Guillermo Fisher
Fractional CTO/CISO and Leadership Coach
Chesapeake, Virginia, United States
Actions
Guillermo Fisher is a fractional CTO/CISO and engineering leadership coach with two decades of experience in driving organizational innovation, developing information security programs, and cultivating high-performing software engineering teams. Having held pivotal leadership positions such as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Untapped and Director of Infrastructure at Handshake, Guillermo brings a wealth of strategic insight and a proven track record of success in steering organizations towards excellence. He has captivated audiences at AWS re:Invent, the Atlanta AWS Summit, Hampton Roads DevFest, RevolutionConf, and Diversitech Fest.
Area of Expertise
Topics
Incident Response in the Cloud: Lessons Learned
In the dynamic world of cloud computing, security incidents are a matter of when, not if. But how you respond can make all the difference. This talk digs into the real-world challenges and successes of handling security incidents in cloud environments, based on my experiences leading engineering and security teams. We’ll cover what it takes to be prepared, how to respond effectively, and the critical lessons learned from incidents that didn’t go as planned. You’ll walk away with practical insights that you can immediately apply to strengthen your incident response strategy in the cloud.
Key Takeaways:
- Cloud-Specific Threats: Understand the unique security challenges that cloud environments bring and how to stay ahead of them.
- Being Prepared: Learn how to set up an incident response plan that actually works when the time comes, with clear roles, responsibilities, and communication strategies.
- Real-World Response: Hear about real incidents—what went right, what went wrong, and what we did to fix it.
- Postmortems: Discover why post-incident analysis is crucial and how to turn lessons learned into actionable improvements.
- Tools and Automation: Explore the tools and techniques that can give you an edge in responding to incidents quickly and effectively.
Your AWS Story: Turning Your Experience into Career Growth
Every AWS professional has a story: the projects you’ve shipped, the problems you’ve solved, the lessons you’ve learned. But too often, those stories stay hidden. This talk will show you how to tell your AWS story in ways that strengthen your career. Whether you’re aiming for a promotion, breaking into leadership, or starting your own consultancy, I’ll share strategies for showcasing your AWS skills on LinkedIn, in interviews, and in the community.
Bridging Compliance and Innovation: A Guide for DevOps Leaders
In today's fast-paced technological landscape, DevOps leaders face the dual challenge of driving innovation while ensuring compliance with stringent security and regulatory standards. This talk will explore practical strategies for balancing these seemingly opposing demands, enabling teams to innovate without compromising on compliance. Attendees will gain insights into building robust, compliant DevOps pipelines, fostering a culture of security, and navigating the complexities of regulatory frameworks such as SOC 2.
DevOps leaders are often tasked with the responsibility of pushing the boundaries of innovation while maintaining strict adherence to compliance requirements. This balancing act can be daunting, especially in industries where data security and regulatory compliance are paramount. In this session, I will share my experiences and lessons learned as an engineering executive in a startup environment, providing actionable guidance for DevOps professionals who strive to achieve both compliance and innovation.
Key takeaways from this session will include:
Building Compliant DevOps Pipelines: Learn how to design and implement DevOps pipelines that meet regulatory standards without slowing down development cycles.
Fostering a Culture of Security: Discover techniques for integrating security into the DevOps culture, ensuring that it becomes a shared responsibility across the team.
Navigating Regulatory Frameworks: Gain practical insights into managing compliance with frameworks, including best practices for documentation, audit preparation, and continuous monitoring.
Balancing Speed and Compliance: Explore strategies for maintaining agility and innovation in your DevOps processes while ensuring compliance with all necessary regulations.
Case Studies and Real-World Examples: Hear real-world examples and case studies that illustrate successful implementations of compliant DevOps practices in various industries.
Rebuilding Trust and Delivering Impact: Strategies for Engineering Leaders
If you’re an engineering leader, you’ve probably heard your cross-functional peers say things like “the team is too slow” or “we can’t trust engineering’s estimates”. You might’ve received this feedback in a 1:1 conversation, or you may have seen it pop up in an engagement survey. When you know your people are working hard, and the wins you’ve accumulated don’t seem to matter to anyone outside of your team, that kind of feedback can be demoralizing—not just to you, but to the engineers you support. But how can you change that narrative? How can you rebuild trust in your team?
In this talk, we’ll cover techniques you can use to focus your team’s energy on high impact work, control the narrative about your team through proactive communication, and manage stakeholder relationships. I’ll walk you through my own real-life experiences applying these techniques, and provide options that will help you tailor your own authentic approach.
Key Takeaways
- How to use metrics to tell a compelling story about your - engineering team’s success
- How to align your team’s focus with the company’s highest priorities
- How to communicate about your teams wins and losses in a way that builds trust
- How to engage with stakeholders across the organization to understand their expectations and better manage them
The success of an engineering leader hinges not just on their ability to deliver quality, cost-effective solutions, but also on their perception among peers. This presentation offers a roadmap to achieving this, ensuring leaders not only deliver quality, cost-effective solutions but also command respect and confidence across their organization.
Managing On-Call Chaos: Innovative Strategies for Effective On-Call Management
For many software engineers, the on-call experience can be daunting, characterized by unexpected middle-of-the-night alerts that disrupt sleep, contribute to heightened stress levels, and undermine work/life balance. This talk aims to tackle the on-call conundrum head-on, sharing effective strategies and industry innovations that I have personally employed and observed to transform on-call from a dreaded obligation into a manageable, and even rewarding, aspect of software engineering work.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will leave this talk equipped with actionable insights and innovative approaches to:
- Optimize Rotation Configurations: Learn how to structure on-call rotations to minimize burnout and distribute workload evenly, ensuring that no single team member bears the brunt of after-hours issues.
- Enhance Communication Management: Discover techniques for effective communication that keep teams aligned and stakeholders informed without overwhelming on-call engineers with non-critical updates.
- Refine Scheduling Practices: Gain insights into scheduling strategies that respect personal commitments and work preferences, contributing to a more balanced on-call experience.
- Streamline On-Call Hand-Offs: Explore best practices for smooth hand-offs between team members, ensuring continuity of knowledge and preparedness for incoming alerts.
- Conduct Effective Post-Mortems: Understand the importance of post-mortem analysis to learn from incidents, implement improvements, and prevent future occurrences, all within a blame-free environment.
- Balance Sprint Work with On-Call Duties: Learn strategies to manage sprint workloads alongside on-call responsibilities, ensuring that on-call shifts do not derail project timelines or personal productivity.
This presentation is geared towards software engineers, team leads, and engineering managers who are looking for ways to improve the on-call experience for themselves and their teams. Whether you're struggling with on-call challenges or simply seeking to enhance your current practices, this talk will provide valuable insights and practical solutions.
Guillermo Fisher
Fractional CTO/CISO and Leadership Coach
Chesapeake, Virginia, United States
Actions
Please note that Sessionize is not responsible for the accuracy or validity of the data provided by speakers. If you suspect this profile to be fake or spam, please let us know.
Jump to top