Akbar Aziz.
Principal Sales Engineer · Zero Trust · SSE/SASE · Cloud Security

Strategy at the edge of security.

Strategic Principal Sales Engineer and Solutions Architect with 15+ years of experience driving enterprise cybersecurity, cloud transformation, and Zero Trust initiatives across Fortune 500 and highly regulated industries. Proven success partnering with enterprise sales teams to influence C-level executives, accelerate complex security sales cycles, and deliver measurable business outcomes through consultative solution architecture, executive workshops, and technical leadership.

CORE EXPERTISE

Zero TrustSSESASEZTNACASBCloud SecurityDevSecOpsKubernetes SecurityExecutive PresentationsProof of Concept LeadershipTechnical DiscoveryCompetitive DisplacementStrategic AccountsAWSAzureHybrid CloudIdentity & Access ManagementXDREndpoint SecurityAI/LLM Enablement

02 / EXPERIENCE

A career built around consequential decisions.

From product strategy and endpoint operations to hybrid cloud and enterprise security architecture.

Aug 2022 — Present

Current

Palo Alto Networks

Prisma Cloud Solutions Architect / Domain Consultant II

  • Lead pre-sales technical strategy for enterprise cloud security and Zero Trust transformation initiatives across strategic accounts.
  • Conduct executive-level architecture workshops, technical demonstrations, and Executive Briefing Center (EBC) engagements for security leadership and C-level stakeholders.
  • Delivered successful Proof of Value (POV) engagements resulting in a 35% increase in competitive win rates.
  • Partner closely with Account Executives and customer stakeholders to align cybersecurity modernization initiatives with measurable business outcomes.
  • Develop competitive displacement strategies and technical takeout plans against incumbent cybersecurity vendors.
  • Provide architectural guidance across AWS, Azure, Kubernetes, containers, CI/CD pipelines, and hybrid cloud deployments.
  • Recognized as a President’s Club winner for exceptional pre-sales performance and revenue impact in 2024.

Oct 2018 — Jul 2022

Nutanix

Portfolio Solutions Architect

  • Served as a trusted technical advisor supporting enterprise hybrid cloud and infrastructure modernization initiatives.
  • Led technical discovery sessions and translated customer business requirements into scalable cloud automation and orchestration solutions.
  • Designed and delivered enterprise architectures leveraging Kubernetes, Docker, Infrastructure-as-Code, and multi-cloud technologies.
  • Conducted customer workshops, executive presentations, and solution demonstrations supporting strategic sales opportunities.
  • Integrated enterprise platforms including ServiceNow, Active Directory, Infoblox, and REST API orchestration systems.

Apr 2017 — Oct 2018

Tanium

Technical Account Manager

  • Managed strategic customer relationships focused on endpoint security, asset visibility, compliance, and operational resilience.
  • Conducted executive-facing customer health reviews and security posture discussions.
  • Partnered with Sales teams to identify expansion opportunities and increase platform utilization.
  • Supported enterprise customers with endpoint management, vulnerability visibility, and malware protection initiatives.

Jan 2007 — Apr 2017

BMC Software

Lead Product Manager / Lead Platform Administrator

  • Directed product strategy, roadmap planning, and customer-centric feature development for enterprise automation platforms.
  • Led infrastructure automation initiatives that reduced operational costs by 25% within the first year.
  • Delivered product evangelism, field enablement, webinars, and customer engagement initiatives.
  • Managed enterprise infrastructure modernization and operational transformation programs.

03 / SELECTED WORK

Products that make complex systems feel simple.

Four macOS and web applications built around trust, privacy, and practical workflow improvements.

01

CreateFiles+

Native macOS Productivity & Automation App

Problem solvedAdds the missing Create New File workflow to macOS Finder and reduces repetitive file and project setup.

Key capabilitiesFinder context-menu, toolbar, menu-bar, and keyboard workflows; batch creation; reusable templates and Folder Packs; Swift, SwiftUI, AppKit, sandboxed file access, licensing, and signed/notarized distribution.

SwiftUIAppKitmacOS
02

macCurrent

macOS Update Intelligence & Security

Problem solvedProvides a trustworthy view of outdated Mac software when version, ownership, and update provenance are fragmented across vendor channels.

Key capabilitiesLocal application inventory; multi-source version reconciliation across the App Store, Homebrew, Sparkle, GitHub, Microsoft, Google, and Adobe; identity/checksum trust gates; scheduled scans; SwiftUI, SwiftData, and secure release automation.

SwiftDataSecurityAutomation
03

TabPane

Browser Tab & Session Manager

Problem solvedMakes large tab sets readable and searchable across multiple Chromium windows while reducing duplicate-tab, memory, and session-management friction.

Key capabilitiesCross-window search; duplicate review and cleanup; domain grouping; tab-group editing and sorting; drag-to-move tabs; audio controls; memory indicators; synced session save/restore; privacy-first Manifest V3 architecture.

Manifest V3PrivacyBrowser
04

conduitai.app

AI Resource Marketplace & MCP Registry

Problem solvedCentralizes discovery, evaluation, and setup of prompts, agents, and MCP servers scattered across repositories and AI tool ecosystems.

Key capabilitiesPrompt library, agent marketplace, and MCP registry; GitHub import and README parsing; full-text search; trust and quality scoring; multi-client setup; React, TypeScript, Supabase/PostgreSQL, Row-Level Security, Edge Functions, caching, and CI/CD.

ReactTypeScriptSupabase

04 / TECHNICAL STACK

Broad enough to connect the whole system.

Security, cloud, automation, infrastructure, and AI—grounded in the platforms enterprise teams actually operate.

01

Security

Zero Trust, SSE, SASE, CSPM, CIEM, CWPP, XDR, DSPM, NIST, PCI-DSS, HIPAA

02

Cloud

AWS, Azure, GCP, EKS, AKS, EC2, S3, VPC, Lambda, CloudFront

03

Automation

Terraform, Ansible, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, CI/CD, Python, Shell

04

Infrastructure

Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, VMware, Nutanix, Networking

05

AI / LLMs

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Hugging Face, Llama

CERTIFICATIONS

Validated foundations.

  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
  • Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
  • Nutanix Certified Professional — Multi-Cloud Infrastructure (NCP-MCI)
  • Nutanix Certified Systems Engineer — Core (NCSE)

05 / CONTACT

Let's make the complex clear.

akbaraziz@gmail.com+1 281-725-3990linkedin.com/in/akbarazizgithub.com/akbaraziz