James Houlder
IT Manager / Cyber Security Practitioner / Technical Builder
United Kingdom
Profile
I run IT in a real-world manufacturing environment, build security tools to understand how they work, study cyber security at MSc level, and have spent years translating technical ideas into something people can actually understand.
Continuing to develop deeper practical experience in cyber security, particularly defensive security, SecOps and security engineering, while bringing substantial real-world SME IT and business experience with me.
Experience
Polymer Compounders Ltd
UK polymer manufacturer (SME) — Around 11 years, to present
Marketing & IT Manager
Sole-charge IT for a UK polymer manufacturer, alongside marketing for its technical B2B products: full ownership of infrastructure, security and digital systems.
- → Designed and implemented VLAN segmentation of the business network.
- → Led the endpoint security rollout, backed by managed detection and response.
- → Preparing the business for Cyber Essentials certification.
- → Helped design, then physically built, the network room for a new manufacturing site: cabling, racks and backbone.
- → Led the 2025 rebuild of the company website.
- → Ran the technical and digital rollout for the Notoxicom® product launch.
- → Designed the Polymer Compounders and Chestnut BioPolymers stand for Interplas 2026 at the NEC, Birmingham.
Marketing & IT Specialist
2020 – 2022
Hybrid marketing and IT role: the website, SEO and content on one side, day-to-day IT on the other.
Operations Technician
Started hands-on in operations, learning how the business actually runs before trying to change any of it.
Selected projects
DNS Daddy Open source
A lightweight, self-hosted protective DNS resolver and DNS-security visibility tool. A single Go binary, released under Apache-2.0. It began as a Master's project.
Alpha. Actively developed, not independently reviewed.
New-site networking backbone Professional work
Helped design the networking room for a new manufacturing site, then physically built it: cabling, racks and the networking backbone.
Delivered.
Clear North Marketing Side project
Independent marketing and business experiment.
Side project.
Personal tools & micro-SaaS experiments Experiment
Small applications built to learn and to solve my own problems, self-hosted on VPS and small-board hardware.
Various states of finished.
Technical experience
SME IT management
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → Day-to-day IT for a UK manufacturing SME
- → Infrastructure troubleshooting across network, endpoints and cloud
- → Working with a managed service provider (MSP)
- → Deciding what to own in-house and what to escalate
Network architecture
IN PRODUCTION — Professional experience
- → Firewalling and routing at the network edge
- → Managed switching and business Wi-Fi
- → VLAN segmentation
- → Guest networking kept apart from business traffic
- → VPN remote access
Endpoints, patching & Microsoft 365
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → Endpoint management
- → Patch management
- → Microsoft 365 administration
- → Identity and access considerations
Backup, encryption & DNS
IN PRODUCTION — Professional experience
- → Backup strategy for business systems
- → Endpoint encryption
- → DNS filtering as a preventative control
New-site networking backbone
DELIVERED — Professional experience
- → Helped design the networking room for a new manufacturing site
- → Physically built it: cabling, racks and the networking backbone
Cyber-security experience
Incident response
PRACTISED — Professional experience
- → Endpoint alert investigation
- → MDR incident triage
- → Legitimate activity validation
- → Escalation to MSP when required
Security monitoring & EDR / MDR
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → Endpoint protection backed by managed detection and response
- → Reviewing detections and deciding what is real
DNS security
IN PRODUCTION — Professional experience
- → Protective DNS filtering in a business environment
- → DNS as an early, inexpensive layer of defence
Protective DNS engineering
BUILDING (ALPHA) — Hands-on project
- → Self-hosted protective DNS resolver, open source under Apache-2.0
- → Blocks known-malicious domains using public threat-intelligence feeds
- → Experimental, alert-only behavioural detectors
- → Published threat model, assurance notes and documented limitations
Secure software development
PRACTISED ON DNS DADDY — Hands-on project
- → Static analysis of AI-assisted code
- → Security review and testing of generated implementation
- → Vulnerability discovery, fix, re-test
- → VPS hardening for self-hosted services
Threat intelligence
INTEGRATED — Hands-on project
- → Public threat-intelligence feeds integrated into DNS Daddy
- → False-positive handling and allow-listing
SIEM experimentation
EXPERIMENTING — Study and labs
- → SIEM deployed and explored in a lab
- → SIEM-friendly exports from DNS Daddy
Vulnerability scanning
HANDS-ON — Study and labs
- → Vulnerability scanning and interpreting the results
Ethical hacking & cloud labs
LAB WORK — Study and labs
- → Ethical hacking labs and cyber ranges
- → Azure and Linux lab environments
- → Security research alongside MSc study
Risk, governance & secure systems
STUDYING — Current learning
- → Risk and professional practice studied at MSc level
- → Incident response and secure systems as taught subjects
- → CISM-related professional development (studying, not certified)
Education
MSc Digital & Technology Solutions (Cyber Security)
Northumbria University — Studying — In progress
Areas of study include cyber-security principles, risk, incident response, secure systems and professional practice.
Qualifications and registration
- RITTech MBCS — BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Professional registration
Professional development
- CISM-related professional development Studying — Study in progress. Not certified.
- CompTIA Security+ learning Training
- Google Cybersecurity learning Course
- Cyber ranges and practical labs Labs
- Professional cyber-security research CPD
Labels mean what they say. Studying, training and courses are not certifications, and nothing here claims one that has not been awarded.
Marketing and communication
Web, SEO & content
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → Website management and development
- → SEO for technical B2B products
- → Content that explains technical products plainly
Social, email & analytics
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → Social media and LinkedIn
- → Email marketing
- → Analytics, to see what actually worked
Exhibitions & product launches
DELIVERED — Professional experience
- → Trade exhibitions
- → Product launches
- → Working with agencies
Brand & technical B2B marketing
DAY JOB — Professional experience
- → SME marketing for Polymer Compounders
- → Technical product marketing, including Notoxicom
- → Brand development
- → Translating technical products into marketing people can follow
Speaking
Industry presentation to a university audience — Alès, France