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Ariel
Torres

Systems Engineer

Scope
Network · Security · AI
Clearance
Root (mostly)

Systems engineer at Cloudflare. I build the labs, test rigs and AI agents that catch network bugs before users do.

About

Build it, secure it, automate it.

Build

Multi-node infrastructure and labs for customer networks, from production environments to the test rigs that catch bugs before users do.

  • Active Directory
  • SCCM
  • ADFS
  • ESXi

Secure

Network access control, endpoint protection and identity, done so people barely notice it's there.

  • ClearPass
  • CrowdStrike
  • Defender
  • Entra ID

Automate

Agents that triage tickets, find root causes and drive device tests, so people spend their time on the hard problems.

  • Python
  • MCP
  • PowerShell
  • LLM agents

Education B.Tech, Computer Systems (Networking & Security), New York City College of Technology, 2022

Work

Five years, three companies.

2025 — NowCurrent

Cloudflare

System Engineer

  • Built AI agents for ticket triage, root-cause analysis and MCP-driven device testing, cutting manual test cases significantly.

  • Developed AI-driven tooling and dashboards that catch advanced network and application bugs and widen test coverage across platforms.

  • Engineered a multi-node lab with Active Directory, SCCM, ADFS and ADCS to validate Cloudflare One Client on Windows, macOS, Linux and mobile.

  • Configured Intune, JAMF and TestDPC to deploy and validate managed configurations alongside Entra ID and IdP/SAML.

  • Worked with Microsoft engineers on system-level bugs, and designed a portable captive-portal appliance with DNS, DoH and HTTPS simulation suites.

2023 — 2024Law firm

Foley Hoag

Senior Support Specialist

  • Ran firmwide Intune: Win32 app packaging, security remediations and policy deployments, with PowerShell automation for quality control.

  • Rebuilt Aruba ClearPass network access control with TEAP and TACACS+ for a resilient, high-availability network.

  • Led the decommissioning of legacy Windows servers and handled expert-level Citrix troubleshooting.

  • Level 1 and 2 support for legal software including iManage and Aderant.

2021 — 2023Law firm · two roles

Axinn

Systems Analyst

  • Supported a national law firm of 250+ users across four states.

  • Investigated network and host threats; deployed Cisco Firepower Management Center, Umbrella and CrowdStrike Falcon.

  • Configured and deployed Cisco Meraki firewalls, switches and access points.

  • Maintained Windows Servers on vSphere/ESXi, Veeam backups and the Citrix VDA environment.

Intern

  • Level 1 and 2 helpdesk, and user onboarding across Active Directory, Exchange, VPN and CUCM.

Toolkit

What I work with.

AI & LLMs
Prompt chaining, autonomous agents, MCP integrations and AI gateways with security and RBAC built in.
Networking & security
Cisco Meraki, Firepower, ASA, Catalyst, Aruba ClearPass, CrowdStrike, Defender for Endpoint, Mimecast
Troubleshooting
Wireshark, Nmap, GNS3, EVE-NG, Packet Tracer, IOS CLI, IPsec, MPLS
Virtualization & admin
VMware ESXi, Citrix VDA, Windows 365, Intune, Entra ID, Veeam, DNS, DHCP, Nginx, CUCM
Languages
Python, PowerShell, Bash, JavaScript, Java, SQL, KQL, PHP
Systems
Windows Server, Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, Cisco IOS, Juniper Junos

Certifications

  • Cisco Certified Network Associate 2021
  • Cisco Certified Technician, Routing & Switching 2021
  • Cisco Certified Specialist, Security Core 2023
  • Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Associate 2024
  • Google AI Professional Certificate 2026
  • IBM AI Engineering Professional In progress

Projects

Open-source tools I've built.

  • Network testing

    JetLag

    A Linux virtual appliance that recreates hostile airplane, hotel and conference Wi-Fi: a real captive portal with DNS interception and per-client sign-in, plus latency, jitter, packet loss and bandwidth caps, packet capture from the UI, and VLAN tagging. Built to test VPN clients and Zero Trust agents without leaving the lab.

    Python · FastAPI · React · nftables · tc/netem

    GitHub

  • Agentic QA

    Testral

    A control plane for agentic UI testing. An LLM agent with vision grounding drives real Android VMs and Windows, Linux and macOS desktops in plain language, and runs replayable, self-healing tests with screenshot and video evidence, schedules, and JUnit exports.

    Go · MCP · Cuttlefish · Florence-2 · SQLite

    testral.cloud GitHub

  • Zero Trust

    WARP Weaver

    A browser tool that builds the MDM configuration file for deploying Cloudflare's WARP client: organization, auto-connect, service mode, endpoint overrides and more. Everything stays in the browser.

    HTML · JavaScript

    GitHub

  • Security research

    NetSniffer

    A Chrome extension for OSINT: right-click a domain or IP to look it up on Cisco Talos, VirusTotal and other research tools.

    JavaScript · Chrome extension

    GitHub

More on GitHub

Writing

Read the blog

Notes from the lab on networking, security and building agents that test things.