AJ Yawn

AJ Yawn is a cybersecurity leader, entrepreneur, author, and educator with a career focused on compliance, cloud security, and engineering. Yawn is an experienced cybersecurity professional specializing in cloud compliance, governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) engineering, bringing nearly 15 years of expertise to the field. His background combines military experience, entrepreneurial leadership, and technical knowledge, providing insight for organizations addressing modern compliance challenges.

Yawn began his career as a U.S. Army officer in the Signal Corps, achieving the rank of captain, and later expanded the cloud compliance practice at Coalfire. After his military service, Yawn founded ByteChek, a compliance startup that reached over $1.5 million in annual recurring revenue. He also served as a partner at Armanino LLP, leading product innovation in compliance and audit automation. Yawn has held a GRC engineering role at Rippling, a company valued at over $17 billion.

Yawn is recognized for his work in GRC engineering, a discipline he describes as a significant evolution in compliance. He has contributed to the field through his book, "GRC Engineering for AWS," and the novel "The Omega Project." Another title, "The Work, Works," is also part of his body of work.

As an educator, Yawn teaches courses on cloud compliance and security automation for SANS Institute and LinkedIn Learning, reaching more than 125,000 professionals globally. He holds six AWS certifications, including AWS Solutions Architect-Professional and AWS Security-Specialty. Yawn is the founder of the GRC Engineering Club, a community focused on modern, automated compliance.

Yawn has served on the board of directors for the ISC2 Miami chapter as education chair and was a founding board member of the National Association of Black Compliance and Risk Management Professionals. He has spoken about the importance of representation and community engagement in cybersecurity. Yawn's career path, from Division I college basketball player to Army officer to founder and author, provides a platform for education and advocacy in cybersecurity, cloud security, and compliance.