security, CompTIA Security+, Network+, Linux+, and Project+, and I’m an active/certified member of the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC²) chasing my goal of CISSP by 2026.

This work isn’t just a career—it’s a commitment. Every environment I support, every system I harden, and every incident I lead through resolution is part of a broader mission: to bring clarity, integrity, and resilience to the organizations that rely on it.

print("Shawn L. Donahue")