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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Hacker (Ethical Hacker / Penetration Tester)

💰 $ - $

CybersecurityInformation SecurityOffensive SecurityPenetration Testing

🎯 Role Definition

An Ethical Hacker (commonly titled Hacker, Penetration Tester, or Red Team Operator) is responsible for proactively testing and validating security controls across applications, networks, cloud environments, and connected devices to identify vulnerabilities, demonstrate impact through controlled exploitation, and provide prioritized, business-aligned remediation guidance. This role combines offensive security techniques, threat modeling, and clear stakeholder communication to reduce organizational risk and improve security posture.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Security Analyst / SOC Analyst transitioning into offensive testing
  • Network Engineer or Systems Administrator with security focus
  • Application Developer interested in application security and secure coding

Advancement To:

  • Senior Penetration Tester / Red Team Lead
  • Security Architect or Application Security Manager
  • Head of Red Team, Director of Offensive Security
  • Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) over long-term progression

Lateral Moves:

  • Application Security Engineer (AppSec)
  • Threat Intelligence Analyst
  • Vulnerability Management Lead
  • Incident Response / Blue Team Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Plan, scope, and execute comprehensive penetration tests (black-, white-, and gray-box) against web, mobile, API, cloud, and networked systems to discover and validate security weaknesses and to assess business impact.
  • Conduct threat modeling and attack surface analysis to prioritize high-risk assets, map trust boundaries, and recommend compensating controls that reduce exposure to likely adversary techniques.
  • Carry out authenticated and unauthenticated vulnerability assessments, correlating findings with real-world exploitability and producing prioritized remediation roadmaps.
  • Simulate advanced adversary behaviors during red team engagements, leveraging threat emulation aligned to MITRE ATT&CK to validate detection and response capabilities.
  • Perform secure configuration reviews and cloud security assessments (AWS, Azure, GCP) to identify misconfigurations, excessive privileges, and insecure architectures.
  • Test web and mobile applications against OWASP Top 10, SANS/CWE common weaknesses, and organization-specific security policies producing clear reproduction steps and mitigation plans.
  • Develop and demonstrate safe proof-of-concept exploit code and exploit chains in isolated lab environments to validate findings and support mitigation prioritization.
  • Execute internal and external network penetration tests, including segmentation validation, lateral movement exercises, and privilege escalation analysis.
  • Lead vulnerability validation exercises and coordinate with engineering teams to triage, remediate, and verify fixes; provide guidance on secure design and coding patterns.
  • Perform source code reviews and static application security testing (SAST) assessments to identify insecure coding practices and insecure dependencies.
  • Conduct post-exercise debriefs, produce executive summaries and technical reports, and present findings to technical teams and senior stakeholders tailored to audience risk tolerance.
  • Integrate offensive testing outputs into wider security programs: vulnerability management, detection engineering, incident response, and secure development lifecycle (SDLC).
  • Design and maintain repeatable test plans, automation scripts, and internal tooling to scale offensive security activities while maintaining accuracy and safety.
  • Mentor and train developers, DevOps, and security staff on secure-by-design principles, vulnerability remediation strategies, and threat-informed defense.
  • Collaborate with blue team and SOC engineers to develop and validate detections, telemetry collection, and playbooks based on exploit tactics observed during engagements.
  • Manage third-party security assessments and coordinate vendor penetration testing programs to ensure consistent testing standards and remediation verification.
  • Keep current with emerging threats, zero-days, exploit techniques, and relevant CVEs; translate threat research into practical assessments and internal advisories.
  • Support incident response by performing controlled forensic validation, exploit reconstruction, and root-cause analysis when prior testing artifacts or attacker behaviors are encountered.
  • Ensure all testing activities adhere to legal, compliance, and organizational policies; prepare and maintain scoping agreements, rules-of-engagement, and approval documentation.
  • Maintain detailed, reproducible technical evidence (logs, screenshots, safe PoCs) and ensure secure handling of sensitive artifacts produced during testing.
  • Contribute to metrics and KPIs for offensive security programs (time-to-remediation, exploitability index, detection coverage) and present progress to security leadership.
  • Participate in bug bounty program triage and validation, correlating external reports with internal findings and assisting in communication with external researchers.
  • Assist product and platform teams with secure architecture reviews during design and pre-production phases to proactively reduce future findings.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Maintain and update internal knowledge bases (playbooks, runbooks, test templates) to ensure consistent testing quality across teams.
  • Provide subject-matter-expert input into procurement and security architecture decisions for security tooling and merchant services.
  • Represent the security organization at cross-functional meetings and assist in security awareness initiatives and internal training sessions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Penetration testing: hands-on experience conducting and reporting on infrastructure, web, mobile, and API penetration tests with contextualized remediation guidance.
  • Offensive tooling familiarity: practical experience with tools such as Burp Suite, nmap, Nessus/Qualys, Metasploit (for lab use), Wireshark, and relevant cloud security tools (AWS Inspector, Azure Security Center) — focusing on assessment not malicious use.
  • Secure coding review and SAST: ability to review source code, identify insecure patterns, and use static analysis tools to prioritize remediation.
  • Cloud security assessment: deep understanding of IAM, network, and service misconfigurations in AWS, Azure, or GCP and how they translate to risk.
  • Scripting and automation: proficiency in Python, Bash, PowerShell, or similar for automation, PoC development in safe environments, and tooling extension.
  • Threat modeling & adversary emulation: experience mapping risks to MITRE ATT&CK, building realistic attack scenarios, and translating findings into detection requirements.
  • Vulnerability management and CVSS: ability to evaluate vulnerability severity, exploitability, and prioritize fixes using CVSS and business impact.
  • Web application security: expertise in OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, parameter validation, authentication/authorization flaws, and API security.
  • Network/cloud protocols and architectures: strong knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/S, VPNs, segmentation, and cloud networking concepts.
  • Reverse engineering & binary analysis: experience with basic reverse engineering tools and principles to analyze malware or exploit code in controlled labs (where applicable and legal).
  • Logging and detection: knowledge of SIEMs (Splunk, Elastic, Azure Sentinel) and how to design detections and telemetry to catch adversary behaviors.
  • Container and orchestration security: familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, and common misconfigurations that lead to privilege escalation.
  • Reporting and documentation: ability to produce clear, reproducible, and prioritized technical and executive reports for remediation and compliance.

Soft Skills

  • Clear communicator: can translate technical findings into business-facing risk statements and actionable remediation plans.
  • Strong problem-solver and critical thinker with curiosity about how systems fail and how attackers think.
  • Ethical judgment and professionalism: understands legal boundaries, responsible disclosure, and maintains confidentiality.
  • Collaboration and stakeholder management: experience working cross-functionally with engineering, product, and compliance teams to implement fixes.
  • Attention to detail and persistence: reproduces, documents, and tracks complex chains of evidence needed to validate findings.
  • Project and time management: able to lead engagements end-to-end, manage multiple scopes, and deliver on deadlines.
  • Teaching and mentoring: willing to upskill developers and junior security staff through workshops and code reviews.
  • Adaptability: comfortable working across cloud, on-prem, legacy, and modern architectures with shifting priorities.
  • Business acumen: aligns technical recommendations with organizational risk appetite and operational constraints.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, Computer Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, or related field preferred for senior/lead roles.
  • Relevant professional certifications such as OSCP, OSCE, CISSP, GPEN, GWAPT, or GIAC certifications strengthen candidacy.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Security / Cybersecurity
  • Network Engineering
  • Software Engineering
  • Electrical/Computer Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–7+ years, depending on level (junior to senior)

Preferred:

  • 3–5 years for mid-level penetration testing roles with demonstrable offensive experience.
  • 5+ years for senior or red team roles, including leadership of engagements and mentorship responsibilities.
  • Proven track record of completed penetration tests, technical reports, and collaboration with remediation teams; contributions to public research, CVE disclosures, or community tool development are a plus.
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