Veena Harish

About Veena Harish

Cybersecurity leader with 20+ years of experience driving enterprise security programs that protect global organizations operating in regulated and threat intensive environments. Proven track record delivering secure, scalable solutions across cloud security, Zero Trust, and cyber risk initiatives at Microsoft, including high privilege access reduction and security hardening efforts aligned with the Secured Future Initiative (SFI).Expertise spanning risk analysis, detection engineering, adversary emulation, compliance, and security operations, in sovereign and public cloud environments. Experienced in designing and executing security programs that meet stringent regulatory, residency, and operational requirements while enabling innovation and mission delivery. Recognized for leading highly complex, cross functional initiatives that measurably reduce risk exposure and support digital transformation across the Insurance, Manufacturing, and Public Sector domains.

Experience

1. Sr Security Program Manager

   Microsoft

   Feb 2021 — Present

   Leading security strategy and operations for the sovereign cloud, driving compliant, resilient security architectures and operating models for highly regulated government workloads. • Drove detection engineering efficiency and advanced adversary emulation strategy, onboarding, and reporting accelerating coverage and signal quality across critical services. • Shaped Microsoft’s largest security program – Secured Future Initiative (SFI) in driving Identity and Tenant Isolation KPIs; reduced exposure from high privilege access and unused permissions in service to service flow.• Coordinated incident response during a major nation state intrusion; organized comms and remediation with service owners. • Earlier, ran Azure shiproom for sovereign/geo expansion programs (e.g, EU data boundary), improving delivery reliability and compliance outcomes. • Supported Microsoft’s JEDI contract by delivering critical security objectives for government cloud environments. My primary focus was on secrets management and network isolation KPIs, ensuring compliance and resilience for large enterprise customers• Partnered with engineering and customer experience teams to enhance resiliency against Cosmos DB and DNS failures, and closed FedRAMP audit findings with robust documentation for the Joint Advisory Board (JAB).

Education

• Pune University

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)

• GES College of Science

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.)