Bill Southard

Bill Southard has a strong background in information technology and network engineering. Bill has served as the Lead Network Engineer at Opti9 Tech since 2023, where they are responsible for maintaining and scaling high-performance networks for private cloud infrastructure. Bill also automates hardware provisioning and network configuration using Ansible, Nautobot, and Python scripting. Prior to their current role, Bill founded FIG.tech in 2018, where they worked as a Consultant. Bill was also the Network Virtualization Engineer at Paycom from 2020 to 2023. Additionally, Bill has held leadership positions at ElektraFi, SkyHelm Technology, Armada Tracking, and the University of Central Oklahoma, where they gained experience in strategic advising, systems and software engineering, cybersecurity, and systems administration.

Bill Southard obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Central Oklahoma, where they studied from 2008 to 2014. Bill is currently pursuing a Master of Computer Science degree at Stanford University, starting in 2023. Additionally, Bill has obtained the (ISC)2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) certification from (ISC)² in March 2023.