Open to opportunities

Tarun Cherukuri
Network Engineer.

M.Eng in Cybersecurity from the University of Maryland (3.9 GPA), with hands-on experience supporting enterprise infrastructure for 120+ users on Cisco, Palo Alto, and Meraki equipment — plus a fully independent, real-hardware lab project built from the ground up. CCNA in progress.

Network Engineer Network Analyst Network Architect Wireless Engineer
2.8 yrsHands-on infrastructure experience
3.9GPA, M.Eng Cybersecurity
120+Users supported (UMD network)
1Published patent (SAFE MFA device)
Professional background

Experience

Jul 2025 – May 2026

Network Engineer — Graduate Assistantship

University of Maryland, College Park, MD
  • Supported design, documentation, and maintenance of network infrastructure serving 120+ users across multiple locations on enterprise-grade Cisco, Palo Alto, and Meraki equipment
  • Provided hands-on troubleshooting for connectivity and performance issues using Wireshark packet analysis and SolarWinds monitoring
  • Managed network projects including equipment upgrades and infrastructure improvements; researched enhancements for organizational-standards compliance
  • Performed scheduled maintenance and proactive optimization; participated in rotating on-call incident response
Aug 2024 – Jun 2025

Graduate Teaching Assistant — Networked Infrastructure

University of Maryland, College Park, MD
  • Supported network design and maintenance across 20+ environments; hands-on troubleshooting with Wireshark and monitoring tools
  • Assisted with network projects and system upgrades applying Cisco, Palo Alto, and Meraki knowledge in a client-facing capacity
Jun 2022 – Jun 2024

Network Researcher

Geethanjali College of Engineering
  • Supported network infrastructure design and maintenance; troubleshot connectivity and performance issues
  • Developed and published a patent for SAFE (Secure Access Fortification Enabler), a multi-factor authentication security device
Academic background

Education

Master of Engineering in Cybersecurity

University of Maryland
GPA 3.9/4.0 · May 2026

Focus: Networks & Protocols, Network Security, Security Tools & Information Assurance, Penetration Testing

Graduate Certificate in Cloud Engineering

University of Maryland
May 2026

Focus: Cloud Security, Cloud Computing, Linux System Administration, Virtualization & Containerization

Credentials

Certifications & patent

N+

CompTIA Network+

Certified

S+

CompTIA Security+

Certified

AWS

AWS Cloud Practitioner

Certified

CCNA

Cisco CCNA

In progress

📄

Published Patent — SAFE (Secure Access Fortification Enabler)

A multi-factor authentication security device, developed and published during network research work at Geethanjali College of Engineering.

Applied professionally & in the lab

Technical skills

Network Architecture & Design

  • Enterprise topology design
  • Scalability & HA planning
  • Segmentation & boundary design
  • Compliance alignment

Routing & Switching

  • OSPF
  • BGP
  • RIPv2
  • Static routing
  • VLANs & 802.1Q trunking
  • Port security / NAC

Firewalls & Security

  • Palo Alto
  • Fortinet FortiGate
  • Meraki
  • VPN (SSL-VPN)
  • NAT
  • DNS filtering

Monitoring & Analysis

  • SolarWinds
  • Wireshark
  • Prometheus
  • Grafana
  • SNMP
  • NetFlow

Wireless

  • Site surveys & RF analysis
  • Cisco Autonomous APs
  • Meraki wireless
  • Ubiquiti UniFi
  • Coverage optimization

Systems & Automation

  • Proxmox VE
  • Linux (Debian)
  • Bash scripting
  • SSH key management
  • Cron automation
Selected work

Projects

Two flagship builds below, both on real hardware end to end. Additional applied work and what's next follow after.

Independent lab project

Cherwood Health

A segmented enterprise network for a fictional healthcare organization — designed, built, and hardened end-to-end on real, physical Fortinet and Cisco hardware. Full command reference and troubleshooting log in the GitHub repo.

Cherwood Corporation · Division 02

Packetgeist

A passive 802.11 site survey of the Plainsboro Public Library — a three-storey, 46,500 sq ft public building — conducted with permission. Full RF analysis extracted directly from the survey database rather than read off a heatmap. Full write-up, raw data, and findings in the GitHub repo.

Also

Other work

Applied infrastructure and cloud work from the UMD assistantship, plus what's next in the lab.

Delivered

Enterprise Network Infrastructure & Architecture

Designed and deployed network infrastructure using Cisco routers/switches, Palo Alto firewalls, and Meraki access points for 120+ users. Implemented segmentation and security zones; optimized performance with OSPF routing and QoS policies; used Wireshark to identify and resolve latency issues.

Delivered

AWS Cloud Foundations

Applied AWS core services (EC2, VPC, S3, IAM) through coursework tied to the Graduate Certificate in Cloud Engineering, covering cloud networking, security, and Linux-based virtualization.

Planned

Network Automation Toolkit

Python + Netmiko/NAPALM — multi-vendor config auditing and compliance checking.

Planned

IDS/IPS Lab

Suricata on a mirrored switch port — real detection and alert triage practice.

Let's talk.

Open to Network Engineer, Network Analyst, Network Architect, and Wireless Engineer roles.