Chidia Akwuiwu
Cambridge,Ontario
Summary
Security engineer with more than 11 years of information security experience across healthcare SaaS and oil and gas environments. Leads vulnerability management, SAST and DAST review, detection engineering, and incident response, and evaluates and integrates security tools to automate and scale controls. Builds Python-based automation for security operations and reporting, and communicates risk and metrics to leadership. CISSP certified.
Overview
1
1
Certification
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
year of post-secondary education
Work History
Senior Security Engineer
MealSuite
Cambridge, Ontario
06.2023 - Current
- Produced weekly DeepSource code security reports for five MealSuite repositories, assessing SAST and software composition analysis findings by severity, issue type, and remediation availability; September 2026 snapshot documented five repositories, nine dependency manifests, 18 code-security instances, and 752 dependency findings.
- Evaluated DAST and third-party penetration test results with engineering, organized remediation tracking with validated DAST coverage across mealsuite production applications for the 2026 penetration test, coordinated remediation tracking for core Touch POS and the IoT printer API with four high, two medium, and three low findings, focusing on POS API authentication and session handling findings.
- Executed vulnerability remediation workflows, emphasizing critical findings, and coordinated fixes with engineering teams.
- Monitored SIEM alerts and assessed SentinelOne, Microsoft 365 Defender, and Arctic Wolf MDR alerts across Windows, macOS, and Linux endpoints, investigating suspicious activity to improve incident response readiness.
- Compared SIEM platforms (Devo, Splunk Cloud, Exabeam, Securonix) and GRC platforms (A-SCEND, Hyperproof) using Gartner Magic Quadrant context and internal requirements to support build versus buy decisions, and completed CrowdStrike hands-on evaluation during a three-week trial as part of MDR vendor review that selected Arctic Wolf.
- Developed Python-based MCP tooling for SentinelOne and VirusTotal threat triage, consolidating Jira and Confluence reporting and automating weekly vulnerability report presentation to platform engineering and leadership with severity, affected assets, and recommended actions, reducing production time from 6 hours to 5 minutes
- Managed weekly security and compliance updates for leadership and staff, supporting SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA and HITECH readiness with evidence collection and bridge letters
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
Forte Oil PLC
07.2013 - 08.2021
- Triaged and resolved security alerts, incidents, and vendor advisories, aligning incident handling with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), and monitored and analyzed system and security logs using Splunk, working with infrastructure and application teams to remediate identified vulnerabilities.
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Agricultural Engineering
Federal University of Technology
Owerri, NigeriaPostgraduate Certificate - Computer Application Security
Conestoga College
Kitchener, Ontario 05.2022 - 12.2022
Postgraduate Certificate - Information Technology Network Security
Conestoga College
Kitchener, ON 09.2021 - 04.2022
Skills
- Vulnerability management: Qualys, Invicti DAST, DeepSource SAST and SCA, UpGuard, third-party penetration test review and remediation tracking, risk acceptance documentation
- Security operations and detection: SentinelOne EDR, Microsoft 365 Defender, Arctic Wolf MDR, Elastic SIEM, Splunk, log analysis and threat investigation
- Cloud and infrastructure: AWS, serverless security assessment (AWS Lambda, API Gateway), network segmentation, OpenVPN Access Server, IDS and IPS coverage
- Governance, risk, and compliance: SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and HITECH, NIST Cybersecurity Framework alignment, ISO 27001 control-mapping familiarity, vendor and third-party risk assessment, security policy authorship
- Automation and tooling: Python, PowerShell, Bash, Jira, Confluence, MCP (Model Context Protocol) tool development for AI-assisted security automation
Accomplishments
- Documented and resolved a sustained credential attack against OpenVPN Access Server gateways, which led to admin portal hardening and enforced multi-factor authentication.
- Achieved a reduction in weekly vulnerability report production time from six hours to five minutes by introducing Python-based MCP tooling for security reporting tasks.
- Facilitated early evidence for 57 percent of the combined SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA/HITECH control set during the 2025 audit period.
Certification
CISSP, ISC2, August 2023 | CCSP, ISC2, in progress
Timeline
Senior Security Engineer
MealSuite
06.2023 - Current
Postgraduate Certificate - Computer Application Security
Conestoga College
05.2022 - 12.2022
Postgraduate Certificate - Information Technology Network Security
Conestoga College
09.2021 - 04.2022
Senior Cybersecurity Analyst
Forte Oil PLC
07.2013 - 08.2021
Bachelor of Engineering - Agricultural Engineering
Federal University of Technology