Career Summary

James M. Leone

CIO | CISO | IT Director | Security & Network Operations Leader

With more than three decades of IT leadership across Cybersecurity, IT Operations, and Infrastructure Management, I bring a unique blend of strategic vision, hands-on expertise, and cross-industry insight. I’ve led transformative initiatives in Telecommunications, Finance, Healthcare, Food & Beverage, Accounting, and Managed Services, consistently aligning technology with business outcomes.

As a results-driven leader, I’ve built and managed Security Operations Centers (SOC), Network Operations Centers (NOC), and enterprise IT teams, ensuring secure, scalable, and resilient environments that drive growth and compliance.

Core Leadership & Technical Expertise

✔ Security Operations & Cyber Defense – SIEM, EDR, XDR, ZTA, threat intelligence, forensics, and incident response across enterprise environments
✔ Enterprise IT Strategy & Transformation – Aligning IT with business goals; delivering scalable, cloud-ready, cost-efficient solutions
✔ Network & Cloud Engineering – Hybrid cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), virtualization (VMware, KVM), SD-WAN, and infrastructure automation
✔ Compliance & Risk Management – PCI-DSS, SOC2, HIPAA, SOX, ISO 27001; driving successful audits and risk mitigation initiatives
✔ Cross-Functional Leadership – Partnering across SOC, NOC, IT, Engineering, and Executive teams to build aligned, outcome-focused operations
✔ Data, Automation & Observability – Integrating Grafana, Prometheus, SolarWinds, and DevOps pipelines for enhanced visibility and performance.

Strategic Impact & Career Highlights

🔹 SOC/NOC Leadership – Leading enterprise SOC and NOC operations at scale, with oversight of thousands of endpoints and real-time alerting
🔹 Cybersecurity Architecture – Expertise in EDR, SIEM, ZTA, and AI-enhanced alerting systems to accelerate threat detection and response
🔹 Infrastructure Modernization – Designing and deploying secure hybrid cloud environments and monitoring frameworks for continuous availability
🔹 Compliance Leadership – Spearheading regulatory audits and governance initiatives across ISO, PCI-DSS, SOC2, HIPAA, and SOX
🔹 Technology Optimization – Delivering high-availability, automated systems that reduce operational risk and improve performance
🔹 Executive Communication – Bridging technical and business domains; providing strategic guidance to C-level teams and stakeholders

I’m passionate about building secure, intelligent infrastructures, blending traditional IT principles with emerging technologies like AI, automation, and data-driven observability. I’m equally fascinated by the future of computing, from quantum systems to consciousness and beyond.

If you're looking for a strategic IT and security leader who blends deep technical roots with business-focused execution, I’d be glad to connect.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leonejames Email: jleone@iphwy.com jim@jimleone.com jimleone@gmail.com