Purpose of Position
Your role is to establish and lead an AppSec program within the Product and Technology department, acting as an evangelist for AppSec, trusted by engineers and managers alike. As a member of the core security team, you will engage in assessing application design proposals, to identify improvements to enable our engineers to create secure products. You will own the existing training program, redesign it to better equip engineers with the knowledge needed to develop secure applications, and create a Security Champions program to scale and embed a DevSecOps mindset across P&T.
What you'll be responsible for
- Secure the SDLC: Integrate security tooling (e.g. SAST, DAST, dependency scanning) into CI/CD pipelines and IDEs. Automate and optimise checks so teams can identify and fix issues early and efficiently.
- Threat modelling & secure design: Collaborate with product and engineering teams during the design phase to conduct threat modelling sessions and pre-implementation security reviews.
- Code & architecture reviews: Guide developers on secure coding practices, perform targeted code reviews, and help resolve vulnerabilities with actionable remediation support.
- Vulnerability lifecycle management: Identify, triage, track and report on vulnerabilities across internal and external apps and systems. Collaborate with engineers to close gaps efficiently. Support the bug bounty process with finding validation. Present vulnerability management reports to our heads of department.
- AI/ML & LLM security: Provide guidance on secure development of AI/LLM-powered features. Help teams manage risks such as prompt injection, model misuse, and data leakage. Lead threat modelling exercises for AI components and advise on secure integration patterns.
- Incident response collaboration: Support investigation and root cause analysis of application-layer incidents. Contribute to post-incident reviews and longer-term mitigation strategies.
- Security culture & enablement: Act as a security champion for development teams. Be an enthusiastic and vocal advocate for application security across all engineering and product teams. Nurture and report on our application security training program for our code contributors. Deliver workshops and technical deep-dives on secure development practices. Contribute to playbooks, documentation, and internal standards.
- Research & innovation: Stay ahead of industry threats and attack trends. Propose and test innovative ideas to reduce risk across our software supply chain and platforms. Showcase how to use AI and AI-powered tools to enhance productivity and improve our security posture.
About the Company
Established in 2000, Awin is proud of our dynamic, social and inclusive culture. Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities. Diversity & Inclusion are paramount to us, and we proudly pursue and hire diverse team members. We champion uniqueness and authenticity; this is who we are at our core. Our network of affiliate partnerships are diverse and transparent, as are the employees powering our vision to build the world’s leading open partner ecosystem. Awin is part of the Axel Springer group. Learn more at axelspringer.com/en/, and explore the Axel Springer Essentials here: axelspringer.com/en/inside/the-essentials-what-we-have-adapted-and-why
Our Offer
- Flexi-Week: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing by offering you a four-day Flexi-Week (with one lighter or completely disconnected day per week) at full pay, with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance.
- Flexi-office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our hybrid/remote working scheme which is designed to foster a culture of mutual trust and working flexibility.
- Work Expense Contribution & Remote Working Furniture: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs, as well as a furniture package to support you in setting up a comfortable workspace when working from home.
- Health and Wellbeing: With our support and access to various initiatives and sports offers, you can focus on your mental and physical wellbeing.
- Development: We’ve built our extensive training suite, Awin Academy, to cover a wide range of skills that support your professional and personal growth, with trainings conveniently packaged to help your overall development.
- Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer recognition programme.
Your skills
- 5+ years in application security, product security or related technical roles.
- Experience working directly with software engineer and product managers to secure web applications.
- Experience in working within an Agile environment.
- Good working proficiency in spoken and written English.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to clearly communicate at every level of the organisation.
- Mentorship and training skills.
- Ability to work across two different departments with multiple touch points.
- Coding proficiency in languages such as JS, PHP, Python.
- Experience with Cloud Native environments (AWS), Containers and Terraform.
- Hands on experience with DAST, SAST, SCA tools, reporting and dashboarding platforms.
