Pilotcore

Pilotcore is a cloud security and compliance consulting firm that provides technical implementation services alongside knowledge transfer to client teams. The company specializes in building secure, compliant infrastructure for growth-stage startups, regulated businesses, and engineering-led teams across healthcare, fintech, defense contracting, and other sectors requiring compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, CMMC, NIST SP 800-171/172, PCI, and CPCSC. The firm offers fractional CTO services, providing part-time technology leadership (typically 10-20 hours per week) for startups and scale-ups that need strategic guidance but are not ready for a full-time executive hire. Services include technology strategy and roadmap development, cloud architecture design, DevSecOps implementation, security-first development practices, and compliance-ready infrastructure design. Pilotcore's approach emphasizes implementing solutions directly with client teams rather than creating consultant dependency. The company configures pipelines, writes security policies, implements controls, and provides comprehensive documentation, runbooks, architecture decision records, and team training sessions. Engagements include 30-day post-handoff support to ensure clients can maintain and extend systems independently. Founded by Nelson Ford, a CISSP and CMMC CCP-certified technology leader with over 25 years of experience, the company operates with a flexible team structure, bringing in specialized contractors as needed for specific project requirements. The firm works with multi-cloud environments and holds AWS certifications including Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Engineer Professional, and Security Specialty.