Pavan Kumar KNV

Product Security | Application Security | Kubernetes Security | AI-assisted Security

Performed end-to-end security assessments of enterprise software appliances deployed on Linux-based platforms, verifying that products met organizational security requirements before customer releases. Work closely with product engineering teams throughout the Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) to identify, validate, prioritize, and remediate security vulnerabilities across infrastructure, applications, containers, Kubernetes deployments, and third-party software components.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform authenticated Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessments against enterprise software appliances using Qualys VMDR and Nessus Professional.
• Conduct Web Application Security Assessments using Burp Suite Professional, Qualys WAS, and HP WebInspect to identify vulnerabilities aligned with the OWASP Top 10.
• Execute manual penetration testing of enterprise applications focusing on authentication, authorization, session management, business logic validation, input validation, and security misconfigurations.
• Perform comprehensive vulnerability validation and false-positive analysis before reporting findings to engineering teams.
• Assess third-party software components using Black Duck and OWASP Dependency Check, reviewing CVEs, exploitability, package versions, and remediation recommendations.
• Perform container image security assessments using Qualys Container Sensor and Trivy by identifying vulnerable operating system packages, application dependencies, and configuration weaknesses.
• Conduct Kubernetes security reviews by evaluating RBAC permissions, Ingress configurations, Services, Secrets, exposed workloads, and cluster security posture across enterprise deployments.
• Collaborate closely with development teams to validate security fixes, assess remediation effectiveness, and improve overall product security posture.
• Supported secure product releases by triaging, validating, documenting, and addressing security findings before production deployment.
• Leverage GitHub Copilot to accelerate source code understanding, vulnerability impact analysis, remediation validation, and engineering collaboration.
• Develop AI-assisted security workflows using custom Skill.md templates to improve the efficiency and consistency of vulnerability assessments.
• Participated in exploratory AI model security testing using Garak and other emerging LLM security tools to assess prompt injection risks, unsafe model behavior, and AI-specific attack vectors.
• Designed and implemented a multi-agent AI orchestration framework for vulnerability triage, where an orchestrator coordinates specialized Skill.md agents responsible for ValueEdge work-item analysis, Black Duck dependency assessment, Fortify finding analysis, and Confluence documentation updates to streamline end-to-end security triage.

Enterprise Product Engineering | Cloud Infrastructure | Kubernetes

Worked as a Senior QA Engineer within the Product Engineering organization, contributing to the development, validation, deployment, and release of enterprise software products. Responsible for designing complex test environments, validating product functionality across on-premises and cloud deployments, collaborating with automation teams, and introducing security validation into the software development lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Designed, built, and maintained enterprise-scale test environments supporting multiple product releases.
• Created and administered Active Directory domains to validate enterprise authentication, authorization, and domain integration scenarios.
• Built and managed Kubernetes clusters for testing cloud-native product deployments across on-premises, AWS, and Microsoft Azure environments.
• Validated enterprise deployment architectures involving Kubernetes, Linux, Active Directory, networking, and cloud infrastructure.
• Performed functional, integration, regression, system, and end-to-end testing of enterprise software products.
• Worked closely with Product Management and Development teams to understand feature requirements and validate new functionality before release.
• Assisted the automation engineering team by identifying suitable functional scenarios for automation and validating automated test coverage.
• Performed validation of SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) integrations with enterprise identity providers.
• Conducted troubleshooting of complex product issues using Linux command-line utilities, application logs, and infrastructure diagnostics.
• Demonstrated customer features and validated product stability across multiple deployment models during release readiness activities.
• Introduced container image vulnerability scanning into the pre-release validation process, enabling earlier identification of security issues before formal Product Security reviews.
• Collaborated with Product Security teams by performing initial security validation of container images and assisting in remediation verification before production releases.
• Worked extensively with Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, networking, enterprise authentication, and cloud platforms throughout the product lifecycle.
• Supported engineering teams during critical product releases by validating infrastructure readiness, deployment procedures, and production upgrade scenarios.

Provided engineering and technical support for EMC Centera, an enterprise object-based storage platform used by large organizations for secure content archiving and storage. Worked within a combined Engineering and Support organization supporting business-critical customer environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Provided engineering support for enterprise customers using EMC Centera storage solutions.
• Diagnosed and resolved complex customer issues using Linux command-line tools, application logs, and storage diagnostics.
• Supported high-priority customer escalations by collaborating with engineering teams to identify root causes and recommend solutions.
• Contributed to the development and maintenance of internal engineering tools for automated log collection and remote diagnostics.
• Maintained strong customer communication while handling technically complex production issues.

VMware Infrastructure | Linux Administration | Enterprise Technical Support

Provided enterprise technical support for VMware virtualization products, supporting global customers with production VMware infrastructure. Managed high-severity customer incidents and collaborated with VMware engineering teams to resolve complex virtualization issues.

• Provided technical support for VMware ESX/ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, and related virtualization technologies.
• Managed Critical (Severity 1) and High Severity customer incidents involving production virtualization environments.
• Performed troubleshooting of VMware infrastructure using Linux command-line tools, system logs, and VMware diagnostic utilities.
• Assisted customers with installation, configuration, performance, networking, and virtualization-related issues.
• Worked closely with VMware engineering teams to investigate product defects and customer-reported issues.
• Developed strong expertise in Linux administration, enterprise virtualization, customer support processes, and incident management.
• Built a strong technical foundation in enterprise infrastructure that later supported progression into Product Engineering and Product Security.