GoKubernetesNetBoxObservability
NetBox Ingest
Production Go service that correlates infrastructure from Proxmox, DNS, and UniFi into unified NetBox entries — multi-source deduplication, continuous sync, and Prometheus metrics for full visibility.
Nick Bourke — Solutions Engineering Leader.
Solutions engineering leader with 15+ years helping enterprises and governments across ANZ, ASEAN and Greater China adopt emerging technology with confidence. I have built and scaled technical pre-sales practices from the ground up at every major infrastructure shift — security, data protection, cloud and cloud-native — translating complex platforms into evaluations that risk-averse buyers will actually deploy. Today I am focused on GenAI: embedding it into how my global team solves customer problems, and on the trust, security and identity questions that decide whether enterprises move AI into production.
Selected Work
Projects spanning infrastructure automation, security platforms, and agentic tooling — built to solve real operational problems.
GoTypeScriptEChartsDevOps
Gitea Insights
Native analytics page inside Gitea — Go collector, TypeScript SPA, and DORA-style metrics for org health, CI cycle times, and contributor activity without leaving the platform.
GoReactOpenTofuSecurity
BourkeyDev Firewall
Zone-based firewall policy framework with a Go/React editor, deterministic OpenTofu compiler, compile-time break-glass invariants, and advisory LLM risk evaluation before apply.
TypeScriptMCPGenAIAgents
Agentic MCP Teaming
Multi-agent coordination framework where named specialists collaborate via a shared MCP bus — parallel review, unanimous consensus on design, and isolated Git worktree implementation.
GoLLMKubernetesDevSecOps
Renovate Triage
Scheduled LLM risk verdicts for Renovate dependency PRs — fail-closed automerge gate where the model can only withhold approval, never grant it without deterministic CI passing first.
KubernetesHelmKustomizeGitOps
Kubernetes Platform
Declarative cluster platform using Helm and Kustomize — MetalLB, Traefik ingress, cert-manager, Harbor registry, and Democratic CSI storage on bare-metal Proxmox.
Experience
Sep 2024 – Present
Senior Sales Engineer
Sysdig
Lead technical pre-sales across ANZ, ASEAN and Greater China for cloud-native security, focused on large enterprise, high-security and financial-services accounts.
- Achieved a 75% technical win rate on proofs of value across enterprise, financial services and government.
- Opened the Korean market from zero, closing major financial-services customers.
- Closed strategic "big bet" deals across financial services, telco and manufacturing.
- Introduced LLM tooling into the global SE workflow and standardised PoV documentation.
- Integrated Sysdig PoVs into customer CI/CD and DevOps pipelines.
- Owned regional technical hiring for Sales Engineers and led regional workshops and industry events.
Jan 2022 – Sep 2024
Senior Cloud Security Engineer (Pre-sales)
Tenable
First dedicated Cloud Security SE for Tenable in APJ; built the cloud security go-to-market through acquisition integration (Ermetic), with a heavy focus on identity.
- Built Tenable's entire APJ Cloud Security capability from the ground up.
- Developed the Tenable Cloud Security Essential Eight standard.
- Educated the wider field team on cloud and led masterclasses on cloud and container security.
- Published thought-leadership articles in industry media.
Jan 2017 – Jan 2022
Senior Security Engineer (Pre-sales)
Tenable
Developed the Northern ANZ market (NSW, ACT, NT, QLD), focused on financial services and government.
- Closed the three largest deals in Tenable APJ, including the largest single ANZ deal (health sector).
- Grew the region into Tenable's second-largest globally; closed two ANZ banks across cloud and on-prem.
- Trained 100+ partner engineers to pre-sales certification.
- Promoted to Senior Sales Engineer for consistent over-target execution.
May 2016 – Jan 2017
Infrastructure Manager
Redlands
Interim ICT leadership with overall responsibility for the technology platform, architecture and infrastructure projects.
- Delivered backup-and-recovery, wireless redesign and data-centre upgrade programs.
Feb 2015 – May 2016
Systems Engineer (Pre-sales)
Apple Inc.
Pre-sales systems engineering for the NSW education market, spanning K–12 through higher education.
- Implemented supporting infrastructure for 2,800 schools, reducing traffic costs by 40%.
- Expanded the BYOD program across major systemic education.
Sep 2012 – Feb 2015
Senior Technology Consultant (Pre-sales)
RSA — Security Division of EMC
Broadened remit across DLP, network security analytics and governance tooling; helped rebuild the RSA brand following the RSA breach.
- Owned the DLP portfolio for Australia and New Zealand.
- Delivered successful proofs of concept to major enterprise and government.
Sep 2008 – Sep 2012
Senior Sales Engineer
Symantec
Security pre-sales for NSW, growing from mid-market into large enterprise.
- Sold major solutions across government, financial services, construction, legal and health.
- Led the regional Technical Champions group for two years.
- Attained CISSP certification; promoted to Senior Sales Engineer.
Sep 2003 – Aug 2008
Earlier roles
Alphawest Services (Optus Business) · KineticIT
- Security Engineer, Alphawest Services (Optus Business) · Oct 2006 – Aug 2008
- Network & Security Engineer, KineticIT · Sep 2003 – Oct 2006
Expertise
Blending executive stakeholder management with deep technical credibility across security, cloud, and emerging AI platforms.
Pre-sales & GTM
Enterprise technical evaluationsGTM & SE practice build-outValue sellingExecutive stakeholder managementRegional team leadership & hiring
Technical
GenAI / LLM integrationCloud & cloud-native securityIdentityCI/CD & DevOpsExposure managementKubernetesCISSP
Latest Writing
Notes on solutions engineering, platform security, and practical GenAI.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Two projects born ten days apart grew into wildly different things — a small tool that became a product, and a framework for getting AI agents to check each other's work. Both came down to the same instinct: match the stroke to the job, whether the stroke is a tool or an agent.
Read postWelcome to bourkey.dev
A brief note on what this site is and what I'll be writing about here.
Read postWhy I Run My Homelab Like Production
Most homelabs are playgrounds. Mine runs on the same discipline as production infrastructure — git as source of truth, spec-driven change, and identity-as-code — and that's exactly what lets me hand the keys to an AI agent.
Read postGet in touch
Connect on LinkedIn — happy to talk solutions engineering, cloud-native security, and GenAI in the enterprise.
LinkedIn