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nathanspanier
Senior SRE · SS&C Technologies
#1 / 532
NCL Fall 2024 · Team
top
of field
of field
Player
Nathan Spanier
GIAC Advisory Board
NCL #1 / 532
NetWars 1st
M.S. InfoSec · SANS
Current Role
Senior Site Reliability Engineer
SS&C Technologies · Jul 2025 – Present
SS&C Technologies · Jul 2025 – Present
Specialization
Cybersecurity Automation · SOAR
Cloud Security · SRE · Threat Intel
Cloud Security · SRE · Threat Intel
#1
NCL team rank — 1st of 532 teams
13
Professional certifications earned
100%
NSA Codebreaker completion
6
First-place CTF wins
web
Work Experience
11 challenges · 7 organizations
web
500 pts
Jul 2025 – Present
- Owned security and reliability for 500+ domain controllers across all corporate business units, ensuring consistent hardening, compliance, and operational uptime for a global enterprise environment.
- Created metrics pipeline and dashboards (Grafana, Prometheus, and Gatus). Incident responder for company-wide security and availability events, driving rapid triage, containment, and root-cause analysis.
- Increased resiliency and reliability of critical authentication and secrets-management platforms including Kubernetes, HashiCorp Vault, CyberArk Safeguard, and Keycloak.
Current Role
SRE
Infrastructure
Kubernetes
Vault
web
500 pts
Jan 2022 – Mar 2024
- Led automation initiatives across the Global Cybersecurity Services organization, building Azure and AWS workflow automations and developing SOAR playbooks in Cortex XSOAR to reduce manual effort and improve response consistency.
- Designed and deployed infrastructure-as-code solutions using Terraform, and built/maintained integrations between key security platforms including Google Chronicle and UEBA user behavior analytics tooling (Gurucul).
- Developed high-quality automation and integration code primarily in Python, with additional experience using PowerShell, Bash, and Go for cross-platform scripting and tooling.
Python
Cortex XSOAR
Azure
AWS
Terraform
Google Chronicle
PowerShell
Go
pwn
400 pts
Jun 2021 – Jan 2022
- Developed integrations and orchestrations between TIPs (Headless Hunter, ThreatConnect, ThreatQuotient) and SIEMs/SOARs (Splunk, Exabeam, ArcSight, RSA NetWitness, and others).
- Lead DevSecOps engineer and architect of the Headless Hunter threat intelligence platform R&D project (Python, NoSQL/MongoDB, Elasticstack/ELK).
- Developed and implemented Python scripts to automate daily tasks for stakeholders.
ThreatConnect
ThreatQuotient
Splunk
Exabeam
ArcSight
SIEM/SOAR
pwn
350 pts
Feb 2021 – Jun 2021
- Maintained the Automated Threat Intelligence Platform (Python, PostgreSQL).
- Updated and automated CI/CD pipeline (Bamboo, Bash).
- Maintained and developed report generation tool (Ruby, Python).
Python
MongoDB
Elasticstack
PostgreSQL
CI/CD
Bamboo
pwn
300 pts
Oct 2019 – Feb 2021
- Full stack developer building and maintaining internal tools to support cybersecurity analysts in corporate and government spaces.
- Maintained analyst coverage tool (PHP, SQL/Postgres, HTML, JavaScript, CSS).
- Developed ServiceNow incident and investigation case management tool (JavaScript/Angular).
- Maintained and developed TTP content platform (Python, Django, Bootstrap, HTML, JS, CSS). Containerized (Docker) and hardened legacy projects.
Python
JavaScript
Django
ServiceNow
Docker
PHP
misc
250 pts
Jun 2018 – Oct 2019
- Worked with clients to design, develop, and deploy solutions tailored to individual organizational needs.
- Clients included National Media, EPA, CACI, and Linedata, among others.
Consulting
Solution Design
misc
100 pts
May 2014 – Apr 2015
- Assisted the systems administrator in installing new systems and maintaining existing infrastructure in the CS department. Fargo, ND.
LinuxSystems Admin
misc
100 pts
May 2014 – Aug 2014
- Built and deployed OpenStack servers to research additional applications of scalable cloud computing platforms. Gathered metrics data for the desktop virtualization project.
OpenStackCloud Research
misc
100 pts
Jan 2014 – Aug 2014
- Software developer for the 1Cloud healthcare administration platform. Fargo, ND.
Healthcare ITCloud
misc
100 pts
Feb 2013 – Oct 2013
- SharePoint Support Engineer for Microsoft SharePoint Online and SkyDrive Pro. Worked directly with customers to provide break/fix product support.
SharePointMicrosoft 365
misc
100 pts
Jan 2012 – Jul 2012
- Content creation writer/programmer for the Microsoft Dynamics AX division.
- Automated process to upgrade documentation to the latest product version.
Dynamics AXAutomation
crypto
Certifications
13 total · 10 active
GCSA
GIAC Cloud Security Automation
GCPM
GIAC Certified Project Manager
GCPN
GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester
GPCS
GIAC Public Cloud Security
SSAP
SANS Security Awareness Program Developer
GDSA
GIAC Defensive Security Architect
GCIA
GIAC Intrusion Analyst
GSTRT
GIAC Management Certification
GSEC
GIAC Security Essentials
GCIH
GIAC Incident Handler
CSM
Certified ScrumMaster
AWS-CP
AWS Cloud Practitioner
MB2-716
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customization & Configuration
recon
Skills
Technical stack
Languages
Security & SOAR
Cloud & Infrastructure
Data & Observability
Platforms & Tooling
Frameworks
pwn
CTF & Competitions
Real competition history
#1 / 532
NCL Team CTF
Nov 2024
1st Place
NetWars Core Tourney 9
Oct 2022 · Debut
100%
NSA Codebreaker
Jan 2024
2nd / 20
SANS Amsterdam CTF
Aug 2024
#2 / 386
NCL Individual CTF
Apr 2024 · Top 0.3%
#2 / 1068
NCL Team CTF
Nov 2022 · Top 0.2%
National Cyber League — Full History
| Date | Division | Rank | Field | Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | Team | #1 | 532 | 1st |
| May 2024 | Team | #7 | 526 | Top 2% |
| Apr 2024 | Individual | #2 | 386 | Top 0.3% |
| Nov 2023 | Team | #13 | 454 | Top 2% |
| Oct 2023 | Individual | #18 | 580 | Top 3% |
| May 2023 | Team | #6 | 315 | Top 2% |
| Apr 2023 | Individual | #6 | 414 | Top 1% |
| Nov 2022 | Team | #2 | 1,068 | Top 0.2% |
| Oct 2022 | Individual | #21 | 3,487 | Top 0.6% |
| May 2022 | Team | #3 | 978 | Top 0.3% |
| Apr 2022 | Individual | #109 | 6,006 | Top 2% |
| Nov 2021 | Team | #6 | 3,917 | Top 0.2% |
| Oct 2021 | Individual | #134 | 6,481 | Top 2% |
Additional CTF & Programming Competitions
| Date | Competition | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 2024 | NetWars Core Tournament 10 | Debut |
| Oct 2022 | NetWars Core Tournament 9 | 1st Place (Debut) |
| Oct 2021 | SANS Community CTF | 7th Place · Top 1% |
| Apr 2021 | SANS BootUp CTF | Top 2% |
| Apr 2015 | Midwest Instructional Computing Symposium | 1st Place |
| Oct 2013 | DKC3 2.0.13 — hosted by Digi-Key | 1st Place |
| Oct 2013 | MechMania XIX — UIUC ACM | 1st Place |
| Oct 2012 | ICPC Programming Competition | 1st on site · Top 10% region |
| Sep 2012 | Microsoft TikTakTau AI Competition | 2nd Place |
osint
Accolades & Recognition
Awards and community
-
GIAC Advisory Board Member
Joined the GIAC Advisory Board in March 2021 — contributing to the direction of GIAC certification programs.
-
NetWars Core Tournament 9 — 1st Place (Debut)
Won SANS NetWars Core Tournament 9 on debut in October 2022. Returned for NetWars Core Tournament 10 in June 2024.
-
NSA Codebreaker — 100% Completion
Completed the NSA Codebreaker Challenge at 100% in January 2024 — a multi-stage challenge requiring real-world reverse engineering and exploitation skills.
-
Multiple Programming Competition Wins
1st place at MechMania XIX (UIUC ACM, 2013), DKC3 2.0.13 (Digi-Key, 2013), Midwest Instructional Computing Symposium (2015), and ICPC (1st on site, top 10% region, 2012).
-
ACM Chapter Chair — NDSU
Elected as chair of the NDSU chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in May 2014.
misc
Education
Academic background
SANS Technology Institute
M.S. Information Security Engineering · 2021 – Present (In Progress)
North Dakota State University (NDSU)
B.S. Computer Science · 2011 – 2018 · Fargo, ND
Waseda University
Intensive Japanese Language Program · Sep 2015 – Aug 2016 · Tokyo, Japan
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Nathan Spanier
Senior Site Reliability Engineer at SS&C Technologies. Open to interesting conversations.