About

I’m Rudy – I currently lead Security Operations at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and more.

My day starts with alerts and a good morning to my team. After that it’s whatever shows up: a vulnerability report to reproduce, a bug bounty submission to triage, an incident, a detection that needs tuning, or a security review of something about to ship. I still write code every day. I like being close to the work.

I’m also on the WordPress core security team, helping triage and ship fixes for the software that runs a big chunk of the web. And I came up through infrastructure, so I still have one foot there. Lately that’s meant moving over a thousand servers onto Kubernetes and new storage, where losing data isn’t an option.

I’ve been in tech since 2003, back in the Flash and ActionScript days. I spent eight years in the U.S. Navy, earned a Master’s degree from the University of Redlands, and worked my way from mobile development to director roles before landing at Automattic. It’s been a winding road, but every stop taught me something I still use today.

---

Why I Write

I learned most of what I know alone, and it was lonely. I want to be the resource I wished I had: someone who can explain things clearly and honestly without gatekeeping. I like solving problems, helping people, and automating things.

That’s what drives most of what I write about here.

---

Outside of Work

I’ve been married to my wonderful wife for 11 years and we have two kids. I’m big into fitness and wellness. I exercise every day, cold plunge and sauna included. When I’m not at a terminal, I’m usually playing with my kids, building indie games, or reading. My favorite series include The Dresden Files and Red Rising.