Who We Are
Meet Our Leadership Team
The people driving DevSecOps education forward through real-world engineering and community-first leadership.
Damien Burks
Founder
Damien Burks is the Founder of The DevSec Blueprint, a cloud security engineer, international speaker, LinkedIn Learning instructor, and AWS Community Builder dedicated to transforming how people learn DevSecOps and cloud security. With experience building security guardrails, cloud platforms, CI/CD controls, and secure engineering systems across major technology and financial organizations, Damien created DSB to close the gap between theory and the real-world skills employers expect. His work centers on practical education, hands-on engineering, career development, and creating opportunities for technologists to build confidence, demonstrate their abilities, and develop lasting careers in security.
Highlights
- Cloud Security Engineering Leader: Builds security guardrails, secure cloud platforms, CI/CD controls, and scalable engineering systems across complex enterprise environments
- Founder & Curriculum Architect: Created The DevSec Blueprint to turn DevSecOps and cloud security theory into structured, hands-on learning built around real systems
- LinkedIn Learning Instructor & International Speaker: Teaches practical cloud security concepts and shares real-world engineering lessons with technical audiences worldwide
- AWS Community Builder & Career Advocate: Uses his experience, platform, and industry visibility to help technologists strengthen their skills, demonstrate their capabilities, and build lasting careers in security
Head of Community & Member Experience
Iman Crooks
Iman Crooks is the Head of Community & Member Experience at The DevSec Blueprint, where she combines her background in cloud engineering, DevOps, gaming, mentorship, and workforce development to create a welcoming and career-focused community. As a career changer herself, she understands the challenges of breaking into technology and is passionate about helping members build confidence, meaningful connections, and lasting careers.
- •Cloud & DevOps Leader: Built and supported secure, scalable cloud infrastructure across FinTech and marketing technology environments
- •Fortnite Contributor: Led QA efforts for Fortnite's Technical Art and Visual Effects teams, including the record-breaking Travis Scott Astronomical experience
- •Career-Changer Advocate: Turned her own path into tech into a mission to mentor, guide, and open doors for the next generation of technologists
- •Globally Minded Community Builder: Brings international perspective, technical credibility, and genuine empathy to creating spaces where members feel seen, supported, and empowered
Head of Technical Content & Programs
Timothy Hogue
Timothy is the Head of Technical Content & Programs at The DevSec Blueprint, where he brings extensive experience in cloud infrastructure, automation, DevSecOps, infrastructure as code, and multi-cloud migrations. As a Senior Cloud Engineer in the healthcare industry, he has led large-scale cloud initiatives, built secure-by-design platforms, and helped engineers deploy infrastructure more efficiently. He is also passionate about mentoring professionals in cloud certifications, DevSecOps practices, and cloud-native architecture.
- •Cloud Migration Leader: Led the migration of more than 800 databases from Azure to AWS with zero data loss
- •Platform Engineering Advocate: Built platforms that enable secure-by-design infrastructure, automated remediation, and more efficient cloud deployments
- •DevSecOps & Automation Expert: Brings hands-on expertise across cloud infrastructure, infrastructure as code, automation, and multi-cloud environments
- •Technical Mentor & Musician: Mentors engineers through workplace and community programs, has played saxophone for 21 years, and once toured Italy performing in cathedrals across Turin
Our Leadership Philosophy
We believe that the best way to learn security is by building real systems and breaking them safely. Our leadership philosophy centers on transparency, hands-on mentorship, and community-driven growth. Every decision we make is guided by one question: does this help engineers become more capable and confident in securing the software they build?
We lead by example — shipping open-source projects, sharing failures alongside successes, and creating space for engineers at every level to contribute, learn, and grow together.
Want to Connect?
Get in touch with our team to ask questions, explore partnerships, or just say hello.
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