Cybersecurity · Secure software
Architecting secure software,
from research to production.
Michalis Smyrlis is the Chief Technology Officer at Sphynx and a cybersecurity researcher. He architects secure software, leads engineering teams, and technically coordinates EU-funded research projects.
- 30+ EU projects
- 10+ Years in cybersec
- PhD City, University of London
About
Securing software, from research to production
Michalis Smyrlis is a cybersecurity researcher and software engineer. He holds a BSc from the University of Crete and a PhD from City, University of London, where his doctoral research introduced a hybrid approach to cyber risk evaluation.
As CTO at Sphynx, he leads the company's technical direction — architecting secure software, setting engineering standards, and delivering cybersecurity products from design to production. He has contributed to 30+ European research projects, many of them as technical coordinator.
He is also a Scientific Collaborator at the European University of Cyprus, where he teaches and supervises postgraduate research in the MSc Cybersecurity programme.
Focus areas
What I work on
-
Cyber risk assessment
His doctoral research introduced a hybrid approach to cyber risk evaluation, which he continues to extend in practice — modelling threats, quantifying exposure, and translating risk into concrete engineering decisions.
-
Secure software architecture
At Sphynx he designs systems security-first — defining architecture, enforcing security-by-design, and keeping the codebase scalable and maintainable.
-
Teaching & thesis supervision
He teaches cybersecurity courses at MSc level and supervises Master's theses at the European University of Cyprus.
-
EU research & innovation
He has contributed to 30+ EU-funded cybersecurity projects, many as technical coordinator — translating research outputs into production-ready systems.
Research
Selected publications
Peer-reviewed work in cyber risk, security training, and assurance. The full record is on ORCID.
- 2025 Towards the Design of Cyber Range Training Programs for Enhanced Preparedness: Investigating the Training Needs in Critical Infrastructures
- 2024 RAMA: a risk assessment solution for healthcare organizations
- 2022 Cybersecurity for Industrial Internet of Things: Architecture, Models and Lessons Learned
- 2021 CYRA: A Model-Driven CYber Range Assurance Platform
- 2021 The THREAT-ARREST cyber range platform
- 2020 Modern Aspects of Cyber-Security Training and Continuous Adaptation of Programmes to Trainees
- 2020 Cyber Range Training Programme Specification Through Cyber Threat and Training Preparation Models
- 2020 Model-Driven Cyber Range Training: A Cyber Security Assurance Perspective
- 2020 Towards the Insurance of Healthcare Systems
- 2018 A big data repository and architecture for managing hearing loss related data
Career
Experience & education
Experience
-
Jul 2025 — Present
Chief Technology Officer
Sphynx
Leads Sphynx's technical direction — secure software architecture, engineering standards, and product delivery. Recruits and mentors engineers, runs code reviews, and serves as technical lead across multiple EU-funded cybersecurity R&I projects.
-
Apr 2021 — Jun 2025
Chief Software Engineer
Sphynx
Owned software architecture and delivery for Sphynx's products. Defined development methodologies and coding standards, recruited and mentored engineers, and led multiple EU-funded projects.
-
Oct 2023 — Present
Scientific Collaborator
European University Cyprus
Instructor for cybersecurity courses and supervisor for MSc theses.
-
2019 — Apr 2021
Senior Software Engineer
Sphynx Technology Solutions AG
Designed and built scalable software architectures for complex systems. Collaborated with cross-functional teams on requirements, specifications, and debugging.
-
2016 — 2019
Software Engineer
Empelor GmbH
Research and development for the EVOTION H2020 project.
-
2018 — 2019
Graduate Teaching Assistant
City, University of London
Taught Security Audit and Certification and Systems Architecture.
-
2016 — 2019
Research Assistant
City, University of London
Centre for Adaptive Computing Systems (CeNACS). Research and development on EU-funded projects including TOREADOR and CyberSURE.
-
May 2016 — Oct 2016
Graduate Software Engineer
University General Hospital of Heraklion (PAGNI)
Designed and built the official Android app for PAGNI.
Education
-
2017 — 2023
PhD, Cybersecurity
City, University of London
Thesis: A hybrid approach to cyber risk evaluation. Supervised by Prof. George Spanoudakis and Dr. Christos Kloukinas.
-
2012 — 2016
BSc, Computer Science
University of Crete
Thesis: Evaluation and extension of question-answering systems over medical texts.
Contact
Let's build secure systems together
Open to research collaborations, technical advisory, and conversations about secure software and cyber risk.