Northern Illinois · Fractional CISO / CIO & security leadership

William Janness

Security leadership that still ships code.
Security & Compliance Leader vCISO Product Builder AI Infrastructure Architect

For three decades I've built, secured, and run production infrastructure — and I still write the Python, deploy the GPU clusters, and pass the audits myself. Today I lead Information Security & Compliance at an enterprise AI company, where systems I've architected have run 1,450+ consecutive days without unplanned downtime.

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Most security executives govern. Most engineers build. I do both — which means the controls I design actually work in production, and the infrastructure I build passes audit the first time.

$152K/yr eliminated

Replaced a commercial ITSM platform with a custom-built system. Zero license cost, better fit, still running.

1,450+ days

Continuous uptime across a self-healing production fleet I designed — from half a rack to six racks of GPU infrastructure.

First-pass audits

SOC 2 and HIPAA programs built hands-on: I write the policies and the code that enforces them.

Three Ways to Engage

Fractional CISO / vCISO

For companies that need SOC 2 or HIPAA done right without a full-time executive salary. I've built these programs from zero inside a fast-moving AI company; I know which controls matter and which are audit theater.

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Fractional CIO / Infrastructure Advisory

Colo buildouts, GPU fleet architecture, network fabric design, cloud-repatriation math. If your AWS bill is the problem, I've solved it at scale.

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Full-Time Security Leadership

For the right company: one where security, compliance, and infrastructure are one job, not three departments.

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Three Disciplines, One Mindset

Every system I build starts with security. Every product I ship runs on infrastructure I designed.

Security & Compliance

SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance at scale. Zero Trust network design, SIEM implementation, endpoint management, and incident response — for an AI company where the stakes are high.

SOC 2 HIPAA GDPR Zero Trust Fortinet

Infrastructure & Network Architecture

Designed a full 3-spine/6-leaf data center fabric for an AI company's server fleet. Planned and operated multi-product SaaS hosting infrastructure serving live users daily.

Spine & Leaf BGP / ECMP Dell OS10 Docker VLT

Product Design & Development

Built production SaaS platforms from concept through deployment — full-stack, with AI integration baked in. Co-founded a multi-product creative tech company with 7 live brands.

React / TypeScript Python / FastAPI Next.js PostgreSQL AI APIs
30 Years in IT, Security & Compliance
~2,900 Physical CPU Cores Across 35 Hosts
~$5M AI Infrastructure Operated
12+ Internal Platforms Built From Scratch
7 Live Brands Under MMC

Product Design Through Production Deployment

I don't just manage infrastructure. I build the systems that run on it.

Enterprise Software · AI Integration

Enterprise IT Service Management Platform

Self-hosted, enterprise-grade ITSM built from the ground up. 10-container Docker stack, autonomous AI remediation agent, 41 ticket types, Slack-integrated approval workflows, Active Directory sync. Replaced commercial tools quoted at up to $152K/year.

Python / FastAPI React / TypeScript Claude AI PostgreSQL Docker
Network Architecture · Data Center

Enterprise Spine & Leaf Network Fabric

Designed a 3-spine/6-leaf, all-100G data center network fabric for an AI company's server fleet — replacing a flat network with a BGP underlay, VLT peer pairs, ECMP across all three spines, and Anycast Gateway per zone.

Dell S5232F-ON Dell OS10 eBGP VLT / ECMP Fortinet
AI Infrastructure · Internal Platforms

Enterprise AI Infrastructure & Internal Platforms

Owned the multi-year buildout from half a rack to six full colocation racks — now ~2,900 CPU cores, ~34 TB of RAM, NVIDIA A100/B300-class GPU compute, and 48 VMs across 35 hosts. Plus a suite of internal software built from scratch: a federated CMDB, live inventory and network dashboards, power monitoring, and an AI infrastructure assistant.

GPU / CPU Compute Federated CMDB FastAPI / Python Proxmox / VMware Self-Hosted AI
AI Workflow & Self-Healing Automation · Production

Self-Healing Systems & AI Workflow Architecture

Self-healing applications built with scripting and AI: an autonomous remediation agent that resolves known faults without human intervention, an event-log pipeline that analyzes logs and opens its own tickets, and an AI-orchestration layer coordinating specialized agents across my own applications and brands. Not chat — an operating system for delegated technical work.

Self-Healing Claude Agent SDK Orchestration Cross-Host Ops
Product Development · Full Lifecycle

From Pain Point to Production

The throughline of my work: I find a real, unsolved problem, build the complete solution, and refine it until it's genuinely great. Time To Plate, an enterprise helpdesk, an asset-management system, a purchase-order system, an automated penetration-testing & reporting platform, and more — each taken from idea to running software.

Time To Plate Helpdesk / ITSM Pen-Test & Reporting SaaS End-to-End
LLC · Co-Founder · CEO / CTO / CISO

Mad Monkey Creative LLC

Chicago-area creative tech umbrella company I co-founded and lead as CEO, CTO, and CISO. 7 live product brands across apparel, software, music, and education — all running on shared infrastructure I designed, built, and operate.

Co-Founder CEO / CTO / CISO 7 Live Brands Apache / PM2 Self-Hosted Infra
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Builder by Nature.
Security by Design.

I've spent three decades in IT and cybersecurity, but what drives me is building things that actually solve problems — not just maintaining what exists. From an enterprise network fabric to a SaaS recipe scheduler, every project starts with the same question: "What's the right way to build this?" — and security is always part of that answer.

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William Janness

Let's Build Something That Actually Works

Thirty years in means I've already made the expensive mistakes on someone else's budget. Let's skip them on yours.

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