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Security Technology & Systems

I build the systems that make physical operations smarter.

Security technology and systems leader transforming complex physical infrastructure into scalable, data-driven, AI-ready operations.

  • 18 years
  • Fortune 1 and Fortune 500 scale
  • CPP
  • U.S. Coast Guard veteran
Damon Willis

Damon Willis, CPP

Security Technology & Systems Leader

The pattern across all of it: I walk into programs that run on drawings, spreadsheets, and memory, and leave them running on data.

The evidence

  • $327MPhysical security capital program
  • 1,600+Engineered designs a year
  • 800+Remodel projects a year
  • $800K–$1.6MAnnual savingsapproved business case
  • 30%Faster project cyclesapproved business case
  • 4,500+Locations on one system of record

Fortune 1 enterprise security program, 2024 to 2026. Savings and cycle time are the figures in the approved platform business case.

The thesis

Physical security is becoming infrastructure.

  1. 01Cameras are sensors.
  2. 02Access control is identity infrastructure.
  3. 03Security systems generate operational data.
  4. 04Physical environments are becoming software-defined.
  1. Physical worldsites, doors, rooms
  2. Sensorscameras, readers, LPR
  3. Digital recordsone per device
  4. Integrated datasystem of record
  5. Intelligencecoverage, lifecycle
  6. Automationgates, checks
  7. AImeasured, not assumed

Most of my career has been the left side of that chain: the physical systems, the capture, the data model, the standards. It is the part AI projects in physical operations tend to underestimate. I'm not an AI researcher. I'm the person who makes the physical layer ready for one.

Case studies

The work

Three problems from the physical side of enterprise technology. In each one, a system had to change, not just a tool that had to be installed.

Walmart · Senior Manager, Global Security Strategy & Innovation · 2024–2026

The problem

Designing a camera layout was the easy part. Getting the right system into every remodeled store, every year meant holding standards, capital, equipment, labor, integrators, construction schedules, and lifecycle at once, and none of it belonged to one team. Asset Protection, Risk, Realty, Construction, GSOC, Investigations, and Claims all had a claim on the design.

The system

  • Standards and a modular design library: SOPs and a Basis of Design vendors were contractually bound to, decomposed into cost-coded scope packages by store prototype.
  • The quality gate: primary QA/QC and design authority over architects of record and outside vendors, on every package.
  • Construction administration: RFIs, submittal review, as-builts, and closeout walks, on every project, not selectively.
  • One standard, four countries: took the program into Canada, Mexico, and India forward-only, no remediation of divergent estates.
  • Computer vision and LPR, pilot to pattern: a hazard-detection reference store that became the pattern for the next nineteen, plus an enterprise LPR program supporting Amber Alert response.

The numbers

  • 3Internal team members
  • 7Embedded team members
  • 4Countries: U.S., Canada, Mexico, India

Takeaway

I do my best work inside complex systems where no single team owns the whole problem.

Explore the detail
Asset ProtectionRiskRealtyConstructionStore OperationsGSOCInvestigationsClaimsGlobal TechGlobal ProcurementIntegratorsArchitects of recordCanada · Mexico · IndiaSecurity designPROGRAM
Every group on the ring had a claim on the design. None of them owned all of it. Hover a group to trace its line.

What the program had to hold at once

  • Enterprise standards
  • Design systems
  • Capital planning
  • Equipment decisions
  • Labor
  • Integrators
  • Business functions
  • Construction
  • Operations
  • Technology
  • International teams
  • Lifecycle management

J.B. Hunt, then Walmart · 2023–2026

The problem

Designs arrived as AutoCAD drawings and PDFs. Everything the design knew, which devices, what make and model, where each one went, was locked inside the file, and it stayed there at handoff. Nothing carried between project phases, active projects moved with no audit trail, and rework and resurveys ate the budget every quarter.

The system

  • Proved small first: took a lifecycle and asset management platform from zero to full deployment inside a J.B. Hunt logistics portfolio.
  • Then enterprise-wide: proposed and drove the platform as the system of record for the Fortune 1 estate, aligning five business functions to one operating model.
  • Full procurement, owned: competitive evaluation, hands-on testing of competing platforms, legal negotiation, and enterprise governance approval, every stage from market scan to signed contract.
  • Self-funding by design: a per-site cost embedded in remodel budgets that already existed. No new capital request, no new headcount.
  • A standard that knows itself: rebuilt the Basis of Design from a static document into a queryable, API-readable structure, with every requirement carrying a unique ID.

The numbers

  • 0%Site data retained between phases, before
  • ~400Active projects with no audit trail, before
  • $200Per site, inside existing remodel budgets

Takeaway

The platform was the tool. The deliverable was a different way of working, and a business case an enterprise would actually fund.

Explore the detail

The transformation

Before

  • Manual CAD
  • Fragmented information
  • Limited lifecycle visibility

After

  • Digital system design
  • Integrated asset information
  • Enterprise collaboration
  • Structured data
  • AI-ready infrastructure
One eight-step chain, split at the point where the operating model changed.

How the case was built, and held after launch

  • Sponsor before build

    A director-grade decision brief, and executive sponsorship secured before rollout, not after.

  • Governance that outlasts launch

    Defined the model separating tool deployment from program ownership, so adoption held after go-live.

  • Done twice

    At Windstream, the same chain ran for the platform behind a 24/7 SOC. The first platform implemented didn't serve the SOC the way it needed to; re-evaluated and deployed Genetec Security Center as the operational backbone instead.

A Word file can't tell you anything about itself.

Walmart · 2024–2026

The problem

Before this program, nobody had a reliable enterprise-level answer to what devices existed, where they were, what type or manufacturer, what metadata described them, or their lifecycle status.

The system

  • Launched the company's first enterprise security device mapping program: every device captured as a structured record with images and metadata.
  • Validated before it lands: every submitted design's metadata checked against the program's reference tables; below the pass threshold, the package returned to the designer with each error listed.
  • Visible by designer and firm: error rates tracked per designer and per firm, turning vendor accountability into a number.
  • Drove the data backbone: worked with the technology organization to deliver security device data into BigQuery, surfacing in Power BI, the company's first enterprise data backbone for physical security devices.

The numbers

  • 12Reference tables validated against
  • 80%Pass threshold to advance
  • 24Designers tracked by error rate

Takeaway

Visibility first. Intelligence second. There's no shortcut through the first one.

Explore the detail

From the wall to the model

  1. Physical assetthe device on the wall
  2. Digital recordcaptured, imaged, tagged
  3. Enterprise datasetBigQuery, Power BI
  4. Operational intelligencecoverage and lifecycle visible
  5. AI-ready infrastructurestructured, trusted, queryable

Before

A camera on a wall. A PDF in someone's inbox. Nothing that says the two are the same thing.

Asset recordVerified
Asset ID
CAM-0417
Type
Fixed dome camera
Make / model
Manufacturer · model number
Location
Site · floor · zone
Mount
15 ft above finished floor
Network
IDF-2 · switch port 14
Image
Lifecycle
Installed · under warranty · replace-by date
Source
Field survey, validated against the as-built
Illustrative record structure. Field values are examples; no production data is shown.

Questions with no enterprise answer, before

  1. Q1What devices exist?
  2. Q2Where are they?
  3. Q3What type are they?
  4. Q4What manufacturer and model?
  5. Q5What metadata exists?
  6. Q6What image represents the asset?
  7. Q7What is its lifecycle status?

None of these had a reliable answer at enterprise level before the program.

Selected systems

Show the build, not the pitch.

Schematics are redrawn, not screenshots. The source systems ran on proprietary operational data, so nothing on this page comes from them.

Design Validation Platform

A self-submission platform, built with one teammate, that checks design metadata against the program's reference tables and returns every error to the designer.

Recognized with a 2026 company innovation award.

FIG. 01Schematic · illustrative
Designer submitsPACKAGE + METADATAMetadata check12 REFERENCE TABLES≥ 80%pass?YESVendor submissionPACKAGE ADVANCESNO · BACK TO THE DESIGNER, EACH ERROR LISTEDScorecardsPER DESIGNER · PER FIRMTOOL SCORES EXCLUDED BY RULEProgram KPIsSYSTEM OF RECORD ONLY
  • 80% pass threshold, enforced as a gate. Below it, a package could not advance to vendor submission.
  • I wrote a rule excluding the tool's own scores from the program's performance metrics, so it could never flatter the scoreboard.

Operating method

How I Work

An operating method, not a list of traits. Every step below has been done for real.

  1. 01

    Understand

    Find the actual constraint.

    In practice

    A client asked for more leads. The real constraint was his own bandwidth.

  2. 02

    Architect

    Map the system, people, dependencies, and technology.

    In practice

    Seven groups with a claim on one design, none owning all of it.

    Case 01
  3. 03

    Prove

    Prototype, test, and build the business case.

    In practice

    A self-funding business case: no new budget, no new headcount.

    Case 02
  4. 04

    Deploy

    Align stakeholders and move into production.

    In practice

    A live SOC cutover held at full monitoring coverage when the vendor missed milestones.

  5. 05

    Scale

    Measure the outcome and turn it into an enterprise capability.

    In practice

    Proven in a logistics portfolio, then scaled to Fortune 1.

    Case 02

Principles

01

The sensor isn't the system. The data around the sensor is.

02

Enterprise scale changes the problem.

03

The hardest part of transformation isn't the technology. It's the operating model around it.

Capability map

Four layers, one system.

Only what the record supports.

Physical Infrastructure

  • Video
  • Access
  • Intrusion
  • Life Safety
  • LPR

Digital Systems

  • Asset Management
  • Data Integration
  • Automation
  • Digital Design
  • PSIM

Intelligence

  • Computer Vision
  • LLMs
  • AI Evaluation
  • Analytics
  • Multi-Agent Systems

Enterprise

  • Program Management
  • Capital Planning
  • Procurement
  • Standards
  • Global Deployment

I build with Python, FastAPI, React, PostgreSQL, and LLM APIs. Physical security is the domain. The code is how I make the work checkable.

Experience

Eighteen years, one direction.

  1. Sep 2024 – Jul 2026

    Walmart

    Senior Manager, Global Security Strategy & Innovation

    Led the enterprise security and life safety design program across four countries. The organization's AI adoption lead for physical security.

  2. 2021 – Present

    Black Sail LLC

    Principal Consultant

    Independent client delivery, run alongside full-time roles. A hosted vertical-SaaS product now running a millwork business; an AI lead-conversion platform built inside a client's existing codebase.

  3. Aug 2023 – Sep 2024

    J.B. Hunt Transport Services

    Senior Asset Protection Project Manager

    Designed a $60M portfolio of 150 concurrent logistics security projects through an 8-person team with no direct authority. Took a lifecycle platform from zero to full deployment, the model later scaled enterprise-wide.

  4. Jun 2018 – Aug 2023

    Windstream Communications

    GRC Manager, Enterprise PCI DSS & IT Compliance

    Primary liaison to external QSA firms for PCI DSS Level 1 across merchant and service provider scope, plus NIST 800-53, HIPAA, and SOC 1 and 2. Clean audits year over year.

  5. Mar 2011 – Jun 2018

    Windstream Communications

    Manager, Security Operations Center

    Built a 24/7 SOC from nothing for a Fortune 500 telecom, including data center and critical infrastructure coverage. Owned the PSIM lifecycle end to end on Genetec Security Center, re-platforming to it after the first vendor didn't hold.

  6. 2008 – 2010

    Peabody Hotel Little Rock

    Assistant Director of Security

    Guest safety, executive protection, and incident command, including VIP operations coordinated with U.S. Secret Service details.

Contact

Building something complicated?
Let's talk.

damonwillis@icloud.com/Northwest Arkansas · Remote, U.S.

Beyond the systems

Ten years as opposing force at the Direct Action Resource Center, running force-on-force against military special operations and law enforcement tactical teams. I have personally run the attack path security designs are meant to stop.