About Shanief

CISO / Cybersecurity Executive Leader.

Most CISOs come from risk and compliance. I came from exploitation, malware reverse engineering, and digital forensics: reverse engineering a rootkit that had evaded detection for years, with no mentor and no AI. That adversarial ground truth still drives how I build security programs.

I'm Interim CISO at Headspace, leading Security Engineering, Cloud Operations, and DevOps alongside enterprise security strategy in a HIPAA-regulated environment. I rebuilt the security engineering program from the ground up: overhauling detection and alerting, operationalizing tooling across DLP, AppSec, bug bounty, and cloud security, and revamping hiring around signals that actually predict performance. That scope, security, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps under one leader, is deliberate: I run the function, not just the security slice of it.

Across my career, I've worked the full arc myself: computer scientist, threat hunter, software engineer, detection & response engineer, and incident commander, tested coordinating engineering, legal, communications, HR, and executive leadership through high-stakes incidents. Now I build generalists who work across specialties, not specialists locked into one.

I sit on Cyberhaven's Technical Advisory Board. I hold GXPN, OSCP, GREM, and GCFA among other certifications; the offense and defense work those map to is the same work behind the strategy above, not a separate track.

Before Headspace: Okta, Meta, Dropbox, Slack, IBM, Google, and the FBI.

History

A timeline of impact across the industry.

  • Headspace Interim CISO / Head of Security Engineering & Cloud Ops
    2025 to Present
  • Cyberhaven Technical Advisory Board Member
    2025 - Present
  • Meta Security Engineer, Surface Coverage
    2023 - 2025
  • Okta Manager & Principal Security Engineer, Detection & Response
    2022 - 2023
  • Dropbox Senior Security Engineer, Detection & Response
    2021 - 2022
  • Slack Senior Software Engineer, Security
    2020 - 2021
  • IBM Senior Cyber Threat Hunter
    2019 - 2020
  • Cox Communications Incident Response Lead
    2017 - 2018
  • Google Security Engineer, Security Surveillance Team
    2016 - 2017
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation Computer Scientist - Field Ops
    2013 - 2016
  • US Postal Service OIG Student Co-Op, Office of Audit
    2012
  • Lexmark Software Engineer Intern, Embedded Security
    May 2012 - August 2012

Arsenal & Qualifications

A multidisciplinary skillset validation across the security spectrum.

OFFENSE GXPN Exploit Researcher & Adv. Penetration Tester OFFENSE OSCP Offensive Security Certified Professional OFFENSE GPEN GIAC Penetration Tester OFFENSE GMOB Mobile Device Security Analyst DEFENSE GREM Reverse Engineering Malware DEFENSE GCFA Advanced Forensic Analyst DEFENSE GNFA Network Forensic Analyst DEFENSE GCIH Certified Incident Handler

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