Security Engineer · AI · UK

Security engineering.
AI. Building.

I’m Matt Sinar, a Security Engineer working with AI, with a background in security operations and frontline policing. I like turning messy technical problems into practical, secure solutions — whether that means investigating, engineering, automating or building.

Security engineering AI Investigation Python

From frontline policing to defensive security.

Before moving into cybersecurity, I served as a Police Officer in Bradford and received a commendation. The job taught me to stay composed, gather facts quickly and make decisions when information is incomplete.

That mindset carried naturally into security operations. I later graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a First-Class degree, moved into cybersecurity and progressed into security engineering. I now work with AI, combining security thinking with engineering, automation and a growing area of technology that rarely sits still for long.

I’ve also spent plenty of time learning by doing: writing small Python tools, building websites, helping organise events, working on cars and taking on projects where the quickest way to understand something is to get stuck into it.

A slightly unusual route into cybersecurity.

The titles changed. The useful bits — investigation, judgement, communication and keeping a level head — carried across.

01

Police Officer

Bradford

Frontline policing, incident response and investigation in situations where decisions had real consequences. Received a commendation during my service.

02

First-Class Degree

Leeds Beckett University

Built the academic and technical foundation for moving into security, while continuing to develop practical skills through personal projects.

03

Security Operations

SOC Analyst

Alert triage, investigation and defensive security work: understanding what happened, deciding what matters and turning technical evidence into useful action.

04

Security Engineering

Security Engineer · AI

My current role, working at the intersection of security engineering and AI — building, improving and securing technical workflows while applying the investigative mindset developed in operations.

Security engineering that does something useful.

My current work blends security engineering with AI, alongside the investigative and automation skills I built in security operations.

01

Investigate

Work through alerts and incidents methodically, build context from evidence and separate genuinely interesting activity from background noise.

02

Engineer

Design and improve security-focused technical workflows, turning operational problems into maintainable solutions rather than one-off fixes.

03

AI & Automate

Work with AI and automation to reduce repetitive effort, explore better workflows and make technical processes faster, more useful and easier to scale.

04

Build

Websites, event systems, Python utilities or car projects — I learn fastest by making something real and improving it as I go.

Work that exists outside PowerPoint.

A few of the things I’ve built, organised or spent far too many evenings tinkering with.

Technical enough to dig in. Practical enough to ship.

Security

Security engineeringSecurity operationsAlert triageInvestigationIncident analysisDefensive thinking

Technical

AIPythonAutomationAPIsWeb developmentTechnical troubleshooting

Operational

Clear communicationWorking under pressureEvent organisationHands-on learningPrioritisationContinuous improvement

Cars, bikes and getting outside.

Work is only one bit of the site. The rest is usually mountain biking, working on the MX-5 or finding another project that definitely looked cheaper at the start.

Matt mountain biking
Mountain bikingTrails · learning · occasionally surviving the feature
Matt's NC MX-5
NC MX-5Suspension · maintenance · modifications
Setting up the Rotary hill climb
Community projectsWeb · events · getting stuck in

Want to talk security, AI, projects or cars?

If you’ve got an interesting role, technical project or collaboration in mind, LinkedIn is the easiest place to reach me.

Connect on LinkedIn ↗