Application Security Engineer-Vulnerability Operations

Senior Application Security Engineer — Vulnerability Operations

Location : Charlotte, NC

Role Summary:

The Senior Application Security Engineer serves as a technical and operational leader within the Vulnerability Operations function. This role drives large-scale adoption of application security controls, partnering closely with engineering teams and the Application Security Champion community to ensure secure design, development, and deployment across the enterprise. You will lead strategic control rollouts, guide vulnerability governance, address emerging threat classes, and provide expert escalation support for the most complex AppSec issues.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Program Enablement

• Lead the enterprise-wide operationalization of AppSec controls, ensuring scalable integration across CI/CD pipelines and diverse engineering environments.

• Partner with the Application Security Champion team to embed secure development practices, coordinate training, share emerging vulnerability insights, and drive decentralized security ownership.

• Own the tiered security control strategy (Tier 1–3), defining quarterly migration targets and ensuring cross-portfolio alignment.

Advanced Vulnerability & Threat Management

• Act as subject-matter expert for advanced and emerging vulnerability classes (e.g., supply chain risks, AI/ML application threats, container/Serverless misconfigurations, emerging OWASP categories).

• Lead complex vulnerability triage and remediation efforts; facilitate cross-team deep-dive sessions to drive prioritization and timely mitigation.

• Conduct proactive threat modeling and security design reviews for high-risk or business-critical applications.

Automation & CI/CD Security Architecture

• Architect scalable CI/CD integrations for SAST, DAST, SCA, and secrets scanning using policy-as-code, automated gating, and risk-based controls.

• Implement and optimize Tier 3 merge-prevention and build-failure gates, ensuring engineering teams meet strict compliance requirements.

• Develop reusable automation frameworks, scanning templates, and pipeline modules to accelerate secure software delivery.

Governance, Reporting & Stakeholder Engagement

• Design and maintain KPIs, scorecards, and compliance dashboards using analytics platforms (Power BI, Grafana, or equivalent).

• Lead risk review forums, document mitigations, publish weekly risk register updates, and deliver executive-level insights on trends, gaps, and emerging threats.

• Oversee quarterly migration planning, dependency tracking, and cross-team alignment on AppSec program objectives.

• Mentor AppSec Specialists and upskill partner engineering teams on tools, governance workflows, and emerging security techniques.

Emerging Vulnerabilities & Continuous Improvement

• Stay current with modern vulnerability trends (e.g., supply chain risks, API threats, cloud-native issues).

• Evaluate tool outputs, identify false positives, and provide actionable remediation guidance.

• Recommend improvements to scanning processes, workflows, and onboarding procedures.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• 7 years of experience in Application Security engineering, vulnerability management, or secure development.

• Expertise in advanced AppSec concepts: secure design patterns, threat modeling, exploit analysis, and remediation strategy for modern architectures (microservices, APIs, cloud-native).

• Proven experience leading CI/CD-integrated security automation (SAST, DAST, SCA, secrets scanning, IaC scanning).

• Strong track record of working with engineering organizations and AppSec Champions to drive program adoption.

• Demonstrated ability to interpret complex vulnerability trends, emerging threats, and zero-day risk scenarios.

• Excellent communication, executive presentation skills, and ability to influence senior technical leaders.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hands-on experience with cloud-native security tooling across AWS, Azure, or GCP.

• Certifications: CISSP, CSSLP, OSWE, OSCP, GWAPT, or equivalent industry credentials.

• Familiarity with policy and governance tools (OPA/Gatekeeper), software supply chain frameworks (SLSA, SBOM), and Infrastructure-as-Code security.

• Experience designing or contributing to AppSec Champion programs or federated security enablement models.