Michael Nijhawan, CISSP, CISM, PMP

AI Governance Advisors helps organizations adopt AI securely and responsibly by establishing the governance, risk management, and compliance capabilities needed to support AI and GenAI technologies. Services include: • AI Governance Readiness Assessments • AI Risk Management Advisory • AI Governance Framework Development • AI Policy and Control Development • NIST AI RMF Alignment • ISO/IEC 42001 Readiness Support • AI Risk Registers and Use-Case Inventories • Executive AI Risk Briefings • Cybersecurity and AI Governance Integration

Lead a 14-member cybersecurity engineering team providing specialized support across 10 federal agencies, ensuring comprehensive visibility into assets, vulnerabilities, and configurations through advanced risk assessment. Operationalize Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) principles across multi-tenant Cloud integration layers to enhance multi-agency data confidentiality, integrity, and availability while optimizing risk metrics and regulatory compliance. Direct GRC frameworks aligned with NIST 800-53, RMF, and ISO 27001 standards to reinforce continuous authorization of readiness and alignment with federal security mandates. Modernize security operations by engineering high-availability SIEM/SOAR platforms using the Elastic (ELK) Stack across on-premises, Azure, and AWS environments, integrating Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) controls. Achieved a 60% reduction in mean time to repair (MTTR) for high and critical vulnerabilities, successfully shortening the resolution window from 5 business days to 2 across 10 federal agencies. Advise executive leadership through risk-based briefings, translating technical findings into quantified business impact assessments and strategic roadmaps to enhance the security posture of federal stakeholders. Maintain consecutive 100% Award Fee ratings by consistently exceeding SLA metrics and operational excellence standards for mission-critical CDM operations.

Steered cybersecurity strategy and fiscal governance, guiding project planning, resource allocation, and SOW/ROM development to secure funding for full-lifecycle deployments. Reduced high-risk findings by 25% for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board by revitalizing Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) remediation. Architected secure, high-visibility infrastructure, implementing IPAM across 10,000+ nodes and multi-zone segmentation to reduce subnet conflicts by 50% and attack surface by 30%. Hardened perimeter defenses and automated security administration across remote and onsite networks, accelerating patch cycles and operational efficiency in alignment with NIST standards. Orchestrated technical teams to deliver high-performance, multi-site security and networking initiatives.

Directed financial operations and strategic sourcing, overseeing a $750K+ annual budget and negotiating vendor contracts that yielded $50K+ in cost savings while elevating Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). Achieved 30% gains in operational scalability by architecting standardized deployment playbooks and Continuous Improvement (CI) workflows to streamline enterprise-wide service delivery. Led technical due diligence and post-acquisition infrastructure integration for five major entities, orchestrating system deployments to improve corporate governance, system interoperability, and operational continuity. Architected and managed the construction of two mission-critical enterprise data centers (16,000 sq. ft.), providing secure, high-availability infrastructure for 75+ user facilities and Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities (SCIFs). Enforced FISMA compliance by executing rigorous internal audits and implementing NIST SP 800-53 control frameworks, resulting in successful regulatory assessments and a strengthened risk posture across classified and unclassified environments. Spearheaded multi-tenant cloud-readiness strategies and migration roadmaps for transitioning on-premises workloads to AWS and Azure, significantly enhancing enterprise resilience and disaster recovery capabilities.

Led a cross-functional team in providing lifecycle management for hardware and mission-critical applications supporting the Department of Transportation (DOT). Modernized legacy ITSM platforms and secure remote access (Cisco VPN/RSA) for 150+ users, increasing operational efficiency by 30% and reinforcing network security standards.