Luis Ibarra
Chief Technology Officer at PingWind Inc. (SDVOSB)
Washington DC-Baltimore Area, United States
About Luis Ibarra
Luis Ibarra is Chief Technology Officer at PingWind Inc. (SDVOSB). Location: Washington DC-Baltimore Area, United States.
CTO and U.S. Coast Guard veteran who still thinks like an operator: mission first, people always, technology in service of both. My career started with breaking down code on a Commodore 64, and for the last 25+ years, I’ve been doing the same for the federal government - taking complex, legacy environments and modernizing them into secure, cloud-native systems. Whether it’s national security or federal health, I’ve learned that the best technology is the kind that stays out of the way of the mission. At PingWind, I lead our enterprise platforms and our research arm, QWind. We don’t do "science projects" - we turn frontier innovation like AI/ML on HPC and quantum-aware security into practical, compliant outcomes. I’m particularly proud that under my leadership, we’ve baked trust into everything we ship, hitting ISO 9001/20000/27001, CMMC Level 2 (Certified) and CMMI Level 3 (Development & Services) benchmarks along the way. How I approach the work: - Architecture is about outcomes: If a system doesn't align with the budget and the mission, it’s just expensive noise. I prioritize clarity and measurable results over complexity. - Security is a Day 1 requirement: From zero-trust to SBOM rigor, I believe security has to be a Day 1 design requirement, not a Day 90 afterthought. - Pragmatism over hype: I’m a big believer in shipping value early via DevSecOps and SRE. We avoid "complexity debt" by building for resilience and scale from the start. - Investing in people: I’m passionate about building inclusive teams and mentoring fellow veterans as they transition into tech leadership. As a member of the Forbes Technology Council, I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned in the field about modernization and AI.
Skills
Additional experience
Advisory Council Member
Forbes Technology Council
Started July 2022
Education
- Master's degree, Regis University