Stephan van der Merwe

Cybersecurity Pre-Sales / Sales Engineer | XDR • ITDR • VM Specialist | SentinelOne & Tenable | 15+ Years Technical + Client-Facing Experience | Driving POCs, Demos & Enterprise Rollouts

Brakpan, Gauteng, South Africa

About

Certified Cybersecurity Pre-Sales Engineer with more than 15 years’ experience delivering demos, POCs, technical evaluations, and enterprise deployments across Africa. I specialise in XDR, ITDR, and Vulnerability Management, helping organisations understand risk, validate solutions, and adopt secure architectures. My background blends deep hands-on technical expertise with strong client-facing capabilities, enabling me to support full sales cycles and influence decision-makers during critical evaluation phases.

Experience

  • Head of SecOps XDR MSSP at Commsworth
    Jan 2024 - Present · 2 yrs 7 mos

    Lead end-to-end XDR and vulnerability management deployments for 18 enterprise clients across West Africa, maintaining security operations across 2,800+ endpoints. Design and build custom integrations between SentinelOne, Tenable, and client SIEM environments using Python and RESTful APIs. Write, tune, and maintain SIEM detection rules mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework. Drive pre-sales PoV engagements from technical qualification through to production deployment. Apply Claude (Anthropic) daily to accelerate integration development and produce quantified business cases for renewals and expansion.

  • Self-employed ()
    • Cyber Security Consultant
      Nov 2021 - Sep 2024 · 2 yrs 11 mos

      Independent cybersecurity pre-sales advisory, technical evaluation support, and platform deployment consulting for enterprise clients across Africa. Provided XDR, vulnerability management, and identity security expertise on contract engagements covering SentinelOne and Tenable platforms. Supported competitive PoV and RFP processes as an independent technical consultant for channel partners and end-user organisations.

    • Freelance Consultant
      Sep 2021 - Apr 2022 · 8 mos

      Freelance cybersecurity consulting and pre-sales advisory support for enterprise clients. Delivered technical evaluations, solution design, and platform assessments across XDR and vulnerability management domains in Africa.

  • Tenable Guru and SentinelOne Pre-sales Engineer at Networks Unlimited Africa
    Apr 2020 - Mar 2022 · 2 yrs

    Helping build and expand Tenable's sales reach by educating channel partners as well as help to sign up new partners and clients Working closely with the sales team on proposals and pitches for business. Attending meetings with business development managers and acting as a technical expert. Putting together business cases for the sales teams to support their proposals. Working closely and collaboratively with customers to devise effective solutions. Ensuring that the company’s product can deliver on the customer’s requirements. Working closely with customers to understand and capture requirements. Replying to customers following requests for information and proposal requests. Presenting proposals to customers alongside members of the sales team. Providing ongoing support for customers post implementation. Producing detailed costings for customers and ensuring the contract is profitable.

  • Tenable Pre-Sales Guru at Maxtec
    Feb 2019 - Sep 2019 · 8 mos

  • Account Manager at SensePost
    Aug 2015 - Jun 2016 · 11 mos

    Looking after existing accounts. And developing new opportunities both in South Africa and rest of Africa.