Employee Spotlight: Jesse Hernandez

Jesse Hernandez, Linux Host Analyst/Security Engineer, has been with NetCentrics a little over a year. Yet, he’s already earned customer kudos from his work at the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), alongside colleague Kelby Hinson. Together they have modernized the USCG’s cybersecurity with new hunt kits. These efforts support USCG’s mission to protects America’s maritime borders, defends the Nation’s maritime sovereignty, and facilitate legitimate use of the waterways for trade.

“I really like the team NetCentrics has at USCG; Kelby [Hinson] and Ricky [Frederick Brown] are great to work with,” says Jesse. 

“Our goal [with the hunt kits] is to get more ‘juice from the squeeze’” explains Jesse. They’ve done this by virtualizing the hunt kits so they are scalable and replicable, saving the USCG significant time and manpower, while also improving the solution’s effectiveness.

USCG’s mission includes protecting civilians and has many civilian partners. These civilian trade partnerships operate enormous, global shipping and logistics through the waterways. Everyday Americans experience this work indirectly every time they use Amazon Prime, shop at Wal-Mart, or enjoy products made abroad. All of these supply chains involve our national waterways.

While Jesse is unable to share the specifics of his Top Secret work publicly – like many NetCentrics employees — he acknowledges that cybersecurity as a whole is increasingly cloud-based. He sees big data and automation as two leading edge trends on the rise. What is built today needs to be agile enough for tomorrow.

“I really like the team NetCentrics has at USCG; Kelby [Hinson] and Ricky [Frederick Brown] are great to work with,” says Jesse. 

‘Mission First’ is Familiar  

NetCentrics’ “mission first” attitude is familiar to Jesse. He grew up in Dallas, Texas and joined the U.S. Navy right out of high school. He served in Hawaii, Florida, and Suffolk, Virginia in Top Secret cleared environments for over 6 years. More recently, he earned his bachelors degree in Cyber Security and Information Assurance from Western Governors University.

Prior to joining NetCentrics he used his Network Intrusion Analyst skills as an analyst at the Pentagon. He performed ongoing investigations into network intrusion attempts, and built systems to prevent (or clean up) these attempts. Jesse said he was particularly excited to join NetCentrics when a recruiter contacted him because NetCentrics’ USCG team meant involvement in a growing team and offered broader responsibilities.

Rock Climbing and Snowboarding

For fun these days Jesse is honing another set of skills: rock climbing and snowboarding.

The rock climbing is a new hobby. He’s perfecting skills at Movement in Crystal City, which recently reopened with new covid protocols in place. The practice wall is several stories high. Most athletes must train for months before they have sufficient flexibility and strength to scale it. This challenge is a welcome diversion.

Jesse’s other new hobby is snowboarding. “I finally live somewhere cold enough to do it!” he explains, even if he must get out of town to do it. He’s taken weekend trips to locations in nearby Pennsylvania and West Virginia to get some powder. Next on his list is checking out Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

“If it can stay cold just a little longer, that’d be great,” he says.