Security at the Speed of Engineering: Cyber and Dev Leaders Unite in Auckland

The Brief
As part of a focused relationship-building initiative, Galah Cyber engaged Clutch to convene senior engineering and cybersecurity leaders from high-impact organisations in New Zealand. The goal was to explore practical ways to embed security into fast-moving development environments—without slowing innovation or pushing security to the sidelines.

The Work
Clutch and Galah Cyber co-designed a peer-led roundtable experience tailored for leaders responsible for balancing speed and security. Held at Onslow, a premium venue in Auckland, the session enabled open, vendor-neutral discussions among peers facing similar challenges across enterprise software, infrastructure, and fintech environments.

The Outcome
Auckland Roundtable: 16 attendees joined from 100% target accounts, including Suncorp, Visa, One NZ, Smartpay, and Kami.

Event Highlights
Key discussion points included:

• Why Does Security Debt Keep Growing?
  Leaders identified organisational and process-level gaps that cause security debt to compound—and shared approaches to reversing the trend.
  
  
• Secure-by-Design in Practice
  Attendees explored how security can be embedded early in the SDLC, with real examples from teams integrating controls into developer workflows.
  
  
• Automation & AI in Security
  The group discussed how modern tools are helping shift security left—enabling more checks earlier, without slowing delivery or burning out teams.
  
  
• Tracking & Measuring Security Improvement
  Participants shared strategies for proving progress, including metrics that demonstrate security is driving—not delaying—business outcomes.
  
  

Conclusion
This collaboration between Clutch and Galah Cyber delivered a high-impact forum for engineering and security leaders to connect, share, and learn. The result: strengthened relationships, shared best practices, and clear alignment around the need for security that keeps pace with modern development.