Open to roles in Japan, Texas/USA, or Remote

Corley Efurd

IT Solutions Architect

Bridging deep technical mastery with strategic vision to transform global IT ecosystems

MetLife InsuranceCisco Systems JapanDallas Automated Systems, Inc. (DASi)20+ Years
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Experience

Each role includes queryable AI context — the real story behind the bullet points.

MetLife Insurance

IT Solutions Architect / Manager

May 2023 – Present
  • →Designed and implemented DevOps automation platform for Network Engineering team
  • →Directed cross-vendor service coordination between local and U.S. teams
  • →Led integration of Netbeez monitoring for proactive incident response
  • →Closed multiple high-severity CVEs and resolved open audit findings
  • →Automated R&S device backups with Python, reducing manual workload

Independent Projects

Technical Focus & AI Automation

2024 – Present
  • →Architected Sentinel, the first AI Firewall (AIF) purpose-built for LLMs — a proxy-based security layer with 5-layer adaptive response and real-time line-rate traffic analysis, protecting AI systems from prompt injection and adversarial attacks
  • →Scaled Sentinel to support 4 major LLM providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, xAI/Grok) with Stripe-based subscription billing and enterprise tenant provisioning
  • →Published claude-hookscanner, an open-source security tool detecting supply-chain attacks hidden in AI coding-agent configurations
  • →Built SlopScan, an AI-driven scanner that catches hallucinated and typosquatted package names before they reach production
  • →Designed and operate a multi-server production security fleet with automated intrusion detection, audit logging, and daily security monitoring
  • →Built full-stack AI automation workflows (n8n, Supabase, Python) and React/Vite/TailwindCSS front-ends, containerized and deployed via Docker/Portainer
  • →Created AI-driven agents for social media and data enrichment, plus IoT integrations and intelligent task-orchestration systems

Cisco Systems Japan

Senior Engineer / Team Lead – Customer Zero Datacenter

Sep 2013 – May 2023
  • →Technical lead for Cisco's global Customer Zero initiative - testing alpha technologies before release
  • →Architected Cisco's first hybrid ACI Multi-Cloud Fabric (AWS, GCP, on-prem HyperFlex)
  • →Drove security architecture for next-gen environments, earning full InfoSec approval
  • →Built CI/CD pipelines with GitLab, Jenkins, Ansible with security reviews and rollback
  • →Built the team's custom bots, automation scripts and monitoring tooling in Ruby, including Ruby classes wrapping the APIs they talked to; the monitoring tools watched all of Customer Zero's hosting and networking infrastructure and posted findings to the team's Cachet dashboard for engineer triage
  • →Helped set up (including the CI runners) and maintain, and daily used, the team's self-hosted GitLab instance, which held all of Customer Zero's code, network configs and host configs
  • →Hands-on VMware administration: linked vCenters, set up and updated ESXi hosts, and configured standard virtual switches
  • →Led red and blue team exercises simulating advanced persistent threats

Cisco Systems Japan

Project Manager – Datacenter as a Service (DCaaS)

Jun 2012 – Sep 2013
  • →Spearheaded DCaaS initiatives across APAC for rapid virtual environment deployment
  • →Defined datacenter compliance and governance standards for Asia-Pacific
  • →Led Business Resumption and Continuity Plans for Japan and Korea
  • →Delivered 'Cisco on Cisco' technical briefings for partners and clients

Cisco Systems Japan

Global Systems Administrator

Jun 2005 – Jun 2012
  • →Secured and maintained global Unix, Linux, and Mac infrastructure
  • →Developed internal tools for automated infrastructure scanning and compliance
  • →Deployed Cisco UCS servers, Nexus switches, and multi-vendor storage (EMC, NetApp)
  • →Engineered Cisco's first outbound 'Vavoom' VPN infrastructure

Dallas Automated Systems, Inc. (DASi)

Founder / Lead Automation Engineer

Feb 1996 – Jan 2004
  • →Founded engineering firm delivering factory automation systems
  • →Clients included Dr. Pepper, Frito-Lay, and Outback Steakhouse
  • →Designed industrial automation using Allen Bradley, Sixnet, Siemens
  • →Custom software integration in C/C++ and Ladder Logic

Certifications

Active credentials and certifications in progress.

Palo Alto PCNSA

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)

TryHackMe Pentesting Professional

TryHackMe Pentesting Junior

TryHackMe AI Security

Cisco Security Ninja (Internal)

OSCP (targeting Q3 2026)

In Progress

Skills

Honest assessment of my skills — including where I'm still learning.

Strong

  • Network Architecture (Cisco ACI, Nexus, Catalyst)
  • Cybersecurity & Penetration Testing
  • n8n Workflow Automation
  • Python Scripting & Automation
  • Ruby Programming (bots, automation, monitoring tooling, API client classes)
  • Cloud Infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure)
  • Linux/Unix Administration
  • Security Architecture & Compliance
  • AI/LLM Integration
  • Docker & Container Orchestration
  • IoT & Task Orchestration

Moderate

  • React/Tailwind Front-end Development
  • Industrial Automation (Allen Bradley, Siemens)
  • DevOps & CI/CD Pipelines (comfortable architecting pipelines; less confident with git branching workflows)
  • Virtualization (VMware vCenter/ESXi, standard virtual switches: hands-on administration)
  • SIEM & Log Analytics (Splunk, used at both Cisco and MetLife; Elastic)

Gaps (I'll Tell You)

  • Kubernetes (learning)
  • Terraform (in progress)
  • Mobile Development
  • Data Science / ML Engineering

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