About Me

I am a cybersecurity leader and trusted advisor with over 16 years of experience across technical account management, product management, technical marketing, enterprise architecture and hands-on delivery in both pre-sales and post-sales roles.

My focus areas include network modernization, secure AI transformation, cloud security, and building resilient large-scale architectures that balance innovation, risk management, and operational excellence. I am passionate about continuous learning, both in my primary domain and across various industry sectors, to enable cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and have completed Executive General Management Programs from reputed institutions. I have also earned several industry-standard certifications in Cybersecurity & Networking (2× CCIE), Cloud Architecture, AI and Product Management, among others.

Experience

Technical Account Manager — Fortinet

Apr 2021 – Present | Toronto, Canada

  • Primary point of contact and trusted advisor for large enterprise customers on network modernization, secure AI transformation and cloud security.
  • Deliver deep technical expertise on Fortinet Security Fabric, NGFW, Secure SD-WAN, FortiSASE, ZTNA, CNAPP and related platforms.
  • Lead executive briefings, AI-powered SOC initiatives and advanced root-cause analysis for critical incidents.
  • Design modernization roadmaps and hardening plans that balance security, operations and business outcomes.

Technical Solutions Specialist — Enterprise Networking & Security, Cisco

Sep 2019 – Apr 2021 | Toronto, Canada

  • Served as subject-matter expert for Cisco SD-WAN, security, SD-Access, wireless, Meraki and IoT solutions.
  • Helped customers design, migrate and adopt networking and security architectures through PoCs and technical workshops.
  • Partnered with account and engineering teams to prioritize customer requirements and feature asks.
  • Delivered presentations and trainings for customer teams and major events such as Cisco Live.

Technical Marketing Engineer — Product Management, Cisco

Oct 2017 – Sep 2019

  • Owned SD-WAN, SD-WAN security and crypto security solutions (FlexVPN, DMVPN, GETVPN, PKI, Snort IPS, Umbrella, AMP and more) for the Enterprise Routing portfolio.
  • Defined product requirements and roadmaps by working with customers, market research and engineering teams.
  • Authored design guides, solution guides and migration collateral used by global sales and customers.
  • Delivered deep-dive trainings and roadshows for large customers and conferences including Cisco Live and SecCon.

Subject Matter Expert / Global Escalations / Team Lead — Cisco Systems

Aug 2012 – Oct 2017

  • Global SME for VPN technologies on IOS/IOS-XE platforms (iWAN, GETVPN, DMVPN, FlexVPN, SSL, PKI).
  • Led a team of ~30 engineers handling global escalations and Cisco CAPs for major service provider and enterprise customers.
  • Drove mentoring, training programs, serviceability projects and automation initiatives for troubleshooting.
  • Presented at Cisco Live and internal events; authored extensive internal technical content and filed 100+ high-quality software bugs.

Technical Services Engineer — Cisco Systems

Jul 2009 – Aug 2012 | Bengaluru, India

  • Worked as a Technical Services Engineer specializing in security across LAN/WAN, routing, switching, firewalls, VPN, AAA and identity management.
  • Handled high-impact escalations, recreated complex issues in lab and filed software defects across Cisco security products.
  • Developed strong troubleshooting skills using packet capture, vulnerability assessment and performance testing tools.
  • Authored deployment and troubleshooting articles for the Cisco Support Community.

Education

  • Executive General Management (1 year Executive MBA), Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2018–2019).
    Focus areas: Corporate Strategy and Marketing. GPA 3.6/4.
    Highlights:
    • Marketing strategy for Integrated Township Model of Homes in Bangalore, including STP, market survey, 4Ps, 7Cs and SWOT analysis.
    • Cisco Systems Corporate Strategy — structural analysis, industry attractiveness, Porter's five forces, relative strengths, success factors, SWOT and competitive landscape.
    • Mission Bhagiratha business analytics project analyzing the effectiveness of moving from groundwater to surface water using descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing and regression analysis.
    • Data privacy and misuse in cloud-based services — article on available legal provisions across jurisdictions and what is needed as digitization expands.
    • Revenue recognition and accounting for R&D costs in the financial accounting of Cisco Systems.
    • UPS delivery route optimization using resource optimization: developing data models to simplify manual planning and replace planning tasks with optimization algorithms.
  • PES University — Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, with Distinction (from PESIT, Bangalore) (2005–2009).
    Grade: Distinction in all 8 semesters.
    Highlights:
    • Highlights to be added.
  • MES Main, Malleshwaram — Pre-University Courses (PUC), Science (2003–2005).
    Grade: 97.33% — PCMB core subjects.
    Highlights:
    • Highlights to be added.
  • R.N.S Vidyaniketan — High School, Science (2000–2003).
    Grade: 90.72% (10th Standard), Rank 1 for the school; awarded Best Student.
    Highlights:
    • Highlights to be added.

Core skills

  • Cybersecurity — Security solutions (Cisco, Fortinet — NGFW, SF, IPS), VPN solutions (IKEv2/IPSec, SSL, ADVPN, SASE, GETVPN, DMVPN, FlexVPN), AAA (ACS, ISE, Posture, TrustSec), Application Security.
  • Routing and Switching — Layer 2/3 technologies, IS-IS, OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, MPLS, large-scale enterprise deployments.
  • Cloud security — Cloud firewalls, CNAPP, CASB & cloud platforms (Azure, AWS and GCP).
  • AI Security — GenAI & Agentic AI security, OWASP Top 10 for Agentic AI Security, MAESTRO threat modeling, AI security controls & governance.
  • Escalations and customer handling — 16+ years of professional experience.
  • Leadership — Leading and mentoring teams, stakeholder management, executive communication.
  • Presenter — Cisco Live presentations, partner trainings, inter-BU trainings, technical deep dives, customer C-level presentations.
  • Organizer — External and internal events to create awareness on processes, cybersecurity updates, and related topics.
  • Programming — Python, C, APIs, agentic AI, HTML/CSS, JS (this website built & maintained by me).
  • AI Engineering — Model training (TensorFlow, PyTorch basics), RAG, agentic frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, etc.), monitoring (agent tracing), guardrails.

Certifications

Selected professional, cloud, security and AI certifications.

  • AI programming with Copilot in VS Code — Udemy (Issued Feb 2026).
    Skills: VS Code; GitHub Copilot; Claude; Python; Agentic AI architectures; LangGraph.
  • AI for Leaders — Skills & Strategies — Udemy (Issued Jan 2026).
    Skills: GenAI case studies; AI leadership; AI for learning and upskilling; AI for business.
  • Agentic AI — Risk and Cybersecurity Masterclass 2026 — Udemy (Issued Jan 2026).
    Skills: Agentic AI security framework; threat modeling; risk management for agentic AI; agentic AI architectures; Model Context Protocol (MCP).
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Amazon Web Services (AWS) (Issued Sep 2025).
    Skills: Cloud computing; cloud security; cloud applications; Amazon Web Services (AWS); Amazon S3; AWS Lambda; AWS IAM; AWS SageMaker.
  • Practical Multi AI Agents and Advanced Use Cases with crewAI — DeepLearning.AI (Issued Jan 2025).
    Skills: Artificial intelligence (AI); AI implementation; AI in security.
  • Artificial Intelligence A-Z 2024: Build 7 AI + LLM & ChatGPT — Udemy (Issued May 2024).
    Skills: Artificial neural networks; large language models (LLM); AI implementation; DQN.
  • Fortinet Certified Solution Specialist Network Security — Fortinet (Issued Feb 2024).
    Skills: SD-WAN architect.
  • Fortinet Certified Professional Network Security — Fortinet (Issued Jul 2023).
    Skills: Enterprise firewall.
  • Cisco Certified Design Expert Specialist — Cisco (Issued Jan 2023).
    Skills: Network design; security architecture design.
  • Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK v4) — Cloud Security Alliance (Issued Jul 2021).
    Skills: Cloud security.
  • Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 7: Certified Architect — Fortinet (Issued Jul 2021).
  • Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 5: Certified Analyst — Fortinet (Issued Jun 2021).
  • Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 4: Certified Professional — Fortinet (Issued May 2021).
  • Fortinet Network Security Expert Level 1–3: Associate — Fortinet (Issued Apr 2021).
  • Cisco Certified DevNet Associate — Cisco (Issued Jul 2020).
  • MCNA — Multi Cloud Networking Associate — Aviatrix (Issued Jun 2020).
  • CMNA — Certified Meraki Network Associate — Cisco Meraki (Issued Nov 2019).
  • Capstone — Business Simulation Certification — Capsim Management Simulations, Inc. (Issued Mar 2019).
  • Python Programming, Advanced — Radical Technologies Bangalore.
  • Cisco Certified Design Professional — CCDP — Cisco (Issued Jan 2016).
  • Cisco Certified Design Associate — CCDA — Cisco (Issued Jan 2015).
  • Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert — CCIE R&S (Enterprise) — Cisco (Issued Jan 2015).
  • Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert — CCIE Security — Cisco (Issued Jan 2011).
  • Cisco Certified Security Professional — CCNP Security — Cisco (Issued Jan 2010).
  • Cisco Certified Network Associate — CCNA Security — Cisco (Issued Aug 2009).

Awards & Recognition

  • Top contributor for Fortinet Technical Expertise in KCS — Fortinet (Jun 2024).
    Top contributor of the department for technical content with deep dives on complex topics, with the most cumulative reach and views across two consecutive quarters.
  • TSA of the Quarter and Architectural Leadership — Q4FY20 — Cisco (Aug 2020).
    Awarded for best performance among teams across five different architectures (100+ engineers) in the Enterprise Networking business.
  • Q2 Top Performer — Cisco (Mar 2020).
    Top performer for the Enterprise Networking team (30+ engineers) for Q2FY20.
  • Top presenter in APJC Cisco SEVT — Cisco (Aug 2019).
    Recognized for SD-WAN Security sessions during annual global Cisco SEVTs, selected from 30+ speakers and presented to an audience of 500+ Cisco employees.
  • Peer Recognition awards (Quarterly) — Cisco Systems (2013).
    Multiple peer-nominated quarterly awards for outstanding technical support and collaboration.
  • CLEAD Award (Collaborate, Learn, Execute, Accelerate, Disrupt) — Cisco Systems (2011).
    Recognition for embodying Cisco CLEAD values through cross-functional collaboration, learning initiatives and delivery excellence.
  • Best Student award and Top Scorer — 10th Standard — R.N.S Vidyaniketan (2003).
    School-wide recognition for highest academic performance in the graduating batch.
  • 40+ appreciation and peer recognition awards — Cisco Systems.
    Combination of SPARKS, appreciation, SUMO and peer recognition awards over the years for customer impact, mentoring and internal initiatives.
  • Distinction awards in all eight semesters of Bachelor's program — PESIT / PES University, VTU (2006–2009).
    Formal recognition for securing distinction in every semester of the Computer Science engineering program.

Recommendations

For recommendations for Rudresh from industry leaders, managers and colleagues, please see the detailed list on LinkedIn .

Hobbies & Interests

Youth Hostel Association of India

Group Leader, Lifetime Member — Jun 2016 – Present

Group leader for a total of 52 members on a 10 day trekking expedition in the Himalayas at Chanderkhani Pass conducted by YHAI.

http://www.yhaindia.org/national-level-program.php

iCycle.in

Mentor Cyclist — Jun 2012 – Jun 2015

  • Cycled over 2500+ kms in and around Western Ghats with iCycle.in.
  • Lead cyclist for two GMC events (http://greatmalnadchallenge.in/) with an average of 800 kms on each occasion.

Volunteering

School Adoption Program, Cisco Systems

Leader, Program Management — 2009 – 2013

Social Services

Led program planning and coordination for a school adoption initiative, aligning volunteers, logistics and timelines to support student outcomes and community engagement.

Toronto Public Library

Volunteer — Jun 2020 – Present · 5 yrs 10 mos

Education

Supporting library programs and day-to-day community services by helping visitors discover resources, navigate learning programs and access digital tools.

Canada Learning Code

Volunteer Mentor — May 2021 – Present · 4 yrs 11 mos

Science and Technology

Mentoring learners through beginner-friendly coding and technology sessions, helping participants build confidence with core concepts and practical projects.

Latest updates

This section highlights notable updates from across the site. As you expand the content in individual sections (publications, projects, AI engineering, etc.), you can promote key items here.