Omani Reed
Cloud Security Engineer
Active Secret Clearance · Public Trust · Alexandria, VA
Cloud Security Engineer with 5+ years securing Azure and hybrid environments — specializing in identity and access management, threat detection, and compliance-driven infrastructure. I help organizations reduce risk by finding misconfigurations, enforcing least-privilege access, and aligning controls with NIST, Zero Trust, and CMMC.
Capability summary
- 5+ years securing Azure & hybrid (on-prem AD) environments
- Sole incident responder — phishing detection through full remediation
- Identity & access hardening: Conditional Access, RBAC, MFA, least-privilege
- Compliance alignment: NIST, Zero Trust, CMMC, RMF, ISCM
- Threat detection & monitoring: Microsoft Defender, Sentinel, Log Analytics
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Clearance
- Active Secret · Public Trust
- Certifications
- 6 (incl. CySA+, PenTest+)
- Education
- M.S. Cybersecurity — WGU
My approach
I'm a cloud security engineer who believes good security is practical, not theoretical. The biggest risks I see aren't exotic — they're misconfigurations, over-broad access, and gaps between “compliant on paper” and “actually secure.”
My work spans hybrid Azure and on-prem environments: tightening identity with Conditional Access and least-privilege, tuning detection in Defender and Sentinel, and getting organizations audit-ready for frameworks like NIST, Zero Trust, and CMMC. When something does go wrong, I've run incident response end-to-end as the sole responder.
Working independently, I bring that same hands-on work to other organizations — directly, without the overhead of a big firm.
Core skills
Security, Policy & Governance
Cloud & Identity
Detection & Tooling
Experience
Cloud Engineer
Oct 2025 – Present- Overturned a false-negative Microsoft Defender verdict on a vendor-impersonation phishing email, confirming a targeted social-engineering attempt against an executive from sender IP and message indicators.
- Executed the incident-response SOP end-to-end as sole responder — credential reset, MFA remediation, scope validation, and two weeks of monitoring — containing the incident to a single account.
- Engineered and enforced hybrid cloud security controls across Azure and on-prem Active Directory supporting CMMC-aligned compliance.
- Implemented Conditional Access policies, privileged access controls, and Azure AD Connect synchronization; hardened endpoints and servers via GPO baselines.
System Administrator
May 2024 – Oct 2025- Administered and secured Azure and Microsoft 365 environments using Entra ID, RBAC, MFA, and Conditional Access.
- Monitored cloud security telemetry with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics to detect misconfigurations, anomalies, and threats.
- Investigated security incidents with root-cause analysis; enforced security baselines and managed patching for Azure VMs and AVD.
- Supported ISO and CMMC compliance through access reviews, audit prep, and control validation; built risk and performance dashboards.
Identity & Access Management Administrator
Oct 2022 – Apr 2024- Managed identity lifecycle operations — RBAC, SSO, and MFA enforcement across enterprise platforms.
- Conducted access reviews and supported compliance and audit-readiness initiatives.
- Built Power BI dashboards tracking access governance and operational metrics; supported identity federation across cloud apps.
LMS Helpdesk Analyst
Aug 2020 – Jun 2022- Provided Tier 1–2 technical support in a regulated, security-sensitive environment.
- Resolved authentication, access, and connectivity issues; maintained secure account records aligned with compliance requirements.
Certifications
- Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104)Jul 2026
- CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+)Mar 2025
- CompTIA PenTest+Apr 2025
- Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity (SC-900)Jun 2024
- Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900)Jun 2024
- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)Feb 2024
Education
- M.S., Cybersecurity & Information AssuranceWestern Governors University
- B.S., Criminal JusticeVirginia State University
Have a role or project that needs cloud security?
Available for contract engagements — C2C, W2, 1099, and federal sub/prime. Send over the details and I'll get back to you within one business day.