John Adams

Security Research & Systems Engineering

Security-focused professional with over 10 years of experience in Identity Access Management, incident response, and production support. Most recently at Ernst & Young managing credential lifecycle and access controls.

Open to opportunities Mercer Island, WA CompTIA Security+ ISC2 CC

Professional background

Jul 2023 — Apr 2025

Information Technology Analyst

Ernst & Young · Seattle, WA
  • Managed credential lifecycle for the federal government, ensuring compliance and developing standard operating procedures.
  • Conducted internal credential audits and managed cases for critical infrastructure and hardware asset management.
  • Spearheaded problem resolution for a major system migration (MyID), administering access controls and Active Directory.
IAMActive DirectoryCompliance
Jun 2021 — Dec 2022

Support Engineer II

SkuVault · Remote
  • Maintained client API integrations for an Inventory Management System.
  • Reduced inbound client request volume by 20% by building self-service HTML/CSS templates.
  • Analyzed client data within Azure pipelines, communicating findings to development and implementation teams.
Elastic StackAzureHTML/CSS
Apr 2017 — Apr 2021

Help Desk Analyst II

Citi · Jacksonville, FL
  • Provided production support for financial infrastructure, resolving bugs and managing enhancement requests.
  • Analyzed large transaction data sets and server configurations for the global data repository.
  • Collaborated with development teams to eliminate 80% of production issues after product launch.
Incident ResponseData AnalysisSDLC
Apr 2015 — Apr 2017

Tier II Support

Apple · Jacksonville, FL
  • Provided escalation support and mentorship to Tier 1 technical teams.
  • Maintained a 90% technical resolution rate on tickets, ensuring high-quality support.
  • Supported major Apple product launch events for new software & hardware.
EscalationMentorshipmacOS/iOS

Selected work

Penetration Testing

Actively working through Hack The Box and similar CTF platforms to sharpen penetration testing and exploitation skills. Building toward the OSCP certification.

Hack The BoxCTFOSCPPenetration Testing

Homelab Security Network

Multi-device home network with centralized SIEM logging, Pi-hole DNS filtering, segmented VLANs, and a dedicated Kali Linux node for security testing.

SIEMPi-holeKaliNetwork Segmentation

AI/ML Workstation

Fedora workstation with AMD RX 9070 XT and ROCm for local AI inference. Hosts quantized models via Ollama for security research.

ROCmLinuxOllamaAMD GPU

Tools & technologies

Languages

PythonJava Bash ScriptingSQL C / C++ / C# Go

Software & Tools

Linux — Ubuntu, Fedora, KaliNmap / Wireshark Metasploit / Burp SuiteDocker TCP/IP NetworkingActive Directory

Security Engineering

Penetration TestingVulnerability Assessment Identity Access ManagementBug Bounties Malware AnalysisReverse Engineering
Certifications
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Security+
ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity
Education
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Oregon State University
Associate in Arts & Science, Computer Science
Bellevue College
High School Diploma
Yulee High School

Let's connect

Open to internships and entry-level roles in security engineering and systems development. Based in Lynnwood, WA — available remotely.