Technical team leadership
I lead and mentor escalation engineers across multi-product security environments, pairing technical depth with accountability and knowledge sharing.
Product support leader · escalation manager · retired Army CW3
The difference between chaos and success is clear communication.
I’m Matthew Franks, a cybersecurity product support and escalation engineering leader with 11+ years at Cisco. I lead Tier 3 support, guide critical customer escalations, coach engineers, and build clearer, more repeatable support operations. Twenty years of military service shaped how I lead: stay calm, communicate clearly, develop people, and own the outcome.
01 / Leadership
Lead clearly.
Develop people.
Improve the system.
My leadership style is hands-on and outcome-focused: create clarity in complex situations, help engineers grow through difficult work, and turn lessons from escalations into stronger processes, guidance, and tools.
Escalation ownership
I coordinate customers, frontline support, and Engineering through high-impact investigations, defect validation, and resolution.
Operational improvement
I build Python- and API-driven workflows for case triage, reporting, operational visibility, and repeatable troubleshooting.
Military leadership
I retired as a U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer III after leading cyber operations, training, qualification, and technical standards.
Applied AI
AI is a force multiplier.
Judgment is the control plane.
I use AI and automation to improve research, synthesis, case triage, reporting, and knowledge access, pairing machine speed with verification, security, and accountable human judgment.
02 / Experience
Technical leadership built from the front line.
Technical Leader, Escalations
Lead complex XDR and Secure Endpoint escalations, coordinating customers, frontline TAC, and Engineering through difficult investigations. Reproduce defects, translate customer evidence into actionable findings, mentor escalation engineers, and build workflows for case triage, reporting, and operational visibility.
Leader, Software Engineering · People Manager
Led a Tier 3 escalation engineering team supporting Cisco Security Cloud Control, XDR, Secure Endpoint, Orbital, Endpoint Visibility Module, and Secure Malware Analytics. Coached engineers on investigations and customer communication while driving consistent case handling, knowledge sharing, accountability, and cross-functional resolution with frontline support and Engineering.
Product Support & Escalation Engineering
Progressed from Customer Support Engineer through Software Escalation Engineer IV, resolving complex security issues across endpoint, network, cloud, web, email, malware analysis, threat intelligence, and Firepower IDS/IPS. Partnered with Development, Test, Documentation, and Product Management to reproduce defects, improve supportability, and inform product decisions.
Cyber Operations Technician · Chief Warrant Officer III
Led a Cyber Operations and Signals Intelligence section, coordinating training, language qualifications, and occupational certifications. Advised Command on cyberspace operations and cyber assets; trained, mentored, and evaluated personnel; and developed technical SOPs, policies, and qualification standards.
03 / Selected work
Make expertise repeatable.
Examples of turning recurring support friction into reusable tooling and guidance that help teams investigate consistently. Many other projects cannot be shared externally due to customer data sensitivity.
Diagnostic tooling
Windows Health Checker
Created and maintain a host-level diagnostic tool to surface actionable insights and help prevent unnecessary technical-assistance cases.
Supportability · Diagnostics · View project ↗
Performance tooling
Windows Tuning Tool
Built a Python tool that surfaces top file and process scans to guide Secure Endpoint connector performance tuning.
Python · Analysis · View project ↗
Technical guidance
Documentation that resolves
Published internal guidance, documentation, processes, and presentations for configuration, troubleshooting, and customer guidance for a variety of Cisco products.
Configuration · Troubleshooting · Customer guidance04 / Foundation
Technical depth, broadened by service and study.
Certification
Certification
Education
Education
Splunk Core Certified User
Splunk · Issued July 2026 · Valid through July 2029
2026
CertificationCisco Certified DevNet Specialist
Security Automation and Programmability · Active until 2028
2020
CertificationCCNA Automation
Cisco · Active until 2028
2020
CCNA Routing & Switching
Cisco · Expired
2015
B.S. Business Administration & Management
Fayetteville State University · Magna Cum Laude · 4.0 GPA
2013
A.A. Modern Standard Arabic
Defense Language Institute
2009
05 / Contact
Have a difficult problem worth solving?
I’m interested in leadership opportunities where technical depth, customer advocacy, team development, and operational improvement come together.