Ian Gilchrist — security architect, cyber security consultant and pre-sales engineer. Federal government, research and enterprise, from Canberra.
Delivered directly as independent consulting, or embedded in a client’s team as a contractor. Most engagements use all three.
Twenty years, and the artefacts that make a system accreditable — SSP, SRMP, SAP, SOP, CMP, POAM — written against the ISM, the PSPF and the Essential Eight. Governance, risk and compliance that a delivery team can actually work to, and designs that survive contact with an assessor.
CISSP. Five years on LogRhythm, then Splunk and Sentinel. Full Azure tenancy administration — Defender, threat and malware analysis, encryption. Identity and PKI from Passlogix through Venafi; IDS/IPS from TippingPoint and IBM ISS.
Sixteen years customer-facing for global vendors. RFI and RFP responses, live demonstrations, proofs of concept, workshops, and CxO-level briefings — translating a product into an answer to the customer’s actual problem.
I can go as deep as anyone in the room. I have never thought myself above any part of this work — support queues, deployments, cabling and technical education included — and the credibility in front of a customer comes from exactly that.
A trade in the Royal Australian Navy, sixteen years vendor-side, and the years since in Canberra as an architect across Australian government, research and regulation. The detail of each engagement lives on LinkedIn.
Security and solution architecture in classified and regulated environments, contracted and embedded.
| eSafety | Cyber Security team lead & mentor |
|---|---|
| RAAF | GRC support — bespoke app for DCIAB assessment to ATO |
| DFAT | Cyber Security Architect — core situational awareness cloud migration |
| CSIRO | Bespoke E8-compliant solution architecture supporting research and science initiatives |
| ACIC | NCIS — secure systems & data integration |
Regional pre-sales and solution consulting across ANZ and APAC for global security vendors.
| IBM | Lead security architect; ISS X-Force briefings |
|---|---|
| Oracle | Product line management, identity & SSO, APJ |
| Venafi | PKI and machine identity, APAC |
| LogRhythm | SIEM pre-sales and deployment, five years |
| Also | TippingPoint, 3Com, Carbon Black, Citrix, Passlogix |
Trade-qualified Radio Fitter/Mechanic, ACMA Radio callsign VK1HF. The hardware half: HF through microwave, microprocessor and embedded design, IoT and telemetry, Linux and Raspberry Pi, solar and battery power.
I thrive on mission-critical engineering and specialise in it — systems that have to keep working unattended, a long way from anyone who could reach out and restart them. That is a discipline, not a hobby, and it is the same one that makes the professional work above hold up.
Solar-powered remote station: radio, tuner, power management, SDR receivers, weather and telemetry — all remotely operated, monitored and documented.
ikara.vk1hf.com →A Flex 6700 on a ranch in Palo Pinto County, operated from an apartment seventy miles away in Fort Worth. Built with Ed, K5YZW.
alamo.k5yzw.com →The same work produces the Remote Station range — complete turn-key remote HF systems, engineered as one package, delivered on air and owned outright. See all projects and the RS1 range →
I joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1989, young, and it gave me the beginning of my professional life — a trade in radio and secure communications, and a standard for getting the fundamentals right that has never left me.
A warship states its readiness as a number and a letter. The number is the crew: three is relaxed, one is closed up and ready for whatever comes. The letter is watertight integrity — the doors and hatches that matter are marked X, Y or Z, and the letter says which of them are shut. Alongside you might be 3X. At sea, 2Y. At action or emergency stations, 1Z.
1 Zulu is 1Z. Ready for anything, and built so that when something does get through, the damage is contained instead of running the length of the ship. Which is as good a description of the job as I have found: you cannot promise nothing will ever happen, only that you were ready and that it stops where it started.
1 Zulu is intentionally a business of one — a professional identity for the work I do, not a firm I intend to grow.
Consulting enquiries, contract work, or a technical conversation.
ian@iangilchrist.netCISSP · CCNA · NNCI · Canberra ACT