Ben Force
Hi! I'm Ben. I'm an experienced security professional with 15+ years across engineering, cloud, endpoint, architecture, and enterprise platforms, now specializing in automation and SOAR to reduce risk and increase operational efficiency at scale. I'm known for delivering measurable impact by eliminating friction, modernizing security capabilities, and driving strategic alignment across complex organizations.
Experience
The Vanguard Group
Lead SOAR Developer | Security Operations Center
November 2025 — Present
The Vanguard Group
DevSecOps Assurance Expert | Global Enterprise Security
March 2023 — November 2025
Led strategic enablement for major security initiatives, including SAST and unified vulnerability management.
Reduced false-positive hardcoded credential findings by over 80% through targeted SAST query tuning.
Developed an 18-month “Journey to UVM” roadmap by aligning stakeholders across multiple security domains to a unified long-term vision.
Engineered Infrastructure as Code for foundational UVM capabilities, mapping cloud security findings to business applications using a risk-based approach.
Evaluated emerging security platforms and delivered data-driven recommendations to strengthen detection and response.
The Vanguard Group
Solutions Consultant | Workplace Experience and Architecture
February 2022 — March 2023
Improved employee experience by reducing friction in daily workflows through data-driven analysis and UX research.
Designed and deployed solutions that resolved 85% of negative feedback submitted through the employee Service Portal.
Led a UX case study on password reset trends, identifying why reset incidents increased 25% during the pandemic and did not return to baseline.
Implemented fixes for 4 of 11 high-impact findings identified in the case study.
Facilitated discussions with key stakeholders on modern, industry-standard self-service password reset capabilities.
The Vanguard Group
Senior Platform Engineer | End User Computing
April 2019 — February 2022
Engineered and maintained the VMware Anywhere Workspace platform, supporting diverse VDI use cases and more than 10,000 corporate and BYOD mobile devices.
Improved VDI delivery processes, reducing lead time by 22% while enabling a 300% increase in volume.
Developed ServiceNow integrations for Workspace ONE to meet new global business requirements during the pandemic.
Ensured continuity for a hybrid workforce by adapting and optimizing operational workflows.
Implemented infrastructure health monitoring using Splunk and PagerDuty APIs.
Researched and evaluated new cloud-based virtual workspace technologies, including VMware on AWS, AWS WorkSpaces, and Horizon on Azure.
The Vanguard Group
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure Engineer | Chief Technology Office
September 2016 — April 2019
Engineered and supported hybrid cloud services including DNS, NTP, Active Directory, network peering, routing, and Palo Alto egress using Python and CloudFormation across a large AWS Organization.
Created Bamboo CI/CD build and deployment specifications in Java and YAML to enable one-click infrastructure deployments.
Authored AWS CloudFormation templates and deployed them through enterprise CI/CD pipelines.
Defined KPIs for critical infrastructure components using CloudWatch metrics, logs, and on-prem telemetry.
Developed Python Lambda functions to aggregate data across a multi-account AWS environment.
Mentored FinTech product teams through cloud adoption and modernization.
The Vanguard Group
Systems Operations Analyst | Global Technology Office
May 2014 — September 2016
Administered more than 5,000 Windows servers in a global, highly available, distributed environment. Supported bare-metal, ESXi, and Hyper-V platforms while participating in ITIL-aligned incident management.
Served as primary engineer for enterprise file shares and home directories supporting over 15,000 users.
Migrated a major FTP environment from IIS 6/7 to IIS 8.
Implemented Splunk monitoring of IIS logs to improve incident response and traffic analysis.
Reduced mean-time-to-detect for service account lockout incidents by more than 90% through automated alerting.
Automated routine operational tasks using PowerShell.
The Vanguard Group
Software Testing Administrator | Corporate Strategy
July 2012 — May 2014
Managed annual testing cycles for investment reporting systems and new in-house applications.
Collaborated with business partners, developers, and DBAs on requirements and application design.
Trained mutual fund reporting teams on tools and processes to improve testing standards and consistency.
Led a DMAIC initiative to modernize the CAT Test Readiness Review process.
Education
Penn State
Master of Science, Information Science
2011 — 2014
Temple University
Bachelor of Arts, Communication and Media Studies
2000 — 2005
Certifications
Social Links
- Github: https://github.com/theRealBenForce
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theRealBenForce