Northern Illinois · Fractional CISO / CIO & security leadership

William Janness

Security leadership that still ships code.

I run the SOC 2 / HIPAA program — and I build the software that enforces it.

For three decades I've built, secured, and run production infrastructure — a senior Linux and Windows administrator who started by pulling the cable. Today I lead Information Security & Compliance at an enterprise AI company, and I took Trustivum — a multi-tenant SOC 2 / HIPAA compliance platform — from concept to live product. I write the policies — and I ship the automation that enforces them.

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Most security executives govern. Most engineers build. I do both — which means the controls I design actually work in production, and the infrastructure I build passes audit the first time.

$152K/yr avoided

The ITSM platform alone replaced commercial tools quoted at up to $152K/year — and it's one of 12+ platforms built in-house: helpdesk, purchase orders, asset & inventory management, an AI infrastructure assistant. Each one avoids its own license spend.

1,450+ days

Individual production VMs I architected have each run 1,450+ consecutive days without unplanned downtime — in a fleet that grew from half a rack to six racks of GPU infrastructure.

First-pass audits

SOC 2 and HIPAA programs built hands-on: I write the policies and ship the automation that enforces them — productized as Trustivum.

Three Ways to Engage

Fractional CISO / vCISO

For companies that need SOC 2 or HIPAA done right without a full-time executive salary. I've built these programs from zero inside a fast-moving AI company; I know which controls matter and which are audit theater.

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Fractional CIO / Infrastructure Advisory

Colo buildouts, GPU fleet architecture, network fabric design, cloud-repatriation math. If your AWS bill is the problem, I've solved it at scale.

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Full-Time Security Leadership

For the right company: one where security, compliance, and infrastructure are one job, not three departments.

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Three Disciplines, One Mindset

Every system I build starts with security. Every product I ship runs on infrastructure I designed.

Security & Compliance

SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR compliance at scale. Zero Trust network design, SIEM implementation, endpoint management, and incident response — for an AI company where the stakes are high.

SOC 2 HIPAA GDPR Zero Trust Fortinet

Infrastructure & Network Architecture

Designed a full 3-spine/6-leaf data center fabric for an AI company's server fleet. Planned and operated multi-product SaaS hosting infrastructure serving live users daily.

Spine & Leaf BGP / ECMP Dell OS10 Docker VLT

Product Design & Development

Built production SaaS platforms from concept through deployment — full-stack, with AI integration baked in. Every one runs on self-hosted infrastructure I design and operate.

React / TypeScript Python / FastAPI Next.js PostgreSQL AI APIs
30 Years in IT, Security & Compliance
~2,900 Physical CPU Cores Across 35 Hosts
~$5M AI Infrastructure Operated
12+ Internal Platforms Built From Scratch
20+ Production Systems on Self-Hosted Infra

Product Design Through Production Deployment

I don't just manage infrastructure. I build the systems that run on it.

Compliance SaaS · Flagship Product

Trustivum — SOC 2 & HIPAA Compliance Platform

A multi-tenant compliance SaaS I took from concept to live product: a compliance-mapping engine spanning SOC 2 and HIPAA, a weekly compliance calendar that stores every answer as audit evidence, and an AI compliance assistant. Go/GraphQL backend, React/Relay frontend — an AI-accelerated build I directed end-to-end. Live at trustivum.com — the clearest proof of the pitch: a compliance leader who ships compliance software.

SOC 2 · HIPAA Multi-Tenant Go / GraphQL React / Relay PostgreSQL
Enterprise Software · AI Integration

Enterprise IT Service Management Platform

Self-hosted, enterprise-grade ITSM built from the ground up. 10-container Docker stack, autonomous AI remediation agent, 41 ticket types, Slack-integrated approval workflows, Active Directory sync. Replaced commercial tools quoted at up to $152K/year.

Python / FastAPI React / TypeScript Claude AI PostgreSQL Docker
Network Architecture · Data Center

Enterprise Spine & Leaf Network Fabric

Designed a 3-spine/6-leaf, all-100G data center network fabric for an AI company's server fleet — replacing a flat network with a BGP underlay, VLT peer pairs, ECMP across all three spines, and Anycast Gateway per zone.

Dell S5232F-ON Dell OS10 eBGP VLT / ECMP Fortinet
AI Infrastructure · Internal Platforms

Enterprise AI Infrastructure & Internal Platforms

Owned the multi-year buildout from half a rack to six full colocation racks — now ~2,900 CPU cores, ~34 TB of RAM, NVIDIA A100/B300-class GPU compute, and 48 VMs across 35 hosts. Plus a suite of internal software built from scratch: a federated CMDB, live inventory and network dashboards, power monitoring, and an AI infrastructure assistant.

GPU / CPU Compute Federated CMDB FastAPI / Python Proxmox / VMware Self-Hosted AI
AI Workflow & Self-Healing Automation · Production

Self-Healing Systems & AI Workflow Architecture

Self-healing applications built with scripting and AI: an autonomous remediation agent that resolves known faults without human intervention, an event-log pipeline that analyzes logs and opens its own tickets, and an AI-orchestration layer coordinating specialized agents across my own applications and brands. Not chat — an operating system for delegated technical work.

Self-Healing Claude Agent SDK Orchestration Cross-Host Ops
Product Development · Full Lifecycle

From Pain Point to Production

The throughline of my work: I find a real, unsolved problem, build the complete solution, and refine it until it's genuinely great. Time To Plate, an enterprise helpdesk, an asset-management system, a purchase-order system, an automated penetration-testing & reporting platform, and more — each taken from idea to running software.

Time To Plate Helpdesk / ITSM Pen-Test & Reporting SaaS End-to-End
LLC · Co-Founder · CEO / CTO / CISO

Mad Monkey Creative LLC

Chicago-area creative tech umbrella company I co-founded and lead as CEO, CTO, and CISO. 7 live product brands across apparel, software, music, and education — all running on shared infrastructure I designed, built, and operate.

Co-Founder CEO / CTO / CISO One Automation Platform Apache / PM2 Self-Hosted Infra
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Builder by Nature.
Security by Design.

I've spent three decades in IT and cybersecurity, but what drives me is building things that actually solve problems — not just maintaining what exists. From an enterprise network fabric to a SaaS recipe scheduler, every project starts with the same question: "What's the right way to build this?" — and security is always part of that answer.

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William Janness

Common Questions

Is William Janness available for fractional CISO / vCISO engagements?

Yes. I take on fractional CISO / vCISO engagements to build or rescue SOC 2 and HIPAA programs, fractional CIO / infrastructure advisory, and board-level security advisory — and full-time security leadership for the right company. Start a conversation here.

Where is he based?

Northern Illinois. On-site across Chicagoland, remote everywhere else.

Can he build production software as well as run security?

That's the whole position. I run SOC 2 / HIPAA compliance programs as an executive, and I took Trustivum — a live, multi-tenant compliance platform — from PRD to production: product design, data model, an AI-accelerated build I directed, and the infrastructure it runs on. I write the policies — and I ship the automation that enforces them.

What has he shipped?

Live products include Trustivum (trustivum.com), Time To Plate (timetoplate.com), and Carryout Deal Radar (cd-radar.com) — plus an enterprise ITSM platform, a federated CMDB, and a suite of internal infrastructure platforms detailed on the Proof of Work page.

Let's Build Something That Actually Works

Thirty years in means I've already made the expensive mistakes on someone else's budget. Let's skip them on yours.

Get In Touch → View Resume