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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Security Specialist

💰 $ - $

SecurityInformation SecurityWeb Application SecurityDevSecOps

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Security Specialist is a subject-matter expert responsible for protecting web applications, APIs, and associated infrastructure from threats across the software development lifecycle. This role leads vulnerability discovery and remediation, performs hands-on penetration testing and secure code review, operates web application firewalls (WAF) and runtime protection, integrates security into CI/CD pipelines, and partners with engineering, product, and compliance teams to reduce risk and achieve measurable security outcomes. Ideal candidates marry offensive testing experience with pragmatic, developer-friendly remediation guidance and a strong understanding of modern web architectures (microservices, containers, serverless, and cloud platforms).

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Security Analyst (Application focus)
  • Software Engineer with security interest or training
  • Network/Systems Engineer with web security responsibilities

Advancement To:

  • Senior Web Security Specialist / Lead Application Security Engineer
  • Application Security Manager or Security Architect
  • Director of Application Security or Head of DevSecOps
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for large organizations

Lateral Moves:

  • DevSecOps Engineer
  • Cloud Security Engineer
  • Threat Intelligence / Incident Response Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Conduct comprehensive web application penetration tests and security assessments that identify OWASP Top 10, API, business logic, authentication/authorization, and other vulnerabilities, producing detailed findings, risk ratings, and remediation plans.
  • Execute secure code reviews and static analysis (SAST) of backend and frontend codebases to identify injection, insecure deserialization, improper input validation, insecure cryptography, and other vulnerability classes, and provide developer-focused remediation guidance.
  • Design, implement, tune, and maintain web application firewall (WAF) rules and runtime application self-protection (RASP) policies to reduce production attack surface while minimizing false positives and operational friction.
  • Lead threat modeling and architecture reviews for new and existing web services and APIs to identify design-level security weaknesses, define mitigation strategies, and document security requirements for product teams.
  • Perform dynamic application security testing (DAST), interactive application security testing (IAST), and automated API scanning as part of CI/CD pipelines to detect runtime vulnerabilities before production.
  • Manage vulnerability triage and remediation workflows: validate reported issues, assign owners, track SLA-based fixes, verify remediation, and maintain vulnerability dashboards and trend reports for leadership.
  • Embed security gates into the software development lifecycle by integrating SAST/DAST results, security unit tests, and automated checks into build pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
  • Lead and participate in red-team/blue-team exercises specifically targeting web applications, APIs, and associated infrastructure to validate detection and response capabilities.
  • Develop and maintain security standards, checklists, and secure coding guidelines for web frameworks, JavaScript/TypeScript frontends, REST/GraphQL APIs, and microservices architectures.
  • Provide expert guidance on authentication and authorization best practices (OAuth2/OpenID Connect, JWT, SAML), session management, multi-factor authentication, single sign‑on (SSO), and secure token handling.
  • Harden web application deployment platforms and runtimes including container and orchestration security (Docker, Kubernetes), serverless functions, and web server configurations, aligning with CIS/benchmarks where applicable.
  • Evaluate and harden TLS/SSL configurations, certificate lifecycle management, HTTP security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options), and secure cookie attributes to protect data in transit and mitigate common attack vectors.
  • Perform API security assessments focusing on endpoint authorization, parameter tampering, rate limiting, resource exposure, schema validation, and sensitive data exposure in payloads and logs.
  • Lead third-party component and supply-chain security reviews including dependency scanning, software composition analysis (SCA), and risk assessments for open-source libraries and commercial components used in web stacks.
  • Operate and tune security telemetry and monitoring for web applications, including log collection, SIEM integration (Splunk, Elastic, Datadog), alerting for suspicious requests, and threat hunting focused on web-based attack patterns.
  • Drive security incident response for web application compromises: containment, forensic evidence collection, root cause analysis, application of mitigations, and preparation of post-incident remediation and communication.
  • Collaborate closely with product managers, engineering leads, and DevOps to translate business requirements into secure designs and ensure timely security sign-offs for releases.
  • Manage external security engagements including coordinating penetration tests, bug bounty programs, and vendor security reviews; evaluate findings, prioritize fixes, and validate vendor-supplied remediations.
  • Create actionable executive and engineering-level reports, metrics, and SLAs that demonstrate application security posture, progress of remediation programs, and residual risk to stakeholders.
  • Automate repetitive security tasks—scanning, ticket creation, remediation verification, and reporting—using scripting languages (Python, Bash) and orchestration tools to increase program scale and efficiency.
  • Coach and train engineering teams on secure coding practices, automated security tools usage, threat models, and post-mortem learning to raise organization-wide security maturity.
  • Define and enforce access control policies for web application backends, databases, and administrative consoles, ensuring least-privilege, role-based access, and credential hygiene.
  • Assess and remediate configuration drift and insecure defaults for web servers, application frameworks, CI/CD systems, and cloud services that host web workloads.
  • Stay current with emerging web security threats, exploit techniques, proof-of-concept code, and countermeasures; translate new threats into actionable controls and testing cases.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc security data requests, exploratory data analysis, and metrics generation to inform risk-based prioritization and board-level reporting.
  • Contribute to the organization's application security strategy and roadmap, identifying gaps, proposing tooling investments, and measuring program ROI.
  • Collaborate with business units and product teams to translate security requirements into engineering acceptance criteria and secure feature design.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within product and engineering teams to ensure security tasks are scoped, estimated, and delivered on schedule.
  • Provide on-call support for web security incidents and help maintain runbooks, playbooks, and escalation procedures for application security events.
  • Assist in procurement and evaluation of web security tools such as WAF solutions, DAST/SAST/IAST vendors, API security platforms, and runtime protection services.
  • Mentor junior security engineers and rotate through hands-on training sessions to build internal capability for web security testing and remediation.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong hands-on experience with web application penetration testing and vulnerability assessment methodologies that map to OWASP Top 10 and CWE categories.
  • Proficiency with web security testing tools including Burp Suite (Pro), OWASP ZAP, Nikto, nmap, sqlmap, Metasploit, and API testing tools (Postman, Insomnia).
  • Experience implementing and tuning Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and runtime protections including ModSecurity, AWS WAF, Cloudflare, Imperva, or F5 ASM.
  • Familiarity with static analysis (SAST) and software composition analysis (SCA) tools such as SonarQube, Checkmarx, Veracode, Snyk, or Dependabot, and the ability to interpret and triage findings.
  • Deep understanding of HTTP, TLS/SSL, cookie/session security, CORS, CSP, OAuth2/OpenID Connect, JWT, SAML, and common web auth flows.
  • Practical knowledge of API security patterns, GraphQL security considerations, rate limiting, and secure input/output validation for REST/GraphQL endpoints.
  • Cloud platform web security experience (AWS, Azure, GCP) including IAM, load balancers, API Gateway, cloud-native WAFs, and container/workload security.
  • Container and orchestration security skills for Docker and Kubernetes, including Pod security policies, network policies, image scanning, and runtime hardening.
  • Solid scripting and automation skills (Python, Bash, PowerShell) to build scanners, automate remediation verification, and integrate security tooling into CI/CD.
  • Experience with CI/CD pipeline security: integrating SAST/DAST into Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, and automating security gating for deployments.
  • Incident response and forensics experience specific to web application compromise, log analysis, trace reconstruction, and evidence preservation.
  • Familiarity with security telemetry and monitoring tools (Splunk, Elastic, Datadog, Sumo Logic) to detect abnormal web traffic and application-layer attacks.
  • Knowledge of cryptography fundamentals, secure key/certificate management, and common implementation pitfalls (e.g., weak ciphers, improper RNG).
  • Awareness of compliance and regulatory frameworks affecting web apps (PCI-DSS, GDPR, SOC 2) and experience mapping application controls to compliance requirements.
  • Experience managing external security engagements: third-party pentests, bug bounty platforms (HackerOne, Bugcrowd), and vendor security questionnaires.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills to translate technical findings into business risk terms and clear remediation plans for engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills to influence engineering, product, and operations teams toward secure outcomes.
  • Analytical and critical-thinking mindset with meticulous attention to detail when triaging vulnerabilities and validating remediation effectiveness.
  • Ability to prioritize multiple competing security tasks, manage deadlines, and operate under pressure during incidents and release cycles.
  • Coaching and training aptitude to up-level developer teams, provide constructive feedback during code reviews, and lead security workshops.
  • Proactive mindset and self-driven work style: continuously improves tools, processes, and detection capabilities rather than relying solely on point-in-time assessments.
  • Adaptability to rapidly evolving technologies and threat landscapes, combined with a willingness to learn new frameworks, languages, and cloud services.
  • Ethical judgment and integrity when conducting offensive security testing and handling sensitive vulnerability data.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related technical field; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or a related discipline; or industry certifications such as OSCP, OSWE, CISSP, CEH, CRTP, GIAC application security certifications (GXPN, GWEB).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science / Software Engineering
  • Cybersecurity / Information Security
  • Computer Engineering
  • Information Systems / Applied Mathematics

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of hands-on experience in web application security, penetration testing, secure code review, or application security engineering.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of progressive experience securing internet-facing web applications and APIs, demonstrated history of improving security posture across multiple product lines, and experience working with cloud-native architectures, microservices, and CI/CD automation.
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