Mohamed Farouk Zyada

1. Jan 2026 — Present

   Cylert

   Cairo, EgyptCurrent

   Head of Cybersecurity Solutions & Presales

   Own the solution strategy and roadmap for enterprise security across high-growth markets.

   • Define the strategy and roadmap for enterprise security solutions, and run vendor evaluation, selection and strategic partnerships.
   • Integrate best-of-breed technologies into a coherent SOC and threat-intelligence offering rather than a vendor list.
   • Run executive consultations and deep-dive technical workshops, aligning security architecture to business objectives and regulatory requirements.
   • Author technical proposals and presentations for both emerging and established technologies.
   • Track regulatory frameworks and align the offering to compliance requirements as they move.
2. Jan 2025 — Dec 2025

   Hemaya Information Technology

   Cairo, Egypt

   Presales Director

   Built the presales lifecycle management framework from scratch.

   • Architected the end-to-end presales lifecycle, improving pipeline conversion through standardised methodology and disciplined proposal and SoW authoring.
   • Delivered multi-technology security architectures spanning SIEM, SOAR, XDR, PAM, MFA, UEBA, DLP, web and email gateway, NGFW, VPN, LTM/ASM, EPP/EDR, NDR, IDS/IPS/HIPS, vulnerability management, API security and SAST/DAST.
   • Onboarded strategic vendor partnerships: Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Forcepoint, LogRhythm, BeyondTrust, OneSpan, Tenable, Rapid7, Black Duck, Cyber Ranges, Seclore, Darktrace, Group-IB, Kaspersky, Recorded Future, Mandiant, Google, Veridium.
   • Established reusable solution architectures and templates, cutting proposal response time.
   • Directed complex PoCs including environment setup and performance benchmarking, securing competitive wins in banking and government.
3. Mar 2020 — Dec 2024

   Hemaya Information Technology

   Cairo, Egypt

   Professional Services Manager

   Ran four specialised practices — Network Security, Identity, Information Security and SOC.

   • Led 30+ senior consultants and engineers across enterprise delivery.
   • Oversaw large-scale multi-vendor deployments across Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Forcepoint, LogRhythm, BeyondTrust, Ivanti, Symantec, F5, Trellix, OneSpan, Tenable, Rapid7, Darktrace and Group-IB.
   • Delivered enterprise-scale implementations for NBE, CIB and Banque Misr, including Palo Alto, Ivanti, Tripwire, LogRhythm SIEM and OneSpan MFA.
   • Designed layered defensive architectures (DLP, WAF, EDR/XDR) and grew service footprint in key financial accounts by roughly 40% through multi-year engagements.
4. Jan 2019 — Feb 2020

   Arian747 IT Partners

   Cairo, Egypt

   Chief Technology Officer

   Built a SOC-centred offering anchored on LogRhythm SIEM.

   • Positioned the company as a niche specialist in SOC design and information-security consulting in the Egyptian market.
   • Delivered tailored security solutions for SMEs and larger enterprises.
   • Used a multi-vendor stacking approach to reduce single-vendor risk and improve commercial flexibility for clients.
5. Feb 2017 — Nov 2018

   SEE — System Engineering of Egypt

   Cairo, Egypt

   Professional Services Manager, Network Security & InfoSec

   Led a team of 16+ security architects and engineers.

   • Structured and managed specialised delivery teams — security architects and professional technical engineers — for scalable enterprise service delivery.
   • Negotiated strategic vendor partnerships across Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, F5, Forcepoint, Tenable, Gemalto, RSA, Trend Micro, Infoblox and Symantec (Blue Coat).
   • Oversaw SOC implementations, network security architectures and professional services engagements.
   • Directed vulnerability assessment and management programmes for key accounts.
6. Nov 2012 — Jan 2017

   National Command Center, Ministry of Interior

   Doha, Qatar

   Network Security Team Lead

   Five years owning 24/7 national-scale infrastructure behind emergency response.

   • Ran mission-critical infrastructure operating 24/7 across data, voice and video networks inside a multinational team.
   • Designed high-availability architectures: MPLS-based core, Nexus data-centre networks and layered security controls.
   • Architected a two-tier firewall architecture (Cisco ASA and Check Point) with RSA identity management enforcing real separation between management and data planes.
   • Built the multi-vendor environment: Cisco Nexus 7K/5K/2K and 6500, EMC data-centre technology, F5 LTM/ASM for application delivery, RSA for identity.
   • Supported wired and wireless communications including GPRS and TETRA radio across large-scale infrastructure.
7. Jun 2011 — Nov 2012

   Equinox International Egypt

   Cairo, Egypt

   Technical Team Leader, Network Security

   Delivered Egypt's first Network Access Control deployment.

   • Pioneered the first NAC deployment in Egypt — distributed Cisco ISE for major banks including NDB and ADIB, on an eight-server architecture (2 admin/monitoring, 6 policy nodes) — and demonstrated the solution for Banque Misr.
   • Designed and implemented network and security solutions across Cisco ASA/PIX firewalls, IDS/IPS (v4–v7) and HIPS.
   • Delivered end-to-end routing, switching and network security architectures across Cisco, Fortinet and McAfee environments.
   • Authored the CCIE Routing & Switching and Security technical documentation that became the company's internal engineering standard.
8. Jan 2007 — Jun 2011

   SEE — System Engineering of Egypt

   Cairo, Egypt

   Network Security Team Leader

   Security gateways, national infrastructure and university campus networks.

   • Deployed Symantec SGS 5000 series security gateways — firewalling, antivirus, anti-spam, content filtering, IDS/IPS and email security — across a diverse enterprise customer base.
   • Designed and built the National Security Center network on a Nortel 8600 core with a full fibre-optic backbone.
   • Deployed early-stage Fortinet FortiGate UTM firewalls.
   • Delivered university-scale infrastructure for Menia University (Paradyne DSLAM, SDSL/HDSL across distributed campuses) and Assiut University (Cisco multilayer and core switches 4005/4007).
9. Jan 2001 — Jun 2007

   SEE — System Engineering of Egypt

   Cairo, Egypt

   Network & Network Security Engineer

   Large-scale network transformations from legacy Motorola to Cisco.

   • Migrated legacy Motorola infrastructure to Cisco routing and switching across enterprise and government customers.
   • Connected 450+ sites of the Social Insurance Ministry via X.25 and Frame Relay — one of the largest WAN environments in the country.
10. Jan 2008 — Jan 2009

    Raya Academy & Ain Shams University

    Cairo, Egypt

    Instructor — Networking and Security

    Taught CCNA and CCNA Security; designed the learning modules.

    • Delivered professional training in routing & switching and network security, including the CCNA and CCNA Security curricula.
    • Designed structured learning modules and hands-on assessments preparing students for certification and real-world scenarios.

Named where the client relationship allows it. The technology and the scope are accurate in every case.

Strategic presales & architecture

End-to-end presales lifecycle, solution architecture, C-level engagement, RFP/RFI/RFQ, SoW authoring, PoC management, technical discovery, value-based selling, competitive analysis, technical workshops and demos.

SOC, detection & response

SIEM (LogRhythm, QRadar, Splunk, Elastic, RSA NetWitness), SOAR (Cortex XSOAR), XDR (Cortex XDR, Trellix), UEBA, NDR (Darktrace), EDR/EPP (Trellix, Kaspersky), IDS/IPS/HIPS, incident response, threat hunting, malware analysis, digital forensics.

Network, perimeter & OT security

NGFW (Cisco Firepower, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Check Point), VPN (IPsec, SSL VPN, DMVPN, GETVPN), segmentation, ZTNA (Ivanti, Appgate), NAC (Cisco ISE, Ivanti), OT/ICS and SCADA security, PKI and HSM.

Identity, access & Zero Trust

Zero Trust architecture, PAM (BeyondTrust PAM/PRA/EPM), MFA/2FA (OneSpan, RSA, Veridium), IAM, identity federation and access control.

Application & API security

WAAP and WAF (F5 BIG-IP ASM/APM, NGINX App Protect), API security (F5, Akamai, Imperva), API gateway (Kong, NGINX Plus), OAuth/JWT, secure SDLC, OWASP Top 10, bot protection.

Data security & encryption

DLP (Forcepoint, Symantec), DRM (Seclore), data classification (Boldon James), encryption and key management, HSM concepts.

Vulnerability & exposure management

Vulnerability assessment and management (Tenable, Rapid7), DAST (Rapid7 InsightAppSec, Invicti), SAST (Black Duck, Checkmarx), BAS, CTEM, attack surface management, cyber ranges, risk-based prioritisation.

Threat intelligence & analytics

Threat intelligence (Group-IB, Recorded Future, Mandiant, Google Threat Intelligence), AI-driven detection (Darktrace), malware and fraud analysis.

Cloud & modern workload security

Cloud security fundamentals (AWS/Azure), cloud workload protection (CWPP), container and Kubernetes security, microservices security, DevSecOps integration.

Network infrastructure & routing

BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS; Cisco Nexus 7K/5K/2K, Catalyst 6500; DSL/DSLAM; Motorola (Vanguard, Codex); high-availability network design.

• CBE

  Central Bank of Egypt cybersecurity regulations

  Control mapping and gap-assessment support, plus incident-reporting readiness aligned with EG-FinCIRT. Delivered security programmes inside CBE-regulated banks.

• SAMA

  SAMA Cyber Security Framework, Saudi Arabia

  Advisory for Saudi financial institutions working toward SAMA CSF maturity targets.

• SWIFT CSP

  SWIFT Customer Security Programme

  Delivered against the mandatory and advisory controls inside CIB's banking environment.

• PCI-DSS

  Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

  Segmentation, logging and access-control work in card environments. Advisory, not certified attestation.

• ISO 27001

  Information security management

  Control alignment for enterprise and government programmes.

Advisory and solution alignment. Not certified audit or attestation.

Technologies I have sold, designed with, deployed or run a PoC on. Knowing how each of them sells is exactly why bank-facing advisory stays vendor-neutral.

• Cisco
• Palo Alto Networks
• Fortinet
• Check Point
• F5
• Forcepoint
• LogRhythm
• Splunk
• IBM QRadar
• CrowdStrike
• Trellix
• Kaspersky
• BeyondTrust
• OneSpan
• RSA Security
• Veridium
• Ivanti
• Tenable
• Rapid7
• Darktrace
• Group-IB
• Akamai
• Imperva
• Kong
• Symantec / Broadcom
• Trend Micro
• Seclore
• Black Duck
• Mandiant
• Recorded Future
• Infoblox
• VMware