High-Performance Systems & Principal Security Consulting

Rate: $1,250 AUD / day (+ GST)
Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia · Remote (AU / APAC / Global) or Hybrid Melbourne
Contact: peter@onereddog.com.au · LinkedIn · GitHub

“Bare-metal systems engineering, real-time performance, and principal-level security architecture from an engineer who has spent 30+ years writing production code.”

Modern tech is flooded with surface-level abstractions and bloated runtimes. When you hit the limits of high-level scripting (crushing latency requirements, real-time audio threads, hardware-level bottlenecks, or critical security vulnerabilities), you need someone who understands what happens down at the silicon, memory allocator, and compiler level.

Over the past 30+ years, I’ve built high-performance software across the entire computing spectrum: from PlayStation 1/2 and Nintendo DS assembly, PCIe kernel device drivers and real-time DSP synthesis engines, up to enterprise CNAPP security architecture and agentic AI automation protecting tier-1 financial and energy institutions.

Core Offerings

1. Bespoke High-Performance C / C++ & Real-Time Systems

When off-the-shelf libraries or garbage-collected runtimes cannot meet your latency, throughput, or resource constraints.

  • Real-Time Audio & DSP: Digital signal processing, low-latency audio pipelines, filter design, synthesis algorithms, CoreAudio, and JUCE plugin architectures with deterministic, zero-allocation real-time audio threads.
  • Device Drivers & Hardware Interfacing: Kernel-level driver development (IOKit, PCIe, FPGA bus communication, embedded audio/video over SDI), hardware-level debugging, and platform porting (x86, ARM, PowerPC).
  • Firmware & Embedded Systems: Bare-metal and embedded RTOS development (C, assembly), hardware bring-up, memory footprint optimization, and low-level protocol implementations.
  • Game Engines & Graphics Pipelines: 3D engine architecture, custom memory allocators, cache-friendly data layouts (data-oriented design), SIMD vectorization, and frame-rate optimization.

2. Fractional / Interim Head of AppSec & Security Architecture

Pragmatic, developer-respected security leadership for scale-ups and high-growth engineering teams without vendor fluff.

  • Security Champions & Culture: Build developer-led security programs that embed security into everyday pull requests rather than blocking releases.
  • Secure Architecture & Threat Modeling: Deep architectural reviews of critical systems, APIs, and microservices to uncover structural flaws before code hits production.
  • Executive & Board Reporting: Translate technical risks into clear business outcomes, regulatory alignment, and pragmatic remediation roadmaps.
  • Engagement: Typically 1 to 3 days per week on an ongoing advisory retainer.

3. Cloud Security & DevSecOps Engineering (AWS)

Moving beyond check-box compliance into automated, continuous guardrails.

  • AWS Security Posture & CNAPP: Multi-account security architecture, least-privilege IAM automation, and automated compliance pipelines across hundreds of AWS accounts.
  • CI/CD Security Tooling: Deep integration of SAST, SCA, and secret scanning (Snyk, GitHub Advanced Security, BuildKite, GitHub Actions) directly into developer workflows.
  • Container & Infrastructure Security: Hardening Docker/ECS container pipelines, base image governance, and runtime policy enforcement.

4. Low-Level Vulnerability Research, Pen-Test Triage & Remediation

Turn vulnerability reports into deterministic fixes at the root cause.

  • Memory Safety & Low-Level Exploitation: Auditing and hardening C/C++ codebases against memory corruption, buffer overflows, race conditions, and concurrency bugs.
  • Pen-Test & Bug Bounty Triage: Validating reports from BugCrowd, HackerOne, or third-party penetration tests with verifiable proof-of-concept exploits.
  • Hands-On Code Remediation: Directly committing production-ready fixes in C, C++, Go, Python, Java, or Swift, solving issues at the architectural root instead of slapping on fragile band-aids.

5. Agentic AI & Security Workflow Automation

Leveraging cutting-edge LLMs and agentic frameworks to automate engineering workflows.

  • Automated Threat Modeling: Building custom agentic pipelines (Claude / LLM harnesses) to ingest schemas, PRs, and architectural diagrams to surface vulnerabilities proactively.
  • Telemetry ETL Pipelines: Building high-throughput data pipelines to aggregate, normalize, and score cloud and application security telemetry at scale.

Why Work With Me?

  • Hardcore Engineering Roots: Not a checklist auditor. I’ve written MIPS and ARM assembly, coded kernel drivers communicating over PCIe to FPGAs, built commercial synth engines, and shipped AAA/console games. I speak the same language as your senior systems engineers.
  • Enterprise Tested: Led cloud and product security engineering protecting critical infrastructure and financial services (Origin Energy, Latitude Financial, ANZ Bank).
  • Zero Fluff, Real Delivery: Every engagement delivers working code, hardened systems, and actionable architectural blueprints.

Engagement Models & Rates

  • Day Rate: $1,250 AUD / day (+ GST where applicable)
  • Fractional Retainers: 1 to 3 days per week (recurring weekly or monthly commitment)
  • Project Sprints: 1 to 4 week focused intensives (e.g. C/C++ performance profiling & optimization, audio DSP engine build, AWS security posture overhaul, or pen-test remediation sprint)
  • Architecture Advisory: Scoped design reviews, threat modeling workshops, or hardware/firmware security assessments

Let’s Talk