Glenn McDowell

About Glenn McDowell

I am a cybersecurity leader with over a decade of experience building, scaling, and maturing defensive cyber operations in complex, regulated environments. My background spans detection and response, incident management, detection engineering, and enterprise security leadership, enabling me to design programs that are resilient, measurable, and aligned with business priorities.As the Manager of Defensive Cyber Operations, I lead frontline leaders across four core capabilities: global 24/7 Detection and Response operating as a tierless SOC responsible for initial triage and escalation; Enterprise Cyber Incident Response focused on forensic investigation, threat eradication, and recovery; Detection Engineering responsible for building and validating detection capabilities; and Operational Governance and Process Management ensuring consistent documentation, workflows, metrics, and continuous improvement across all defensive functions.My focus is operational maturity. I have led the evolution of legacy security operations into outcome-driven programs with clear ownership, reliable escalation paths, and feedback loops that improve detection quality, response speed, and incident handling under real-world conditions. I prioritize repeatability, accountability, and decision quality so security performance can be understood and trusted by leadership.I actively integrate AI-enabled security orchestration and automation to accelerate response, reduce analyst friction, and improve consistency at scale. By streamlining triage and standardizing response actions, automation reinforces operational discipline and allows teams to focus on judgment, investigation, and leadership rather than manual effort.Culture and leadership development are foundational to how I operate. I invest in growing frontline leaders who coach effectively, manage risk with sound judgment, and sustain high-performing teams. I have led enterprise security awareness initiatives that produced measurable behavior change, reinforcing security as a shared responsibility rather than a reactive function.I bring a strong business lens to security leadership, managing defensive capabilities as a portfolio aligned to operational outcomes and long-term risk reduction. My goal is to build defensive cyber programs that leaders rely on during critical moments and trust day to day, delivering security outcomes that scale with the business and stand up under pressure.

Experience

1. Defensive Cyber Operations (Dco) Level 5 Cybersecurity Operations Manager

   SAIC

   Aug 2023 — Present

   Leads Defensive Cyber Operations with end-to-end responsibility across four core functions: 24/7 Detection and Response, Enterprise Cyber Incident Response, Detection Engineering, and Operational Governance and Process Management. Oversees global 24/7/365 defensive operations and leads a cybersecurity organization of 25 professionals, including frontline leaders, engineers, and analysts. Owns tactical incident response execution, drives detection and response strategy, and ensures alignment with business risk and organizational security objectives.

Education

• Western Governors University

  Master of Business Administration - MBA, Information Technology Management

• Western Governors University

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Cybersecurity & Information Assurance