About the Author
Hi, I’m Max — the engineer behind Orthogonal. I build secure systems by day and write about them here.
Background
I’m a Security Engineer and Solutions Architect based in Seattle, with 12+ years of hands-on experience building production systems at scale.
- 🔐 Security Engineering — Threat modeling, zero-trust architecture, container security, DevSecOps
- ☁️ Cloud Architecture — Multi-cloud certified, Kubernetes at scale
- 📊 Quantitative Finance — Algorithmic trading systems, options pricing, market microstructure
- 🏠 Self-Hosting — TrueNAS, Docker, GitOps, homelab infrastructure
Professional Experience
- 💼 Security Architect — Cloud security and distributed systems at Big Tech scale
- 🏗️ Independent Consultant — Kubernetes security, DevSecOps pipeline design
Certifications
- Cloud Solutions Architect (multi-cloud)
- AWS Solutions Architect
- Certified in Cybersecurity (ISC²)
What I Write About
I focus on the intersection of security engineering and practical development:
- Kubernetes Security — RBAC, Pod Security Standards, OPA/Gatekeeper, supply chain security
- DevSecOps — CI/CD pipeline security, IaC scanning, secrets management
- Algorithmic Trading — Building trading systems with Python, math, and real market data
- Cloud Architecture — Multi-cloud, distributed systems, and scalability patterns
- Performance Engineering — Making code measurably faster
- Homelab — Self-hosted infrastructure, TrueNAS, Docker, automation
Why “Orthogonal”?
In mathematics, orthogonal vectors are independent — they don’t interfere with each other. That’s how I approach problems: breaking them down into independent, manageable pieces that can be solved cleanly.
This blog is where I share those solutions — code-first, security-conscious, and always practical.
Questions? Reach out at [email protected] or connect on LinkedIn.