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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Security Officer

💰 $90,000 - $150,000

CybersecurityWeb SecurityITInformation Security

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Security Officer is responsible for protecting web applications, APIs and related infrastructure by designing and enforcing security controls, leading vulnerability management and incident response, and partnering with engineering teams to embed secure-by-design practices across the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This role blends hands-on technical work (vulnerability assessments, pen testing, WAF tuning, SAST/DAST integration) with governance (policies, compliance, risk assessments) and cross-functional stakeholder communication.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Security Analyst with web or application focus
  • Web/Application Developer transitioning into security
  • DevOps/Platform Engineer with security responsibilities

Advancement To:

  • Senior Application Security Engineer
  • Application Security Architect
  • Head of Web/Application Security or Director of Security
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for smaller organizations

Lateral Moves:

  • DevSecOps Engineer
  • Cloud Security Engineer
  • Threat and Vulnerability Management Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead regular web application vulnerability assessments and penetration tests across public-facing and internal web services, including scoping, executing or coordinating tests, triaging findings, and tracking remediation through to closure.
  • Design, deploy and maintain Web Application Firewalls (WAF) policies and rule sets (cloud or appliance-based) to prevent OWASP Top 10 attacks, minimize false positives, and continuously tune rules based on attack telemetry and business needs.
  • Integrate SAST, DAST and software composition analysis (SCA) tools into CI/CD pipelines and developer workflows, configure meaningful gates, and reduce friction while raising security coverage and fixing rates.
  • Conduct code reviews and secure code training for web development teams, identifying critical insecure coding patterns, providing remediation guidance and verifying fixes in collaboration with engineering leads.
  • Implement and maintain continuous vulnerability scanning for web servers, containers and application stacks using industry tools (Nessus, Qualys, Burp Suite, AppScan) and ensure timely prioritization and remediation.
  • Run threat modeling workshops for new web applications and major feature releases, produce mitigation plans, and ensure design changes reduce attack surface and align with business requirements.
  • Develop and own web security standards, policies, and secure configuration baselines (HTTP headers, TLS configuration, cookie flags, CORS policy, CSP) and enforce them via automation and deployment guardrails.
  • Manage incident response for web-related incidents: lead containment, eradication and recovery for application attacks (XSS, SQLi, RCE, business logic abuse), produce root-cause reports and coordinate post-incident remediation and lessons learned.
  • Operate and tune application and security logging (structured logs, WAF logs, RUM, synthetic monitoring) to improve detection capabilities, connect logs to SIEM, and build actionable correlation/use-case detections for web threats.
  • Drive third-party and open-source risk assessments for web components, monitor disclosed vulnerabilities (CVE) for dependent libraries, and coordinate patching/updating with product owners and release managers.
  • Define, capture and report measurable web security KPIs (time-to-remediate, open critical vulnerabilities, scan coverage, false positive rates) to engineering leadership and security governance forums.
  • Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to build secure deployment pipelines for web applications, enforce image signing, vulnerability gating and runtime protections for containers and serverless endpoints.
  • Lead cross-functional programs to remediate systemic web security weaknesses identified by audits or penetration tests, including roadmap planning, resource allocation and stakeholder communication.
  • Evaluate, pilot and operationalize web security tooling and services (WAF, RASP, bot management, DDoS mitigation, API security gateways), including vendor selection, PoC, integration and ongoing ROI measurement.
  • Ensure authentication and authorization systems for web platforms are secure: implement best practices for session management, MFA, token handling (OAuth2, OpenID Connect), and secure cookie attributes.
  • Maintain a continuous vulnerability management lifecycle for web assets: asset discovery, risk scoring, remediation tracking, exception handling and executive reporting.
  • Provide security guidance for frontend and backend developers on secure use of modern web frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, Node.js, Django, Ruby on Rails), preventing common misconfigurations and insecure API patterns.
  • Coordinate with privacy, legal and compliance teams to ensure web applications meet regulatory requirements (PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) and support audit activities with evidence and remediation artifacts.
  • Automate routine web security tasks (scan orchestration, ticket creation, patch validation, telemetry enrichment) using scripts, orchestration platforms and playbooks to scale the security function.
  • Mentor and upskill development teams and junior security engineers via brown-bag sessions, secure coding workshops and documented playbooks for handling common web security findings.
  • Maintain up-to-date awareness of attacker techniques targeting web layers (API abuse, credential stuffing, supply chain attacks) and translate intelligence into defensive controls and operational changes.
  • Review and approve exceptions and compensating controls for web security-related risk acceptance requests, documenting risk, remediation plan and time-bound mitigation steps.

Secondary Functions

  • Provide expert support to product and engineering teams during deployments and release windows to ensure security gates do not block critical business deliveries, while maintaining risk visibility.
  • Contribute to the security architecture review board and participate in design reviews for cross-cutting web platform decisions (CDN, load balancers, authentication services).
  • Produce executive summaries and stakeholder-facing reports following security assessments, translating technical findings into business risk and remediation roadmaps.
  • Assist the broader security team with cross-domain incident simulations (tabletop exercises) that include web application threat scenarios and validate response playbooks.
  • Maintain a library of runbooks and incident playbooks for common web attack vectors, ensuring on-call and SOC teams have clear escalation and mitigation guidance.
  • Support procurement and contract review for web-facing vendors to ensure SLAs, security clauses and breach notification requirements are robust and enforceable.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep knowledge of web application security concepts and threats, including OWASP Top 10, API-specific attacks, CSRF, SSRF, IDOR and business logic vulnerabilities.
  • Hands-on experience with dynamic application security testing (DAST) and interactive application security testing (IAST) tools (e.g., Burp Suite, ZAP, AppScan).
  • Experience integrating static application security testing (SAST) and Software Composition Analysis (SCA) into CI/CD (e.g., SonarQube, Checkmarx, Snyk, Dependabot).
  • Practical experience configuring and operating Web Application Firewalls (WAF), API gateways and bot management solutions (ModSecurity, Cloudflare, AWS WAF, F5).
  • Familiarity with penetration testing methodologies, tooling and reporting — ability to run and interpret pen-tests or coordinate third-party assessments.
  • Strong understanding of TLS/SSL, certificate management, HTTP security headers, secure cookie attributes, and secure session management techniques.
  • Cloud web security experience for AWS/Azure/GCP, including secure deployment patterns for serverless functions, containerized web apps, and managed API services.
  • Knowledge of authentication and authorization standards (OAuth2, OpenID Connect, SAML) and secure identity flows for web and mobile clients.
  • Experience with logging, monitoring and detection platforms (SIEM, ELK, Splunk) and building detection rules for web-related attack patterns.
  • Familiarity with container and orchestration security (Docker, Kubernetes) and securing web workloads in containerized environments.
  • Experience with vulnerability management tools (Nessus, Qualys, Rapid7) and CVE triage processes for web stacks and third-party libraries.
  • Practical scripting and automation skills (Python, Bash, PowerShell, or similar) to automate remediation checks, ticketing and reporting.
  • Knowledge of secure SDLC processes and experience partnering with product/engineering to implement security gates and remediation workflows.
  • Understanding of compliance frameworks relevant to web applications (PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA) and ability to produce audit-ready evidence.
  • Familiarity with API security best practices, including authentication, rate limiting, schema validation and API gateway enforcement.

Soft Skills

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to translate technical findings into business risk and remediation plans for non-technical stakeholders.
  • Collaboration and influencing skills to work effectively across engineering, product, DevOps and executive teams without direct authority.
  • Analytical problem-solving and investigative mindset for root cause analysis during incidents and complex vulnerability triage.
  • Project management and organizational skills to prioritize remediation work, run cross-functional programs and meet deadlines.
  • Leadership and mentoring capability to grow junior security talent and raise security awareness across development teams.
  • Attention to detail, persistence and a pragmatic approach to balancing security hardening with product velocity.
  • Customer-centric mindset to consider developer experience and build security controls that enable, not block, product teams.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Computer Engineering, or related technical field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or advanced technical discipline.
  • Relevant security certifications (CISSP, OSCP, OSWE, CISM, GIAC certifications, CEH, AWS Security Specialty) are highly desirable.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Information Security / Cybersecurity
  • Computer Engineering
  • Network Engineering / Systems Administration

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years in application/web security, vulnerability management, or related security engineering roles. (Mid-level: 3–5 years; Senior: 5+ years)

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of hands-on experience securing web applications and APIs, with demonstrable experience running assessments, integrating SAST/DAST into CI/CD, and configuring WAFs.
  • Prior experience working with modern stack (cloud-native architectures, microservices, containers) and collaborating closely with software engineering teams.
  • Proven track record of leading remediation programs, managing third-party security assessments, and delivering measurable improvements in security posture.
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