Application Security Engineer

You need these core technical skills :

Programming languages : Strong ability to read and write code in Python, Java, JavaScript, or Go.

Cloud platforms : Deep knowledge of AWS, Azure, or GCP, including how to secure their services.

Container security : Understanding of Docker and Kubernetes security, including how to protect container images.

API security : Knowledge of securing REST and GraphQL APIs against OWASP API Security Top 10 risks (2023), including broken authentication, excessive data exposure, lack of rate limiting, and injection attacks. Experience implementing API gateways, OAuth 2.0, and API key rotation policies.

Infrastructure as Code security : Experience scanning Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi, or ARM templates for misconfigurations (overly permissive IAM roles, unencrypted storage, public network exposure) before infrastructure deployment.

Secrets management : Practical experience preventing hardcoded credentials in source code and pipelines. Knowledge of secrets managers (AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, HashiCorp Vault, Google Secret Manager) and implementing automated secrets scanning in pre-commit hooks and CI / CD.

Beyond tools, you need to understand security fundamentals like the OWASP Top 10, secure coding practices, and how to manage secrets properly.

Application security engineers handle a wide range of tasks that keep your software safe. Their work starts before developers write a single line of code and continues through production.

Here's what they do day-to-day :

Security architecture reviews : They examine application designs before development starts to spot potential security problems early.

Vulnerability management : They use scanning tools to find security flaws in code and prioritize which ones to fix first based on risk.

Security automation : They build automated security checks into your development pipeline so problems get caught automatically before code reaches production. This includes integrating SAST, DAST, and SCA tools into CI / CD workflows like GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins.

Incident response : When security breaches happen, they investigate what went wrong and help fix it.

Developer training : They teach developers how to write secure code and create documentation that makes security easier to understand.

Organizations improve velocity by enabling developers to handle day-to-day security tasks through self-service guardrails and automated workflows. This shift-left approach reduces handoffs between security and development teams, allowing developers to identify and remediate issues within their existing tools (IDEs, pull requests, Jira) without waiting for security team triage.