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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Security Analyst

💰 $ - $

SecurityITApplication SecurityWeb

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Security Analyst is responsible for protecting web applications, APIs, and associated infrastructure by identifying, validating, and remediating security weaknesses; designing and integrating automated security testing into the SDLC; investigating web-focused security incidents; advising engineering teams on secure design and secure coding practices; and maintaining tooling, processes, and documentation to reduce web attack surface and support organizational risk objectives. This role combines hands-on technical testing (manual and automated), cross-functional collaboration with DevOps/engineering/product teams, and security program execution to ensure resilient, secure user-facing services.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior Security Analyst or SOC Analyst with web incident experience
  • Web Developer or Backend Engineer with interest/experience in security testing
  • Penetration Testing intern or Application Security intern

Advancement To:

  • Senior Web Security Analyst / Application Security Engineer
  • Application Security Lead or Vulnerability Management Lead
  • Security Architect or Principal Application Security Engineer
  • Director of Application Security or Head of Security Operations

Lateral Moves:

  • Penetration Tester (offensive security)
  • DevSecOps / Security Automation Engineer
  • Cloud Security Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Conduct comprehensive manual and automated web application penetration tests and API security assessments across internal and customer-facing services, producing prioritized, actionable remediation guidance tied to risk and business impact.
  • Execute and tune dynamic application security testing (DAST) and interactive application security testing (IAST) scans against development, staging, and production environments, analyze false positives, and drive continuous improvement of scan coverage and quality.
  • Run static application security testing (SAST) reports, triage findings with engineering teams to validate true positives, and collaborate on secure code fixes and pull request-level remediation in CI/CD pipelines.
  • Lead root cause analysis and post-incident reviews for web-specific security incidents (e.g., credential stuffing, XSS, SQL injection, session hijacking), documenting technical findings, timelines, remediation actions, and lessons learned.
  • Develop and maintain security test plans, checklists, and repeatable playbooks for common web threats (OWASP Top 10, API Top 10), ensuring consistent application of testing methodologies across teams.
  • Design and implement threat modeling sessions with product and engineering stakeholders to identify attack surface, prioritize mitigations, and track risk acceptance decisions during feature design and architecture changes.
  • Integrate security tools into CI/CD pipelines (SAST, DAST, dependency scanning, container image scanning) and automate gating rules and metric collection to enforce secure deployment practices without hindering developer velocity.
  • Triage and prioritize incoming vulnerability reports from automated scanners, bug bounty programs, and external assessments; verify, classify, and coordinate remediation across owners while tracking time-to-fix and residual risk.
  • Configure, tune, and manage web application firewalls (WAFs), reverse proxies, and runtime application self-protection (RASP) tools to mitigate real-time web threats and minimize false positive blocking of legitimate traffic.
  • Perform secure configuration reviews for web servers, API gateways, load balancers, TLS configurations, cookie/session settings, and authentication/authorization mechanisms, recommending concrete remediation steps aligned with hardening baselines.
  • Evaluate and harden authentication flows and identity integrations (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML), review token lifetimes and revocation, and recommend improvements for MFA, session management, and account recovery mechanisms.
  • Conduct supply chain and third-party component security reviews including dependency scanning, software composition analysis (SCA), and vendor security questionnaires to mitigate risks from libraries, SDKs, and hosted integrations.
  • Execute container and orchestration-level security assessments for web application hosting stacks (Docker, Kubernetes), including image provenance, secret management, runtime privilege minimization, and network policy reviews.
  • Monitor security telemetry and alerts for web-layer anomalies using SIEM, EDR, WAF logs, and cloud-native logging (CloudTrail, CloudWatch, Stackdriver), escalate incidents, and collaborate with SOC and platform teams to contain and remediate.
  • Create and maintain high-quality vulnerability reports, executive briefings, technical remediation guides, and metrics dashboards (remediation SLAs, vulnerability trends, risk heatmaps) tailored for engineering and leadership audiences.
  • Lead or participate in periodic red-team engagements and collaborative purple-team exercises focused on web attack scenarios to validate controls, measure detection capability, and improve detection/prevention playbooks.
  • Provide security coaching and secure coding training to engineering teams, conducting code reviews for high-risk modules and championing security-as-code practices and developer-first remediation workflows.
  • Support and manage web-focused bug bounty and responsible disclosure programs including triage, validation, reward determination, and public communication of resolved issues to researchers.
  • Conduct privacy and compliance-related security reviews for web products — ensuring controls relevant to PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, and industry-specific regulations are identified and addressed in the web application lifecycle.
  • Maintain and operate security tooling including Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Snyk, Checkmarx, GitHub CodeQL, Aqua/Trivy, and cloud security posture tools; evaluate new tooling and improve automation and orchestration of security workflows.
  • Provide subject-matter expertise during procurement and architecture reviews for web frameworks, CDN/WAF services, identity providers, and API management solutions to ensure secure-by-design procurement decisions.
  • Participate in on-call rotation for web security incidents, deliver timely containment, mitigation, and communication to stakeholders, and update runbooks and incident playbooks based on operational learnings.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc security data requests and exploratory analysis of web telemetry to identify anomalous behavior, emerging attack patterns, and tool tuning opportunities.
  • Contribute to the organization's web security strategy, roadmap, and standards, prioritizing investments in automation, detection, and developer enablement to reduce mean time to remediation.
  • Collaborate with product managers, QA, DevOps, and engineering teams to translate security risks into technical requirements, acceptance criteria, and deployment checks integrated into sprint planning.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies to ensure security tasks, remediation tickets, and threat modelling outcomes are represented and tracked in team backlogs.
  • Draft and update internal policies, secure coding guidelines, and onboarding materials focused on web security best practices and common vulnerability avoidance.
  • Assist procurement and legal teams in technical evaluation of third-party web services and SaaS vendors, producing security risk summaries and recommended contractual controls.
  • Mentor junior security analysts and rotating engineers through pair-testing sessions, code reviews, and vulnerability triage to build the organization’s internal security capability.
  • Maintain vulnerability knowledge base and playbooks for recurring issues (e.g., CSRF, SSRF, open redirect), capturing evidence, remediation patterns, and example fixes to accelerate developer resolution.
  • Coordinate periodic external web application penetration tests and security audits, acting as the primary technical liaison and ensuring findings are validated, prioritized and resolved.
  • Help develop detection rules and signatures for web-specific attacks (SQLi patterns, XSS payloads, abnormal API usage) and validate those rules against production traffic to minimize false positives.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong practical experience with web application penetration testing methodologies and tools (Burp Suite Professional, OWASP ZAP, Postman, Fiddler) for manual testing and exploit validation.
  • Proficiency with SAST/DAST/IAST tools and platforms (e.g., Checkmarx, Veracode, SonarQube, GitHub CodeQL, Snyk) and experience integrating those tools into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
  • Deep understanding of OWASP Top 10, API Top 10, and common web vulnerabilities (XSS, SQLi, CSRF, SSRF, insecure deserialization) and hands-on experience demonstrating remediation strategies.
  • Experience with HTTP/S, TLS, cookies, CORS, authentication/authorization protocols (OAuth2, OIDC, SAML), JWTs, and session management security considerations.
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms and cloud-native web hosting security (AWS, Azure, GCP), including WAF services (AWS WAF, Azure Front Door), CDNs, IAM, and secure configuration baselines.
  • Knowledge of container and orchestration security (Docker, Kubernetes), including image scanning, runtime security, pod security policies, and network policies.
  • Working experience with vulnerability management platforms and ticketing systems (Jira, ServiceNow) and ability to triage, track, and report remediation status.
  • Proficiency with log analysis and monitoring (Splunk, Elastic Stack, Cloud SIEM) for web-layer detection and incident investigation.
  • Scripting and automation skills (Python, Bash, PowerShell, or similar) to build custom scanners, automate triage, or integrate security tool outputs into dashboards and pipelines.
  • Familiarity with secure coding practices for common web languages and frameworks (JavaScript/Node.js, Java, Python, Ruby, .NET) and conducting code-level reviews for vulnerabilities.
  • Experience with software composition analysis (SCA) tools and managing open-source dependency risks (e.g., Snyk, Dependabot).
  • Understanding of compliance frameworks and regulatory requirements affecting web applications (PCI-DSS, GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2) and how to map technical controls to audit requirements.
  • Optional but preferred: certifications such as OSCP, GWAPT, OSWAP-APPSEC, CISSP, CEH, GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT), or equivalent demonstrable experience.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written communication skills for clear vulnerability reports, executive summaries, and remediation guidance tailored to technical and non-technical audiences.
  • Strong collaboration and stakeholder management abilities to influence engineers, product managers, and platform teams to prioritize and implement security fixes.
  • Analytical and investigative mindset with attention to detail for reproducing complex web vulnerabilities and validating fixes end-to-end.
  • Ability to break down complex security issues into actionable tasks and to prioritize work under competing deadlines and operational incidents.
  • Proactive learning orientation to stay current on emerging web threats, attack techniques, and defensive toolsets.
  • Teaching and mentoring skills to elevate developer security maturity through training, code reviews, and paired testing sessions.
  • Resilience and calm under pressure during incident response and urgent remediation drives.
  • Strategic thinking to align day-to-day testing and remediation with broader security program goals and risk appetite.

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 or related field, or specialized training/certifications (OSCP, GWAPT, CISSP, CEH, GIAC).

Relevant Fields of Study:

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

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–5 years of hands-on experience in web application security, penetration testing, or application security engineering.

Preferred:

  • 4–7+ years with demonstrable experience leading web application assessments, integrating security into CI/CD, and driving remediation with engineering teams; experience in cloud-native environments and public-facing services is highly desirable.
  • Proven track record with relevant certifications (OSCP, GWAPT, CISSP, CEH, GIAC) and contributions to security programs such as bug bounty management, purple-team exercises, or developer security enablement initiatives.
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