● online · Athens, GR · remote
CISO · DPO · Cloud Engineering Manager · Athens
Leonidas Kontoulis
CISO & Cloud Engineering Manager
Where data platform, cloud and security overlap. Usually the part nobody wants to own.
I run information security, data protection and cloud infrastructure for an edtech SaaS platform serving 200+ schools, after more than twenty years in banking and technology.
{
"name": "Leonidas Kontoulis",
"role": ["CISO", "DPO", "Cloud Eng Mgr"],
"owns": {
"isms": "ISO 27001",
"azure_sql_dbs": 250,
"llm_platform": "self-hosted"
},
"years_in_tech": 20,
"languages": ["el", "en"],
"outsources_thinking": false
}- 20+years in banking & tech
- 250+Azure SQL databases run
- 200+schools on the platform
- 1st tryISO 27001 certification
Impact
Selected outcomes. Each one is a risk that someone else no longer has to carry.
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First attempt
ISO 27001 certification
Delivered certification first time and built the ISMS behind it. Now run the surveillance cycle: risk register, access reviews, vendor and customer security reviews.
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−10%
Azure spend, while the estate grew
Elastic pool consolidation and removal of idle resources across a 250+ database Azure SQL fleet.
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Tested
Recovery that doesn't depend on one person
Documented recovery objectives, tested restores, and removed the single points of knowledge from DR/BCP.
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In-tenant
AI adopted without losing control of data
Self-hosted LLM platform for sensitive workloads, commercial APIs under a DPA for the rest: an ISO 27001, GDPR and EU AI Act decision as much as an engineering one.
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18 markets
Regulatory reporting you can trust
Led the team owning financial and compliance data models at a gaming operator licensed in 18 regulated markets, with controls that caught breaks before a regulator did.
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DPO
Designated and declared
Designated Data Protection Officer, declared to the Greek data protection authority. Lead incident response and personal data breach assessment.
# About
CISO and Cloud Engineering Manager at a SaaS company serving 200+ schools and institutions. I delivered our ISO 27001 certification, act as designated DPO, and run cloud infrastructure, a 250+ database Azure SQL fleet and the DevOps pipelines behind it.
Most of my work sits where data platform, cloud and security overlap. Usually the part nobody wants to own.
Managing engineers is the actual job. The technology is the easy half.
On AI I don't outsource the thinking. I built and run a self-hosted LLM platform for the workloads that can't leave our control, with commercial APIs under a DPA for the rest.
Before this: over twenty years in banking and technology, 17 at a Greek systemic bank, 15 in data and IT. Data warehouses, core banking, and enough production incidents to know what a tested restore is worth.
# Experience git log --oneline --career
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2026.11 → now
CISO & Cloud Engineering Manager Classter
Own information security and act as designated DPO, alongside cloud infrastructure and the data platform, for an edtech SaaS platform serving 200+ schools. Team of three engineers plus interns.
- Run the ISMS and the ISO 27001 surveillance cycle: risk register, access reviews, vendor security reviews, customer security questionnaires.
- Designated DPO, declared to the Greek data protection authority. Lead incident response and personal data breach assessment.
- Own cloud infrastructure, the 250+ database Azure SQL fleet and the self-hosted LLM platform.
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2025.05 → 2026.10
Cloud Engineering Manager Classter
- Delivered ISO 27001 certification first time and set up the ISMS behind it.
- Ran a 250+ database Azure SQL fleet: standardized collation and Entra ID identity, put backups and tested restores behind one managed standard.
- Cut Azure spend by 10% while the estate grew, through elastic pool consolidation and killing idle resources.
- Established the DR/BCP position and removed the single points of knowledge that made recovery depend on one person.
- Built a self-hosted LLM platform with RAG over code and docs. Sensitive workloads stay in-tenant; the split is an ISO 27001, GDPR and EU AI Act decision as much as an engineering one.
- Rebuilt the deployment path: IaC, gated Azure DevOps pipelines and a production readiness checklist.
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2023.07 → 2025.03
Analytics Engineering Team Lead Kaizen Gaming
Led the Finance and Compliance analytics engineering team (six engineers) at a global online gaming operator licensed in 18 regulated markets.
- Owned the data models behind regulatory and financial reporting. A wrong number there is a compliance event.
- Moved the reporting estate onto dbt across Databricks and Synapse: tested models and version control instead of hand-maintained SQL.
- Built the data quality controls that caught breaks before they reached a regulator.
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2022.07 → 2023.06
Senior Data Engineer Satori Analytics
The move out of banking and into cloud data. Designed and shipped Synapse and Data Factory pipelines feeding customer data platforms in production.
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2005.11 → 2022.06
Nearly 17 years Attica Bank
Senior IT Consultant · 2017–2022
Data and BI lead for a Greek systemic bank on Temenos T24: BI and data mart estate on SQL Server, database administration and DevOps across production, where an outage is a supervisory matter.
Senior IT Specialist · 2011–2016
ATM and POS network operations; technical lead for Digitization; sysadmin across Oracle E-Business Suite, T24 and Active Directory.
Civil Engineer · 2005–2011
Buildings and maintenance, an AP team processing €20m+/year, and change management for the Oracle EBS rollout, which is where the move into IT started.
# stackCapabilities and credentials
01 Security & compliance
02 Cloud & DevOps
03 Data
04 AI & leadership
$ ls Education/
- MSc, Geotechnical EngineeringHeriot-Watt University
- BEng, Civil & Transportation EngineeringEdinburgh Napier University
$ ls Certifications/
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer AssociateMicrosoft · 2023
- LinkedIn Skill Assessment: Microsoft AzurePassed
# Shell type help
Try . Tab completes, ↑/↓ for history.
# Contact
$ ./connect --with leonidas
Best reached on LinkedIn. Athens-based, working remote, in Greek or English.