Hi, I'm Derek Balling - Staff Software Engineer, Security and Compliance Programs at Google
I am passionate about solving the human side of technical infrastructure. I thrive in environments where large-scale change is required and believe that success lies in balancing ambitious goals with reality.
At a glance
Curated signals on strengths, focus areas, and how they can help.
Authored the authoritative guide on high-performance database management for O'Reilly.
Focuses on driving complex security and infrastructure change management programs at global scale.
Can assist teams by bridging the gap between high-level policy and actionable engineering implementation.
🚀 Career trajectory
Operational Foundation
Spent over a decade in systems administration and infrastructure leadership.
✦ Systems Admin
✦ Operations
✦ Director
Executive Transition
Served as CTO during critical growth and vendor management phases.
✦ CTO
✦ Vendor Strategy
Scale Specialist
Led large-scale security and infrastructure programs at Google.
✦ TPM
✦ Compliance
💪🏻 Superpowers
Architect of Scale
Navigating complex technical adoption across massive ecosystems
✦ Transformed global engineering policies for complex security compliance.
✦ Engineered rollout playbooks for mission-critical infrastructure changes.
✦ Synchronized cross-team efforts to unify engineering ecosystems.
Technical Empathy Lead
Bridging leadership and frontline engineering realities
✦ Balances program ambitions with realistic engineering constraints.
✦ Translates high-level mandates into actionable developer workflows.
✦ Advocates for technical viability during leadership roadmap planning.
Infrastructure Thought Leader
Evangelizing best practices and technical rigor
✦ Authored industry-standard references on high-performance database systems.
✦ Speaks at global conferences on storage and contract management.
✦ Mentors teams on technical communication and infrastructure reliability.
I'm excited about
✦ Exploring strategic challenges within the security and infrastructure domains.
✦ Connecting with peers to discuss scaling complex technical organizations.
✦ Gaining new perspectives on organizational change management methodologies.
I can help with
✦ Providing expert guidance on scaling technical programs within large organizations.
✦ Advising on the intersection of infrastructure reliability and security compliance.
✦ Reviewing operational playbooks to improve engineering adoption rates.
I would love your help on
✦ Insights into evolving standards for cross-functional infrastructure governance.
✦ Perspectives on the latest challenges in cloud-native security adoption.
✦ Networking with fellow veterans managing deep-tech product migrations.