Cloud & Network Security
- SASE
- ZTNA
- FWaaS
- Secure Web Gateway
- DNS Security
- IPS
- RAVPN
- VPN — IPSec / SSL
- TLS
- Traffic analysis
Field Dossier — Cloud Security
Chris Baker
Cloud & network security engineer.
- Location
- Vancouver, BC
- Focus
- SASE escalation & diagnostics
- Tenure
- 14+ yrs — Cisco, Sophos
- Status
- Open to opportunities
01
Profile
Cloud and network security engineer with 14+ years at Cisco and Sophos, specializing in high-severity escalation engineering across SASE platforms and in building the tooling and knowledge infrastructure that accelerates resolution at scale.
I specialize in diagnosing high-severity issues across SASE platforms — ZTNA, FWaaS, secure web gateway, DNS security, IPS, and RAVPN — and in bridging engineering and support to drive root cause to resolution. Beyond escalations, I build the infrastructure that makes the team faster: a cloud lab for reproducing customer environments, diagnostic tooling in Bash, Python, and JavaScript, a Webex automation bot (Python async, Docker, EC2) for case routing and severity alerting, internal documentation, and mentoring and training programs.
I use AI-assisted development workflows (Claude Code, Anthropic API) routinely. Recent focus is designing agentic AI tools — Claude Code Skills, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and AWS Bedrock — that integrate with internal systems to accelerate engineering workflows. The latest, now in active use by my team at Cisco, drives end-to-end triage on high-severity escalations.
What motivates me is the full loop — taking a difficult technical problem to a deeper understanding of the product, then scaling that understanding across teams through documentation, labs, and hands-on teaching.
02
Capabilities
Agentic AI & Skills
- Claude Code Skills
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Agentic workflows
- Planner–executor patterns
- Human-in-the-loop
- Tool calling
- Prompt engineering
AI Tooling & Platforms
- Claude Code (primary)
- GitHub Copilot
- Anthropic API
- AWS Bedrock
Cisco Products
- Cisco Secure Access
- Cisco Umbrella
- Cisco ASA
- Meraki MX
Firewalls & Gateways
- pfSense
- Sophos UTM
- Cisco ASA
- Sophos Web Appliance
- Sophos Email Appliance
Identity & Access
- SAML
- SSO
- Active Directory
- LDAP
- IdP integration — Okta / Microsoft Entra ID
Logging, Detection & SIEM
- Splunk
- Grafana
- DataDog
- Fail2Ban
- Snort / IPS event triage
- Log analysis
- Packet capture — Wireshark / tcpdump
Scripting & Automation
- Bash
- Python
- PHP
- JavaScript
- Expect
Operating Systems
- Linux — Alpine / RHEL / Ubuntu / Debian
- FreeBSD
- Windows Server
- macOS
Cloud & Virtualization
- Azure
- AWS
- VMware
- Docker
Networking
- TCP/IP
- DNS — BIND / MS DNS / Unbound / DNSCrypt
- Routing & switching
Web & Mail Infrastructure
- NGINX
- HAProxy
- Postfix
- MS Exchange
Practice
- Technical documentation
- Training & mentorship
- Technical interviewing
- Escalation management
- Incident response
03
Experience
May 2023 — Present
Software Engineer — Cloud Security
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Own high-severity technical escalations for Cisco Secure Access — driving root-cause analysis and cross-functional resolution across ZTNA, FWaaS, web filtering, IPS, RAVPN, and DNS security.
- Designed and shipped an internal agentic AI tool on Claude Code + AWS Bedrock — uses Model Context Protocol (MCP) for live integration with Jira and Cisco's case-management system, evaluates pre-escalation diagnostic checklists, and generates customer-facing TAC resolutions or dev-facing Jira tickets to accelerate high-severity escalation triage across the team.
- Built and operate a cloud-based lab environment used by support and engineering to reproduce customer issues in isolated conditions, reducing time-to-diagnosis on the most technically complex cases.
- Built and deployed a Webex automation bot (Python async, Docker, EC2) for the escalation team: monitors the live case feed via outbound WebSocket, relays new cases with severity banners, routes SEV 1 @all and SEV 2 @manager alerts, and tracks case ownership via emoji reactions — operating with zero open ports via outbound-only WebSocket connection.
- Authored diagnostic and automation tooling adopted across the team — DNS resolver diagnostics (EDNS packet decoding, name-server chain consistency testing, in-rotation resolver mapping), a comprehensive Virtual Appliance toolkit (DNS testing across all ports and protocols, ephemeral port profiling, query volume analysis), Active Directory Connector event parsing, Teleport infrastructure access automation, and Cisco case-management browser automation (Tampermonkey).
- Build lab reproductions of customer SAML/SSO and identity-provider integrations (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, ADFS) to isolate authentication flow failures and validate fixes before delivery.
- Author internal technical documentation on advanced product behavior, lab procedures, and testing methodology — used as the primary reference by both engineering and support teams.
- Conduct technical interviews, onboard new hires, mentor existing staff, and run knowledge-sharing sessions to raise team-wide capability across the Secure Access stack.
Dec 2021 — Apr 2023
Senior Technical Support Engineer — Cloud Security
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Subject matter expert on Cisco Umbrella escalations; resolved the most complex technical issues facing the support organization.
- Built customized test environments and diagnostic scripts that became standard tooling for staff training and issue reproduction.
- Partnered with Development on bug fixes and enhancements; delivered training and conducted technical interviews.
Dec 2016 — Dec 2021
Technical Support Engineer — Cloud Security
Cisco · Vancouver, BC
- Handled escalated cases across DNS security, secure web gateway, and proxy components.
- Created Umbrella test environments in VMware and Azure used company-wide for training and reproduction.
- Wrote support scripts and internal documentation; partnered with Development on bug fixes and product improvements.
Mar 2015 — Dec 2016
Senior Technical Support Engineer — Email Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Subject matter expert for Sophos Email Appliance and PureMessage Unix; handled cases escalated from Tier 2 teams worldwide.
- Worked directly with Development on bug fixes, enhancements, new-feature testing, and release planning.
- Authored internal and public-facing knowledge base documentation; trained and mentored Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers.
Jan 2014 — May 2015
Technical Support Engineer II & Technical Account Manager — Web & Email Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Provided tiered support (Tier 2 → Tier 3) for Sophos Web Appliance, Email Appliance, and PureMessage Unix/Exchange — appliance config, Unix/Linux back-ends, AD integration, DNS, and traffic flow.
- Served concurrently as Technical Account Manager for large enterprise customers — health checks, incident response during critical outages, and cross-team coordination.
Apr 2013 — Dec 2013
Technical Support Engineer — Web & Email Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Frontline technical support for Sophos Web Appliance, Email Appliance, and PureMessage Unix/Exchange. Promoted to Tier 2 and Technical Account Manager within 9 months.
Nov 2011 — Apr 2013
Technical Support Engineer — Endpoint Security
Sophos · Vancouver, BC
- Supported the enterprise Sophos endpoint suite — admin server components on Windows Server with MS SQL, and clients across Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix, NetWare, and NetApp.
- Created scripts and knowledge base articles to streamline support delivery.
04
Open Source
Active open-source contributor — network and DNS security tooling, home-automation platform integrations, and upstream library fixes, primarily in Python, PHP, and Shell.
Project details and repositories available on request.
05
Education & Certifications
Network Administration & Security Professional Program
BCIT — UBC Joint Program · 2011
Graduated with Distinction. Coursework in VMware virtualization, Active Directory, Postfix/Dovecot, pfSense, Cisco routing & switching, FreeBSD, and Windows Server — with strong standing in security theory and applied practice.
Certifications
- CompTIA Security+
- CompTIA Network+
- CompTIA Linux+
- Cisco CCNA