Benjamin Knauss

Technology Executive

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Contact

racter@racter.com

linkedin.com/in/racter

racter.com

Livingston, TX

Areas of Influence

Information Technology
Operational Technology
Architecture (Software/Systems/Cloud)
Software Engineering
Cybersecurity Strategy
Security Leadership
Incident Response
Security Operations
Threat Intelligence
Risk Assessment & Mitigation
Digital Transformation
Business Continuity Planning
Regulatory Compliance
Information Security Governance
Identity & Access (IAM)
Vulnerability Management

Certifications

CISSP
(ISC)², 2024
CCSK v4
Cloud Security Alliance, 2024
AWS Certified Solution Architect
Amazon Web Services, 2015

Publications

Author:
"The CISO's Guide to Negotiating Compensation"
Author:
"The CISO's Guide to Enterprise AI Security"
Author:
"The CISO's Guide to Deepfake Defense"

Memberships

OWASP Foundation
Lifetime Member
Information Security Leadership Foundation
Member since 2025
Because for Hope
Director since 2016

Accomplished executive with over two decades of experience shaping and securing enterprise-scale technology infrastructures across public and private sectors. A career rooted in innovation and strategic foresight, leading world-class technology and cybersecurity programs that balance compliance, risk mitigation, and digital transformation.

Selected Accomplishments

Designed keynote demonstrations for Bill Gates, by crafting and designing on-stage experiences during 2000 - 2001, elevating product visibility & innovation storytelling.
Established a new Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (CoE) in India from scratch.
Translated complex technical risks into strategic executive decisions, securing $10M+ in budget approvals from C-suite stakeholders for system modernization.
Drove a global cost optimization initiative by influencing CrowdStrike to unify its pricing model, resulting in up to 35% cost savings for customers worldwide.
Reduced security incidents by over 40% by designing comprehensive multi-cloud security strategies across AWS, Azure, and GCP (NIST, GDPR, SOC 2).
Engineered enterprise-wide cybersecurity improvements by leading the rollout of Proofpoint's email security platform, neutralizing threats across 2+ billion emails annually.

Professional Experience

Vice President, Security Engineering

News Corp | New York, NY (Mar 2019 - Present)

Direct global technology and security engineering teams, directing enterprise-wide architecture, identity governance, access control, and data security.

Principal Cloud Engineer & Cloud Security Architect

Realtor.com | Santa Clara, CA (Nov 2015 - Feb 2019)

Led enterprise-wide cloud architecture and championed the transition to zero-trust architecture (CISO), driving cultural and operational transformation.

Principal Solutions Architect

Amazon Web Services | Seattle, WA (Sep 2014 - Sep 2015)

Advised Fortune 500 C-suite leaders on enterprise-wide cloud transformation (CIO), DevOps strategy (CTO), and compliance programs.

Principal Cloud Architect

Computer Sciences Corporation (now DXC Technology) | Tysons, VA (Sep 2013 - Oct 2014)

Advised C-suite leaders at F500 enterprises (Best Buy, Staples, Swisscom) on digital transformation (CIO/CTO), architecting the secure enterprise standards and cloud governance frameworks to accelerate their secure cloud adoption.

Director, Development Operations & IT / Principal Architect

Avalara | Bainbridge Island, WA (Jan 2008 - Feb 2013)

Led AWS migration (Lambda/S3/CloudFormation) that reduced costs by 30% while ensuring 99.9% uptime for tax compliance SaaS. Embedded security into SDLC via automated guardrails (Akamai/Splunk), turning SSAE/PCI compliance into competitive advantage and slashing deployment cycles by 40%.

Firmware Engineering Manager

Portal Player | Kirkland, WA (Jan 2001 - Oct 2001)

Regional Director

Rainbow Technologies | Long Beach, CA (Jan 1999 - Jan 2001)

Director, Development Operations & IT / Principal Architect

Wolters Kluwer | Torrance, CA (Mar 1993 - Jan 1998)