Vikram Shanker

Vikram Shanker

viktechcomputers@gmail.com · 262-347-7557 · Shorewood, WI

About

My career doesn’t read like a straight line, and I’ve stopped apologizing for that. I started Viktech in 2005 fixing computers out of my apartment and never closed it. Along the way I ran IT alone for a manufacturer with plants on two continents, built a wireless ISP backbone, founded a micro-manufacturing consultancy, retrained on CNC mills and lathes at IESI, and spent a stretch running kitchens — including six months making naturally fermented sourdough at 750°F under a Michelin-trained chef. None of that was a detour from the technical work. Every one of those jobs was the same problem in different clothing: figure out how the system actually behaves, find where it fails, and build something that holds.

Core skills

Cybersecurity
Incident Response · Vulnerability Assessment · SIEM Tuning · Risk Assessment · Compliance Auditing (HIPAA, PCI) · Endpoint Protection · Forensic Recovery
Infrastructure
Active Directory · Office 365/Azure · Hyper-V/VMware · WSUS · Veeam · SQL Server · ERP Administration · HA Clustering · WAN/LAN Architecture
Networking
Cisco/Meraki · pfSense/Fortinet · RADIUS · VLAN/VoIP · Wireless (P2P/P2MP) · Traffic Analysis · Ruleset Auditing
Tools
Splunk · Solarwinds · Netwrix · PRTG · Tenable Nessus · Microsoft Defender · Symantec EP · Burp Suite · Nmap · Kali · Wireshark
Coding
Python · PowerShell · Bash · SQL · C/C++ · HTML/CSS
Manufacturing (in progress)
CNC Mill/Lathe Operation · G-Code/M-Code · Blueprint Reading · Precision Measurement · NIMS-aligned coursework
Quality / Process
Six Sigma Green Belt · CI Methodology · Documentation · Change Management

Professional experience

Crew Member

Toppers Pizza, Milwaukee, WI

April 2026 – August 2026

  • Handled food ordering and inventory.

Shift Lead

Brute Pizza, Milwaukee, WI

August 2025 – January 2026

  • Directed three line cooks.
  • Operated kitchen station and dough preparation under Michelin-trained chef.
  • Managed prep list and order list maintenance during high-volume service.
  • Coordinated front-of-house expo and back-of-house prep with small kitchen team.

Cybersecurity Engineer

NetForward Corp, Racine, WI

April 2022 – August 2022

  • Implemented cybersecurity measures and protocols to protect corporate networks and data assets.
  • Conducted vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and address security risks.

Manager

Chalet Motel of Mequon, Mequon, WI

August 2022 – April 2023

  • Managed daily operations including guest services, housekeeping, and maintenance.
  • Oversaw staff scheduling, training, and performance evaluations.

Landscape Technician

Gavin Landscaping, Mequon, WI

October 2021 – May 2025

  • Performed planting, trimming, and lawn maintenance across residential and commercial properties.
  • Operated landscaping equipment and tools to ensure efficient project completion.

Founder, Chief Technical Officer

Flextech Design, Shorewood, WI

June 2020 – January 2024 (dissolved)

  • Officer for an on-demand micro-manufacturing business.
  • Prototyped manufacturing process monitoring and automation.
  • Designed and implemented concept-to-fulfillment value stream.
  • Managed customer requests, vendor relationships, and technical inquiries.

Security Consultant (Contract)

Monitoring Alarm Services, Milwaukee, WI

August 2020 – November 2020

  • Responded to ongoing ransomware attack on a medium-scale business.
  • Designed remediation plan to respond and recover from the adverse security event.
  • Performed Impact and Risk assessments to identify scope and scale of mitigation.
  • Implemented Azure AD, cloud backup, MFA, MDM, asset tracking, and workstation imaging.

Infrastructure Security Engineer (Contract)

TEKsystems, Mequon, WI

February 2020 – July 2020

  • Designed and implemented security and infrastructure monitoring and alerting for MSP.
  • Deployed vulnerability scanners, performed assessments, and created remediation plans.
  • Implemented comprehensive log monitoring and tuned event alerting.

Systems Engineer (Solarwinds, Contract)

Milwaukee County via TEKsystems, Milwaukee, WI

October 2018 – May 2019

  • Iteratively tuned Solarwinds based on organizational requirements.
  • Categorized and classified errors and anomalies; developed response plans.
  • Enumerated infrastructure to identify undocumented or uninventoried resources.
  • Designed and implemented a tiered monitoring and alerting schema.
  • Developed weekly, monthly, and quarterly KPI reports for C-level administration.

Security / Systems / Network Engineer

OS Inc, Pewaukee, WI

August 2017 – May 2018

  • Administered IT systems in multidomain environment of 50+ users accessing 100+ healthcare providers.
  • Implemented Netwrix Auditor and SCCM to increase visibility and detection of issues.
  • Performed risk assessments and audits related to Medicare access, internal/vendor security, hardware/software licensing, HIPAA and PCI compliance.
  • Analyzed phishing emails, suspicious files, unusual activity, and indicators of compromise.
  • Upgraded domain controllers, raised functional level, and rebuilt AD using RBAC principles.
  • Developed end-user security training and education materials using emergent threat examples.

IT Manager / Systems Administrator

Construction Forms, Port Washington, WI

December 2015 – February 2017

  • Sole IT employee of international multisite manufacturing company with 150+ employees in US, Wales, and Germany.
  • Administered SQL Server and ERP databases, including writing custom SQL queries to modify and extract data in production.
  • Led contracted development team in development of manufacturing ERP database and integration with partnered concrete-pumping ERP team.
  • Defined business requirements and implemented network/server overhaul including HA Clustering, Network RAID, SSD Tiering, Fiber backbone, and redundant network distribution — $70K investment.
  • Created and maintained Active Directory structure, security and distribution groups.
  • Implemented WSUS server to standardize patch deployment and increase overall security.
  • Administered multidomain Office 365 / Exchange Online / SharePoint / OneDrive / Skype for Business deployment.

Technical Sales Manager

National Broadband (NB Tech), Milwaukee, WI

November 2014 – June 2015

  • Configured and deployed 6 routers and 15 antennas to create a WISP backbone servicing Milwaukee County.
  • Reviewed and responded to monitoring and scanning alerts; recommended and implemented changes to mitigate security issues.
  • Performed physical, data, and network security audits and analysis.
  • Performed on-site RF analysis to plan antenna installation and calibration; designed credential storage policy.
  • Acted as primary liaison for Technical Managers and Administrators during sales process.

Systems Engineer

Manage-Point, Wauwatosa, WI

April 2014 – June 2014

  • Performed administrative maintenance tasks on Microsoft-based infrastructure.
  • Configured 30+ workstations for 7 business infrastructure deployments or upgrades.
  • Resolved 40+ tickets via remote and on-site support.

Managing Technician

Riverwest Computer Repair, Milwaukee, WI

September 2013 – March 2014

  • Created standardized comprehensive deployment to maximize security, simplify usability, minimize infection rate, and create restore points.
  • Deployed PXE and NAS to centralize resources; automated diagnostics and repair via boot images and scripts.
  • Created malware test environments to log filesystem/registry modifications, identify propagation vectors, test AV detection, and optimize removal.
  • Performed packet analysis of infected computers to characterize infections and anomalous traffic.

Junior Engineer

Secure Building Technologies (SBT), Milwaukee, WI

October 2011 – November 2013

  • Collaborated in design and installation of access control and surveillance systems for medium and large business environments.
  • Built and configured custom stand-alone network DVRs.
  • Performed physical security audits to determine areas of coverage, vulnerabilities, access security, and response time.
  • Programmed alarm panels and access control lists.
  • Assisted in creation and implementation of custom covert surveillance tools for law enforcement.

Senior Systems Engineer / Managing Technician

Integrated Technology Solutions (ITS), Milwaukee, WI

August 2010 – December 2015

  • Streamlined diagnostic and repair process by leveraging PXE, NAS, and Bash scripting to centralize and automate scanning, analysis, and reporting.
  • Standardized software deployments on new and existing client computers to increase baseline security, expedite deployment/reimaging, and simplify troubleshooting.
  • Reduced “technician hands-on time to resolution” by 61% through standardization and automation.
  • Decreased technician time-per-machine by 70% via diagnostic automation (separate metric).
  • Implemented custom networking schema to isolate infected client PCs, segregate IT resources, and offer segregated wireless access to customers.
  • Configured server interfaces in Gentoo for redundant switching.
  • Configured routers to utilize RADIUS authentication; managed client access through VISP portal.
  • Designed, implemented, and maintained access control, surveillance, alarm, and POS solutions for medical, manufacturing, government, and large enterprise clients.
  • Assisted in creation, implementation, and maintenance of an ITS-owned Wireless Internet Service Provider servicing Metro Milwaukee.
  • Configured, deployed, and calibrated point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless antennas and bridges.
  • Created topological maps of internal, WAN, and client-side network configurations.

Owner / IT Consultant

Viktech, Milwaukee, WI

2005 – Present (Viktech LLC entity formed July 2010)

  • Repaired 400+ computers for 150+ home and small-business customers.
  • Worked with clients and administrators to perform infrastructure deployments and upgrades.
  • Configured workstations, mobile devices, network firewalls, VPNs, and domain policies.
  • Installed and configured servers, routing, firewalling, switching, printers, VoIP devices, IP cameras, and wireless access points.
  • Planned and managed hardware/software implementation, migration, and integration for SMB clients.
  • Responded and resolved incidents involving data loss, equipment failure, security breaches, and unauthorized disclosure.
  • Designed and implemented Backup, Failover, Recovery, and Secure Destruction solutions.
  • Conducted comprehensive diagnostics of complex systems to investigate, support, and resolve issues.

QA Tester

Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

May 2008 – May 2009

  • Entered post-transplant cancer survey results into newly-developed Oracle database.
  • Provided critical input to increase ease-of-use and accessibility by research staff.
  • Performed testing of input validation and verification processes.
  • Identified, documented, and reported bugs or unhandled errors.
  • Verified proper enabling/disabling of features and permissions based on user account access levels.

Dedicated cybersecurity engineering — 4+ years cumulative

(2011–2022, multiple engagements; security responsibilities also embedded in IT roles throughout 15+ year career)

Certifications

Past certifications

Education

Manufacturing Technology Coursework — IESI Institute, Milwaukee, WI

September 2024 – December 2024 (program completed); NIMS Certifications In Progress

Coursework
  • CNC mills and lathes operation
  • G-code / M-code fundamentals
  • Blueprint and technical drawing interpretation
  • Precision measurement (calipers, micrometers, gauges)

Information Security Specialist Coursework Completed, No Degree

Milwaukee Area Technical College — 2018 – 2022

Coursework
  • Information Security Coursework (no certifications):
  • CompTIA IT Technician Essentials (A+ exam prep — exam not taken)
  • CompTIA Network Communications (Network+ exam prep — exam not taken)
  • CompTIA Network Security (Security+ exam prep — exam not taken)
  • MS Server Administration I & II
  • Cisco I & II
  • Unix/Linux Administration and Security
  • Security Policies and Procedures
  • Information Security Principles
  • Router Security; Perimeter Security
  • Securing Wireless Devices and Networks
  • Computer Forensics; Malware Forensics
  • Digital Forensics Coursework — MATC (no diploma issued)

Computer Science (Coursework Completed, No Degree)

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 2007 – 2011

Coursework
  • Formal Logic / Symbolic Logic
  • Intermediate Computer Programming (C++)
  • Data Structures & Algorithms
  • Discrete Information Structures
  • Social, Professional & Ethical Issues
  • Introduction to Operating Systems
  • Calculus II / Differential & Multivariable Calculus

Volunteer experience

Affiliations

Interests

Pizza making, sourdough crafting, and fermentation experimentation. Music production (drum & bass, hip-hop). FPV drones and amateur radio. Hammock camping. Leatherworking. Hindu mythology and iconography.