Doug Was Built Not Born

Douglas Zipay
Cybersecurity Project Manager | Consultant
About
I wasn’t a stellar student growing up, but that didn’t define me. Through hard work, education, and perseverance, I built my career from the ground up.
“Doug Was Built Not Born.”
My Journey
Education:
- Completed three years of technical training in communications, cryptography, and radar while on active duty, gaining expertise in electronics and data processing.
- Advanced through multiple tiers of leadership training during my career progression.
- Earned an MBA with an emphasis in Finance and a BA in Business after six years of undergraduate and graduate studies.
- Achieved eight professional certifications, including CISSP, CEH, PMP, CISM, CISA, PSM, ITIL, and CFCM — all self-earned without boot camps. Previously held CCNA, Security+, and Network+ certifications.
Experience:
- Served 21 years in the Navy as an Electronics Technician (ET), working on critical national security communication systems and advancing into leadership roles such as Production Officer, Operations Officer, Project Manager, and Public Affairs Officer.
- Supported Special Forces communicators as a contractor by fielding robust communication systems globally, including SATCOM terminals, routers, switches, call managers, laptops, and more.
- Deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq five times for independent program operations and was hand-selected to support high-profile system launches and UAV projects.
- Managed “Not to Fail” communication packages for Special Forces afloat for five years.
- Habitually became a Subject Matter Expert (SME) at every assignment.
- Held a Top Secret security clearance throughout most of my military and contracting career.
- Contracted as a Cybersecurity Project Manager for the Department of the Interior (DOI), managing projects like CyberArk IAM, SailPoint, Microsoft Azure integrations, Dashboard as a Service (DBaaS), Nessus Network Monitor (NNM), and Tenable Vulnerability Management (TVM).
At Home Geek Stuff
- Operate a Protectli firewall running pfSense with multiple traffic-filtering packages.
- Run macOS, Windows, and Linux on my MacBook.
- Host various Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, Kali) on VMWare using my PC.
- Ethical Hacker, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and AI enthusiast.
Activities & Hobbies
- Completed five marathons, over 50 half-marathons, numerous 10Ks, and a 100-mile bike race.
- Enjoy traveling with my family — even if it’s just to the beach.
- Amateur Radio Extra Class operator — the highest license available — requiring advanced technical knowledge and proficiency in Morse Code at the time of certification.