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Chetan Pathade is a GenAI security Engineer with both a keen interest and talent for protecting complex cloud systems and AI applications. He has trained extensively and worked for tech giants, which has helped him focus on the practical side of cybersecurity. His work covers everything from finding vulnerabilities and reporting bugs to building powerful defense systems for global businesses. His current specialization includes GenAI security, risk mitigation for Large Language Models (LLMs), and secure cloud architecture design, combining research and applied engineering to strengthen enterprise-scale environments.
Pathade’s dive into cybersecurity began in 2018 during a fellowship at Teesside University. He found his calling during that time and developed a deep understanding of offensive security. By 2020, he was hunting for bugs and successfully shoring up systems, while being recognized in various Hall of Fame programs.
Eventually, his work led him through roles in Quantiphi, Inc., Qualys, and the Eaten India Innovation Center. They were experiences that gave him a solid foundation for managing security and finding vulnerabilities in systems. Pathade, in an effort to deepen his knowledge in cybersecurity, earned a master’s degree in Information Security from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2024. His academic achievements, combined with his hands-on work in security at companies like X (formerly Twitter) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), soon led him to develop a comprehensive approach to cloud security. His time at these organizations helped him refine an approach that blends theoretical research with practical defense, integrating offensive testing, cloud architecture hardening, and AI system protection into a cohesive methodology.
But Pathade does more than chase bugs through his clients’ systems. He is also actively involved in research, including publishing peer-reviewed cybersecurity papers. He tends to combine his academic interests with his industry experience to tackle complicated security issues. His published work explores GenAI security, cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities, and proactive defense strategies against modern AI-driven attacks.
The essential reason for his success in the tech industry is that he very much considers the constant learning, practical lab work and application, and working with great professionals to get the latest breakthroughs.
He can read how complicated the field of cybersecurity which is always changing is, and he commits himself to research papers, security blogs, and technical forums. More precisely, he is knowledgeable about vulnerability disclosure platforms and threat intelligence reports; also, he regularly engages in practical experiments to replicate exploitation methods for the purpose of creating new countermeasures.
This disciplined approach (reading, experimenting, and replicating real-world attacks in controlled labs) has become central to how he stays sharp in an ever-changing threat landscape.
Chetan Pathade has made a long way in education and technology and he has learnt through the experience that it is a must to be tough and patient in hard times. He thinks that everyone needs to discover their ways of learning, and he values effort. “There is no fixed time for success to come even in the very tough areas of technology such as cybersecurity,” he states. “But what matters the most is the commitment to ceaseless improvement and the tough quality of sticking to it through painful learning stages.”
Looking to the future, Pathade is interested in becoming a leader in the cybersecurity industry, launching his own security company, and creating opportunities for talented individuals who may not have traditional qualifications. He envisions building a company that evaluates talent based on aptitude and problem-solving skills rather than formal credentials, helping diversify the cybersecurity workforce and addressing the industry’s persistent talent shortage.
He wants to support an inclusive environment where he can develop talent and help address the industry’s ongoing talent shortage. His long-term vision includes building a company that recruits based on aptitude and problem-solving ability rather than formal credentials, creating new pathways into the cybersecurity workforce. He believes in a future where tech companies are stronger and more secure because of the work that he and others in his field invest in their security. By fostering an environment that prioritizes skills-based assessment and provides structured pathways for professional development, he hopes to redefine what success in cybersecurity looks like.
