About
Hi, I’m Chris Coombes!
Seasoned cybersecurity professional with 20 years of experience in technology, specialising in security operations, service delivery and infrastructure management.
Proven ability to lead teams, designing and optimizing SIEM platforms, managing log pipelines, and engineering advanced detection capabilities to ensure resilience against evolving cyber threats.
I have a strong focus on building scalable, secure solutions that align cybersecurity objectives with business priorities, ensuring continuous protection against evolving threats.
With deep expertise in incident response, forensic analysis, and threat intelligence, I excel at strengthening security postures and driving operational excellence across complex IT and OT environments.
Competencies: Cyber Operations Leadership, SIEM Management & Threat Detection, Incident Response & Forensics, Log Pipeline Optimization, Stakeholder Engagement & Advisory, Team Development & Mentorship
Certifications
AUGUST 2024
GIAC CERTIFIED FORENSIC ANALYST (GCFA), GIAC CERTIFCATIONS
FEBRUARY 2024
ELASTIC CERTIFIED ANALYST, ELASTIC
FEBRUARY 2021
MS-900 - MICROSOFT 365 FUNDAMENTALS, MICROSOFT
NOVEMBER 2020
AZ-900 - AZURE FUNDAMENTALS, MICROSOFT
OCTOBER 2020
PAGER DUTY FOUNDATIONAL PRACTIONER, PAGER DUTY
Experience
JUNE 2023 - CURRENT
SENIOR CYBER SECRITY ANALYST, AUSGRID
In my current role as a Senior Cyber Security Analyst, I play a crucial role in protecting Ausgrid’s ICT & OT assets by monitoring and analysing security data across network, cloud, identity and endpoint security platforms to proactively detect and mitigate cyber threats.
Leading the design and implementation of our security monitoring technologies, I strive to continuously improve our detection capabilities.
My role involves working with internal and external stakeholders to develop technical solutions, implement security capabilities, and provide expert guidance during incident response. In a rostered on-call environment, I contribute to incident management, process refinement, and security operations, ensuring an adaptive and resilient approach to cybersecurity.
Additionally, I stay ahead of evolving threat landscapes by proactively engaging with our threat intel partners and researching the latest cyber threats and developing proactive mitigation strategies. Committed to knowledge-sharing and skill development, I mentor junior SOC team members, fostering a strong security culture within the organisation.
Key responsibilities:
- Threat Detection & Response – Oversee security monitoring and lead investigations into emerging threats.
- SIEM Management & Detection Engineering – Optimize SIEM performance, enhance detection analytics, and refine log pipelines.
- Incident Response Leadership – Develop and implement response strategies, ensuring rapid containment and forensic analysis.
- Security Architecture & Compliance – Align cybersecurity frameworks with industry regulations and best practices.
- Stakeholder Engagement – Collaborate with internal and external partners to implement security solutions and provide incident guidance.
- Threat Intelligence & Research – Stay ahead of evolving cyber threats, developing proactive mitigation strategies.
- Team Development & Mentorship – Train and mentor SOC team members, fostering a strong security culture.
MARCH 2021 – JUNE 2023
LEAD OPERATIONS ENGINEER, NEXON
As a Lead Operations Engineer at Nexon, I was responsible for the efficient delivery of IT service into key customer accounts. The position was aligned with a “Care Team”, which involves providing leadership, support and mentoring to a team of highly skilled operational engineers.
Overseeing the delivery of service into a range of customers across various industries including but not limited to, Critical Infrastructure, Health Care, Higher Education and Transport. Ensuring that all tasks are managed inline with the ITIL framework and are actioned appropriately.
A key driver of mine is achieving customer satisfaction and aligning business objectives and contractual obligations.
Acted as an escalation point for resolving issues affecting the efficient delivery of all operations across all customers.
Key Project: Critical infrastructure control system replacement, Essential 8 maturity level compliance, Azure Monitoring & Management, Virtualisation management, capacity planning & upgrades.
MARCH 2017 – MARCH 2021
INFRASTRUCTURE LEAD, OVATO
In my role as the Infrastructure Lead, I was responsible for leading a skilled team of System Engineers spread across Australia and New Zealand. My responsibilities included technology support and maintenance across 2 primary physical datacentres and 5 remote sites, developing technology strategy and project management / delivery.
I successfully streamlined operations and reduced costs through standardising & centralising IT infrastructure & systems, combined maintenance contracts and consolidated licensing agreements.
Key Projects: Datacentre Relocation, Data Protection & DR, WAN Consolidation, Office 365 Migrations, Domain Migrations / Datacentre Restructures, Team Culture
NOVEMBER 2014 – MARCH 2017
INFRASTRCUTURE & SUPPORT MANAGER, IPMG
Managed a team of Engineers and Client Service staff responsible in a shared service model for the infrastructure and service delivery for multiples sites across Australia.
The environments consisted for 4 datacentres supporting 250 VMs on multi host vSphere clusters backed by Dell & EMC storage and multiple networks & firewall vendors (Juniper, Cisco, Dell, HP).
Key Projects: Office 365 Migration, WAN consolidation, Firewall replacement, Service Delivery Ticket Management & Process consolidation, Backup environment refresh.
AUGUST 2008 – NOVEMBER 2014
SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR, HANANPRINT
Responsible for managing infrastructure, network & systems across 2 data centres (Sydney & Melbourne) and service delivery for the entire organisation including 3 Client Service staff directly reporting to me.
Keys projects: Data centre & office newtwork relocation, Implemented vSphere envirnment, RemoteApp application delivery, Application development (ASP.net, C#)