Introduction
Dagan Henderson is a seasoned engineering executive with over 15 years of experience leading platform modernization, cybersecurity, and cloud-native transformation initiatives. Currently serving as Vice President of Platform at Raft, he specializes in building compliant, resilient systems for regulated industries, including government, defense, finance, and healthcare.
Dagan pairs deep technical expertise with a sharp focus on mission outcomes, delivering secure, scalable solutions that excel under demanding operational conditions. His work has accelerated capability delivery, improved system resilience, and strengthened the security posture of enterprise and government platforms.
Throughout his career, Dagan has held senior engineering roles at organizations including Everbridge, Akoya, and Fidelity Investments, consistently driving innovation at the intersection of infrastructure, security, and developer experience. Beyond his professional achievements, he is an active contributor to the open-source community and a vocal advocate for pragmatic, outcome-driven engineering leadership.
Leadership Philosophy
Dagan approaches leadership as a force multiplier, focusing on building high-performing teams and creating the conditions for them to succeed. He believes that strong teams are the foundation of enduring products, and that effective leadership means empowering individuals while aligning them toward a common purpose. With a deep technical background, he engages at both strategic and operational levels, making informed decisions while drawing out the expertise and creativity of those around him. Dagan fosters a culture of open dialogue, critical thinking, and mutual respect where diverse perspectives are welcomed, and the best ideas are elevated through collaboration. His leadership philosophy centers on trust, accountability and continuous growth, ensuring teams feel supported, challenged and aligned toward shared success.
Technology Vision & Experience
Dagan has over 20 years of experience developing commercial and open-source software across cloud, desktop, and mobile platforms, using more than 10 languages including Go, Swift, Java, and JavaScript. He has managed both cloud and on-prem infrastructure with Terraform, Chef, and Puppet; built secure, developer-centric CI/CD pipelines with GitLab, GitHub, and Jenkins; and responsibly disclosed multiple open-source vulnerabilities. He takes a pragmatic approach to technology, adopting new tools only when they serve clear, strategic goals and avoiding hype-driven decision making.
Key Achievements
- Standardized Platform Assessment: Designed and implemented a unified platform assessment framework adopted across a dozen programs, giving leadership clear, side-by-side visibility into platform maturity, gaps, and strategic objectives via a single-pane-of-glass view.
- AWS Partnership: Led a successful effort to achieve AWS Partner status, unlocking marketplace visibility, co-marketing opportunities, and infrastructure funding that directly supported business growth and customer acquisition.
- FedRAMP 3PAO Audit: Led the effort supporting a FedRAMP third-party assessment of a Kubernetes-based platform at Everbridge, enabling workloads supporting federal agencies to transition to a secure, cloud-native architecture. This effort streamlined compliance, reduced operating costs, and accelerated the software delivery lifecycle.
- SOC 2, Type 2 Compliance: Served as technical lead for Akoya’s successful SOC 2, Type 2 audit for a critical data-sharing platform, driving the implementation of robust security and operational controls. This milestone reinforced customer trust, met key contractual obligations, and positioned the company for scalable growth in regulated financial markets.
- Patent-Backed Innovation in Secure Collaboration: Inventor on two U.S. patents (9,118,654 and 9,208,167) focused on secure media-based conferencing and distributed data synchronization. These innovations enhance compliance monitoring and data integrity in mission-critical communication systems, contributing to advancements in secure, resilient collaboration technologies.
Notable Projects & Initiatives
- AOC Anywhere: Served as executive engineer for the U.S. Pacific Air Force’s AOC Anywhere initiative, leading modernization of the Air Operations Center weapon systems platform. Oversaw engineering efforts that accelerated capability delivery, improved system resilience, and extended global access for mission-critical operations.
- Enterprise Ideas Lab: Launched an internal innovation program to surface employee-driven ideas, align them with strategic priorities, and streamline development and patent application.
- Weapons Grade Kubernetes: Designed and led the development of a hardened Kubernetes platform for distributed, disconnected, and air-gapped environments—enabling centralized observability, policy enforcement, and resilient DevSecOps across austere and mission-critical deployments.
- Critical Kubernetes Vulnerabilities: Discovered and responsibly disclosed multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in the Kubernetes ecosystem, including CVE-2021-36779 (remote code execution in Longhorn) and CVE-2020-1764 (authentication bypass in Kiali).
Education & Credentials
Dagan holds an A.A. in Liberal Arts from Diablo Valley College, with an emphasis on language arts and creative writing. His expertise in software engineering and cybersecurity is self-directed, built over 17+ years of hands-on experience in highly regulated sectors including defense, fintech, and healthcare. He currently holds active Certified Kubernetes Administrator and Security+ CE certifications.
Personal Mission
Dagan is driven by a passion for solving complex problems and applying that focus to projects that meaningfully impacts people’s lives. Whether delivering new capabilities to warfighters at Raft or empowering consumers to control their financial data at Akoya, he is motivated by building solutions that enable others. As a leader, he believes his primary role is to build and support strong, functional teams while creating the conditions for them to deliver impactful, high-quality outcomes.