DGP — David Guy Pugliese Get in touch

David
Pugliese.

Director of IT · AI Agent Infrastructure

Ten-plus years across hybrid infrastructure, cybersecurity, and full-stack engineering — running production MCP servers and shipping platforms end-to-end.

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Portrait of David Guy Pugliese
Philadelphia, PA · Available for full-time roles & fractional infra leadership
10+ yrs
Engineering & IT
22
Technical Certifications
50+
Clients Supported
6
Engineers Led
01 — About

Bridging strategic technology leadership and hands-on engineering.

I work best with teams that ship — recruiters with technical roles, executives who need fractional infrastructure leadership, and founders who want someone who can architect the system and build it.

Today I lead enterprise IT for an international fraternity with ~150K members across 770 chapters. The work spans hybrid infrastructure, cybersecurity hardening to NIST 800-53 / CIS, and the headless React/Next.js portal connecting members to a Salesforce/Fonteva backend — with Stripe dues, WebAuthn passkeys, and webhook-driven document signing in the loop.

Lately the most interesting part of the job is AI agent infrastructure: production MCP servers connecting Claude to Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Cloudflare, Supabase, and Granola under a least-privilege identity model. Non-human identity is the new compliance frontier, and I'm working in it daily.

D. G. Pugliese Director of IT · AI Agent Infrastructure
02 — Experience

Sixteen years building, securing, and shipping at every level.

2024 Feb 2024 — Present
Director of Information Technology
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. · Philadelphia, PA

Lead IT strategy, engineering, and operations for an international fraternity with ~150K members across 770 chapters.

MCP — designed and run production MCP servers connecting Claude to M365, Google Workspace, Cloudflare, Supabase & Granola; established access patterns & audit posture for non-human identities
KAPSI Connect — lead architect on headless React/Next.js portal (Cloudflare Pages → Node/Express → Salesforce/Fonteva REST) with Stripe dues, WebAuthn, role-based JWT & webhook signing
Greenfield Infra — hypervisor environment, enterprise switching + UniFi access, AD remediation in tandem with Entra ID consolidation
Security Posture — first NIST 800-53 / CIS aligned milestone, SOC 2-aligned controls, first annual third-party pen test
Lifecycle — zero-touch M365/Entra provisioning, PowerShell automation, structured incident response with RCA
Org Scope
International — ~150K members
Reporting Line
Deputy Executive Director & CIO
2018 Aug 2018 — Present · Volunteer
Director of IT · Volunteer
Bensalem Volunteer Fire Department · Bensalem, PA

Own IT direction, public-facing web presence, and digital tooling for crew operations — on a volunteer basis.

Web — built & maintain bensalemvfd.org; Tailwind frontend on Supabase, deployed on Cloudflare
Crew Points — prototyped an API-driven points engine that polls First Due to cross-reference on-scene roster data & auto-credit members
Operations — manage station IT, dispatch integrations & vendor relationships
Advisory — technology budgeting, grant-funded equipment refreshes, member-facing communications
Capacity
Volunteer
Scope
Bensalem, Pennsylvania
2023 Jul 2023 — Feb 2024
IT Manager
ERGOS Technology Partners · Remote

Managed delivery of MSP services across a multi-industry client base.

6 engineers — led team delivering IT services to 50+ clients at 98% SLA compliance
~40% — client downtime reduction via infrastructure modernization
15% — operational overhead cut by licensing optimization & vendor renegotiation
Standardization — client onboarding workflows & documentation, accelerating ramp time
Geographic Scope
Remote
Reporting Line
Senior leadership
2022 Apr 2022 — Jul 2023
Lead Professional Service Engineer
SWK Technologies · Remote

Senior technical escalation and end-to-end project delivery for the professional services group.

Strategic — influenced platform migration from N-central to NinjaRMM via technical evaluation & feasibility analysis
Escalation — senior point across Microsoft 365, firewalls, backup/DR
Delivery — owned M365 tenant migrations, hypervisor refreshes, SonicWall/FortiGate cutovers
Mentorship — coached helpdesk & junior engineers; partnered with sales on scoping
Geographic Scope
Remote
Function
Professional Services
2018 Aug 2018 — Apr 2022
Network Engineer
Moving Forward IT · Remote

Designed, deployed, and maintained secure network infrastructures across multi-vendor stacks for SMB and government clients.

Essex County — led full lift-and-shift migration of courthouse infrastructure from legacy on-prem to a modernized data-center footprint
Multi-vendor — Cisco, Ubiquiti, Fortinet across firewall audits, IPS tuning, VLAN segmentation, IPsec tunnels
DR — backup posture, restore drills, RTO/RPO tracking, offsite replication
Tier-3 — complex networking incident escalation; reduced MTTA via monitoring & alerting
Geographic Scope
SMB & remote
Function
Network Engineering
2011 2011 — 2018
IT Contractor
Independent · Multi-Industry

Delivered contract desktop and network support to small and mid-sized businesses across a range of industries — the foundation work that informed everything that followed.

Hands-on — Windows endpoints, peripherals, consumer-to-small-business networking, Tier 1–2 troubleshooting
Returning clients — built relationships through reliability and follow-through
Geographic Scope
Philadelphia, PA & remote
Engagement Model
Independent contract
2009 2009 — 2010
IT Support
Strongcity Technology Solutions · Philadelphia, PA

Desktop and end-user support across Windows environments — first formal IT role.

Support — hardware troubleshooting, software installs, peripheral setup, account resets
Tier-1 — ticket triage & resolution; escalated complex issues to senior engineers
Geographic Scope
Philadelphia, PA
Function
End-user Support
2007 2007 — 2009
Computer Literacy Instructor
Honickman Learning Center · Philadelphia, PA

Taught computer literacy to community learners — Windows fundamentals, Microsoft Office, internet navigation, and email essentials.

Teaching — adapted lesson plans for mixed skill levels; coached students one-on-one
Recognition — recipient of an instructional contribution award
Geographic Scope
Philadelphia, PA
Function
Community Instruction
03 — Stack & Credentials

Twenty-five-plus certifications, continuously refined.

Stack

Identity & Access
Entra ID · Conditional Access · SSO · MFA · WebAuthn · OAuth 2.0 · AD
Daily Practice
AI & Agent Tooling
Claude (Sonnet/Opus) · Claude Code · MCP Servers · n8n · Agentic Workflows
Daily Practice
Cloud, Edge & SaaS
Azure · AWS · Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Cloudflare Workers · Supabase · Vercel
Production
Engineering Stack
TypeScript · Python · SQL · PowerShell · React · Next.js · Tailwind · Node/Express · Stripe · Salesforce/Fonteva
Production
Networking & Security
FortiGate · SonicWall · Cisco Meraki · UniFi · NIST 800-53 · CIS Controls · SOC 2
Operations

Certifications

CompTIA Security+ (ce)Cybersecurity foundations
SEC+
CompTIA Network+ (ce)Networking fundamentals
NET+
CompTIA Cloud+ (ce)Cloud architecture & operations
CLD+
CompTIA Server+ (ce)Server administration
SRV+
CompTIA A+ · ITF+IT fundamentals
A+ / ITF+
CompTIA IT Operations Specialist (CIOS)Stackable specialist
CIOS
CompTIA Secure Infrastructure Specialist (CSIS)Stackable specialist
CSIS
CompTIA Network Infrastructure Professional (CNIP)Stackable professional
CNIP
CompTIA Secure Cloud Professional (CSCP)Stackable professional
CSCP
CompTIA Cloud Admin Professional (CCAP)Stackable professional
CCAP
(ISC)² Certified in CybersecurityFoundational security credential
CC
AWS Cloud PractitionerAmazon Web Services
AWS
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)Cloud platform
AZ-900
Microsoft SC&I Fundamentals (SC-900)Security, compliance & identity
SC-900
Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900)M365 platform
MS-900
VMware VCP — DCVData Center Virtualization
VCP
Parallels RAS Technical Professional · AdvancedRemote Application Server
RAS / RAS+
UniFi Wireless Administrator · Full Stack ProfessionalUbiquiti
UWA / UFS
LPI Linux EssentialsLinux foundations
LPI
GitHub FoundationsSource control & collaboration
GH
ITIL Foundation v5IT service management
ITIL
IT Glue Certified ProfessionalDocumentation platform
ITG