08/24/2026 updated


100 % available
Senior Cybersecurity & GRC Consultant | ISO 27001, IT Audit (CISA), NIS2/DORA, Cloud & OT
Rahim yar khan, Pakistan
Only remote
Executive MBA, International Islamic University Islamabad; BBA (Hons), IUBAbout me
OT/IT cybersecurity and GRC consultant with 12+ years across critical infrastructure, cloud and application security. I lead ISO 27001, IEC 62443, NIST CSF and NCA audits, readiness and assurance programmes for energy, rail and industrial operators. CISA, ISO 27001 LA, ISO 42001 LA.
Amazon Web ServicesCloud Computing SecurityGitHubSupervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)Identity ManagementInformation AssuranceISO/IEC 27001Network SecurityAnsibleIEC 62443Certified Information Systems AuditorIT General Controls (ITGC)CloudformationKubernetesCIS Benchmarks
OT/IT cybersecurity, GRC, audit and assurance. Frameworks: ISA/IEC 62443, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, NIST CSF 2.0, NIST SP 800-82, SOC 2, PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO 22301, ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, NIS2, DORA. Regional: NCA ECC, OTCC, CSCC, DCC, OSMACC, TCC, SAMA CSF, PDPL, Aramco SACS, SAEP, SAES, Shell DEP. Audit and assurance: IT audit, internal audit, ITGC and application control testing, control gap assessment, audit readiness, three lines of defence, KPI and KRI reporting, remediation roadmaps, third party risk, enterprise risk management, ISMS, OT CSMS, Statement of Applicability, policy frameworks. OT and ICS: SCADA, PLC, DCS, Purdue model, ISA-95, zone and conduit design, security level assessment. Identity: IAM, RBAC, privileged access management, OT and IT identity boundaries. Cloud and DevSecOps: AWS (EC2, VPC, S3, Lambda, IAM), CIS Benchmarks hardening, Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, Kubernetes and EKS hardening, network policies, CI/CD security in Jenkins and GitHub Actions, SAST, DAST, container image scanning, secrets management, cloud compliance mapping. Tools: Nessus, Tenable, Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Nmap, Metasploit, Splunk. Reporting: control heatmaps, dashboards and audit reports for senior management and external auditors. Sectors: oil and gas, energy, utilities, rail and transport, telecom, finance. Delivered remotely to clients in 8 countries.
Experience
Professional experience10+ years
Freelancer since2013
Languages
EnglishFluentHindiFluent
Project history
Lead OT/IT GRC and assurance engagements for critical-infrastructure operators across the GCC: 30+ enterprise clients in oil and gas, utilities, transport, finance and telecom across 8 countries, aligned to ISA/IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82, NIST CSF 2.0 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022. Design and implement OT CSMS and ISMS programmes (Code of Practice, Statement of Applicability, policies) mapped to IEC 62443-2-1/3-3 and Shell DEP. Risk-based OT/IT assessments using IEC 62443 security levels and zone & conduit models, with prioritised remediation roadmaps for Levels 0-3.5. Build three-lines-of-defence assurance frameworks with KPIs/KRIs and LoD3 audit readiness; test ITGCs and application controls; review IAM, RBAC and privileged access across OT/IT boundaries. Report to senior management and external auditors via control heatmaps and dashboards; lead engagement teams and mentor consultants. Selected engagements: Petroleum Development Oman (OT CSMS across 70+ sites, ~90% of findings closed); Haramain High Speed Railway (6 NCA standards, 22 gaps with remediation roadmap); SASREF / Saudi Aramco Jubail (ICS/IT architecture assessment); TAWAL (enterprise risk, NIST CSF + ISO 27001); Arabia Insurance and Naseej (FY2024 information security audits).
Embedded security into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions): SAST, DAST, container scanning and secrets management, cutting critical production vulnerabilities by 60%+. Hardened AWS (EC2, VPC, S3, Lambda) to CIS Benchmarks using Terraform, Ansible and CloudFormation. Secured EKS/Kubernetes workloads with network policies, RBAC and runtime protection. Mapped DevOps controls to NIST, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 requirements and supported audit evidence collection.
Cloud and application security engineering for a high-traffic digital content platform, delivered fully remotely to a Copenhagen-based team: cloud hardening, access control, vulnerability management and secure deployment practices.
Certificates
ISA/IEC 62443 Fundamentals Specialist
ISA2026
Cisco CyberOps Associate
Cisco2026
Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
ISACA2025
ISO/IEC 42001:2023 Lead Auditor
Mastermind2025
ICS Cybersecurity Assessment (CISA 401)
US CISA2025
ISO/IEC 27001 Lead Implementer
Cyber Value Addition2023