ABOUT
WHO I AM
BIO
I'm Zachary Christensen — Field CTO at PRE Security, where I help organizations shift from Detect & Respond to Predict & Prevent.
Enterprise cybersecurity closer operating at the intersection of product, revenue, and executive strategy. Closed PRE Security's first $1M enterprise deal. Focused on $800K+ strategic opportunities with average deal sizes of ~$200K annual contract value. Recognized internally as the technical closer on high-value accounts.
Deep expertise in AI-native cybersecurity, SIEM, detection engineering, SOC modernization, and enterprise security architecture — built over a decade spanning hands-on consulting, solutions architecture at Splunk, and early-stage startup leadership.
Equally comfortable whiteboarding with a CISO, building a demo at midnight, influencing roadmap decisions, or helping close a board-level deal. Based in Salt Lake City, UT. Previous clearances: Secret, Interim Top Secret.
RECOGNITION
EXPERIENCE
Field CTO
- —Closed the company's first $1M enterprise deal.
- —Technical lead on strategic $800K+ ACV opportunities with avg deal size ~$200K ACV.
- —Partnered directly with CISOs on predictive, AI-driven security transformation.
- —Acted as executive technical sponsor in complex enterprise sales cycles and design-partner programs.
- —Influenced product roadmap based on live field friction and threat landscape realities.
- —Led board-level briefings translating deep technical architecture into business risk language.
Senior Director of Sales Engineering, Worldwide
- —Built and scaled global Sales Engineering function during early growth phase.
- —Designed enterprise POV methodology supporting $200K–$1M+ deal cycles.
- —Elevated technical win rates through disciplined discovery and executive alignment.
- —Built field-to-product feedback systems accelerating product-market fit.
Global Director of Consulting Systems Engineering
- —Led early enterprise deployments to secure high-quality reference customers.
- —Established onboarding, architecture, and success frameworks for scalable growth.
Staff Security Solutions Architect — Public Sector SLED
- —Led pre-sales for Splunk's security portfolio across public sector SLED accounts.
- —Delivered briefings, demos, POVs, and integrations to map customer security priorities to Splunk capabilities.
- —Built and maintained strategic relationships with clients, partners, and executive leadership.
Principal Professional Services Consultant
- —Technical lead for public sector Splunk ES and Phantom engagements.
- —Created custom Splunk Apps/Add-ons for API-driven data ingestion and custom use cases.
- —Performed SIEM migrations to Splunk ES and migrated on-prem environments to cloud.
- —Designated mentor for new hires.
Security Analyst III
- —Managed overall security posture for customer environments using Splunk ES, QRadar, CrowdStrike, Tenable, and Palo Alto.
- —Developed security use cases to detect and mitigate risk and reduce attack surface.
- —Technical lead for Splunk security solutions and proof-of-value engagements.
Web Developer
- —Designed and developed accessible customer web pages using Python, PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and SASS.
- —Led implementation of new CSS techniques including CSS Grid.
SKILLS
CREDENTIALS
CERTIFICATIONS
- Splunk Enterprise Architect
- Splunk Enterprise Security Admin
- Splunk Core Certified Consultant
- Splunk Phantom Certified Admin
- Splunk Certified Cybersecurity Defense Analyst
- Splunk Accredited Sales Engineer I & II
- CompTIA Security+
- GIAC GMON
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Palo Alto ACE
- HashiCorp Terraform Associate
TIMELINE