Erik Kristensen
Director Of SANS Research And Operations Center
Cheyenne, Wyoming, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolErik Kristensen is a seasoned engineering leader with 17+ years building and operating large-scale, hybrid cloud and bare-metal distributed systems, now directing SANS Research and Operations. He combines hands-on DevOps and cloud architecture experience—spanning Docker (before it was mainstream), Kubernetes, Rancher, Prometheus, and Splunk—with a background in computer forensics and security from a decade of earlier work. Erik has led teams that keep hundreds of servers, IoT and mobile devices online while delivering hundreds of weekly deployments and custom tooling to scale mobile app testing. A persistent tinkerer and open-source contributor, he has contributed to notable projects like HashiCorp Vault and the GitLab Go SDK, improving authentication, auditing, and API integrations. He maintains the SIFT forensics distribution and leverages personal projects to prototype solutions that directly improve operational reliability. Based in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Erik blends practical engineering, security pedigree, and a builder’s curiosity to solve complex infrastructure challenges.
17 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
BS, Computer Science, BS, Computer Science at University of Arkansas GranthamComputer Science, Computer Science at Clark CollegeAssociates, Information Technology, Associates, Information Technology at Community College of the Air ForceComputer Science, Computer Science at University of PortlandComputer Science, Computer Science at Saint Leo University
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
1answer
0questions
Github Skills (14)
secret-management10
secrets-manager10
authentication10
user-authentication10
go10
api10
gitlab-api10
apidoc10
vault10
merge-request9
json9
jwt8
testing8
docker6
Programming languages (24)
Github contributions (5)
hashicorp/vault
Jul 2015 - Aug 2015
A tool for secrets management, encryption as a service, and privileged access management
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:7 commits, 5 PRs, 146 comments in 17 days
Contributions summary:Erik contributed to the backend logic of the Vault project by implementing features and fixing bugs related to GitHub authentication and auditing. They enhanced the GitHub credential backend to incorporate features such as retrieving team names and slugs for policy mapping. The user also added a time field to the JSON audit log entries and updated tests to accommodate these changes. Furthermore, the user made initial contributions to a JWT secret backend, indicating involvement in developing authentication and authorization mechanisms within Vault.
access-managementencryptionvaultgosecrets
xanzy/go-gitlab
Aug 2020 - Sep 2020
GitLab Go SDK
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:4 reviews, 8 commits, 3 PRs in 5 days
Contributions summary:Erik primarily contributed to the GitLab Go SDK by implementing features related to merge requests and milestones. Their work included adding support for "NotLabels" in merge request options, incorporating an "Expired" field for group and project milestones, and adding functionality for retrieving all project members. The user also refactored a function name to improve clarity. These changes likely involved modifying the API client and data structures for interacting with the GitLab API.
gitlabgo
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