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web security coordinator

title: Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Security Coordinator
salary: $ - $
categories: [Security, IT, Compliance, Web]
description: A comprehensive overview of the key responsibilities, required technical skills and professional background for the role of a Web Security Coordinator.
Practical, recruiter-style summary of the Web Security Coordinator role: a hands-on coordinator who manages web application security operations, vulnerability lifecycle, WAF tuning, incident coordination, and cross-functional remediation to reduce risk across public-facing and internal web properties. Includes required technical skills, soft skills, education, and career progression guidance optimized for search and AI understanding.

🎯 Role Definition

The Web Security Coordinator is a hands-on security professional who owns the operational program for securing web applications, APIs, and web infrastructure. This role coordinates vulnerability discovery and remediation, manages Web Application Firewall (WAF) policy and tuning, integrates security checks into CI/CD pipelines, supports incident response for web-layer incidents, and acts as the primary liaison between engineering, product, operations, and compliance teams to reduce exposure across web assets.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Security Analyst (Application/Network)
  • Application Developer with a security focus or DevOps Engineer
  • IT/Network Administrator with web stack responsibilities

Advancement To:

  • Senior Web Security Coordinator / Application Security Engineer
  • Web Security Manager / Application Security Manager
  • DevSecOps Lead or Security Operations Lead

Lateral Moves:

  • DevSecOps Engineer
  • Threat Intelligence Analyst
  • Cloud Security Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, own, and execute an enterprise-wide vulnerability management lifecycle for web applications and APIs including discovery, risk-based prioritization, assignment, remediation tracking, and verification of fixes to reduce web-layer exposure.
  • Manage and tune Web Application Firewall (WAF) and API gateway rulesets (Cloud WAF, ModSecurity, Cloudflare, F5 ASM, AWS WAF) to minimize false positives while protecting production web properties against OWASP Top 10 and targeted application attacks.
  • Coordinate and drive remediation with engineering and product teams: convert security findings into clear remediation requirements, track timelines, and escalate blockers to ensure timely closure and reduce mean time to remediate (MTTR).
  • Run and schedule regular dynamic application security testing (DAST), static analysis (SAST) integrations, and software composition analysis (SCA) scans; validate findings, triage results, and integrate tool outputs into a centralized tracking system for actionability.
  • Lead and coordinate vendor- or third-party penetration tests and red-team assessments focused on web applications and APIs; manage scope, triage results, validate remediations, and present findings to technical and executive stakeholders.
  • Design, maintain, and enforce secure HTTP/TLS configuration standards for web servers, load balancers and CDNs — including TLS versions, cipher suites, HSTS, CSP, and secure cookie settings — and ensure automated compliance checks.
  • Integrate security gates into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) to automate SAST/DAST/SCA checks, fail builds on high-severity issues, and provide actionable developer-facing remediation guidance.
  • Maintain and operate SIEM and log aggregation for web security telemetry; author detection rules, dashboards, and alerts for suspicious web activity, application-layer intrusions, and automated attacks.
  • Act as an incident coordinator for web-layer security incidents: perform initial containment actions, gather forensic artifacts, coordinate cross-team response, and prepare post-incident reports and remediation roadmaps.
  • Create and maintain runbooks, playbooks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for common web security operations tasks such as WAF changes, emergency mitigation steps, and coordinated vulnerability fixes.
  • Conduct risk assessments and security reviews for new web-facing projects and third-party integrations; advise architecture and product owners on secure-by-design practices and implement compensating controls where needed.
  • Develop and deliver developer-facing guidance, checklists, and training on secure coding for web apps (OWASP Top 10, API security, input validation, authentication controls) to reduce recurrence of common vulnerabilities.
  • Maintain an inventory of web assets, domains, subdomains, and API endpoints; perform attack surface management and periodic discovery to identify shadow IT and unprotected endpoints.
  • Implement and operationalize bot management and rate-limiting controls to protect against automated abuse, credential stuffing, scraping, and other volumetric attacks targeted at web properties.
  • Coordinate patch management and secure configuration changes for web platform components (app servers, frameworks, CMS, reverse proxies) and verify patch deployment across environments.
  • Drive metrics and reporting: compile vulnerability dashboards, remediation velocity metrics, WAF efficacy reports, and executive summaries to inform risk decisions and resource allocation.
  • Execute threat modeling and application-level threat assessments for critical web services and high-value transactions to prioritize mitigations and design secure controls.
  • Support privacy and regulatory compliance efforts related to web applications (PCI-DSS, SOC 2, GDPR) by providing evidence of controls, participating in audits, and ensuring remedial actions are tracked.
  • Work with product and release managers to ensure security acceptance criteria are included in release planning and that security testing is completed prior to production deployments.
  • Maintain relationships with external security researchers and coordinate responsible disclosure handling, triaging incoming vulnerability reports and ensuring timely acknowledgment, assessment, and remediation.
  • Implement and manage application-layer MFA and secure session management best practices, including cookie scope, session rotation, and anomaly detection tied to web sessions.
  • Automate routine operational tasks (scan orchestration, WAF rule deployment, remediation verification) with scripts and tooling (Python, Terraform, CI/CD plugins) to reduce manual effort and improve repeatability.
  • Continuously evaluate and recommend security tooling and platform improvements (DAST/SAST/SCA vendors, WAF solutions, runtime application self-protection) to keep the web security stack current and cost-effective.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc security data requests and exploratory log analysis to answer business and incident response questions.
  • Contribute to the organization’s web security strategy, roadmap, and operational playbooks to mature process and tooling.
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to translate security findings into prioritized engineering tickets and clear acceptance criteria.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies to align security work with product delivery cycles and maintain security backlog hygiene.
  • Assist in procurement and evaluation of web security vendors, managing PoCs and ROI assessments.
  • Prepare executive-facing reports and presentations on web security posture, trends, and program improvements.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Strong knowledge of web application security principles and OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities (Injection, XSS, CSRF, Broken Auth, etc.).
  • Hands-on experience configuring and tuning Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) — Cloudflare, AWS WAF, F5 ASM, ModSecurity or equivalent.
  • Experience with dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools (Burp Suite, ZAP), static application security testing (SAST) tools, and software composition analysis (SCA) tools.
  • Familiarity with vulnerability scanners and platforms (Nessus, Qualys, Rapid7, Tenable) and integrating scanner output with ticketing systems.
  • Practical experience with SIEM solutions (Splunk, Elastic, Sumo Logic) and writing detection rules for web-layer anomalies.
  • Proficiency with HTTP/S, TLS/SSL, headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options), cookies and session management, and secure transport configurations.
  • Knowledge of API security patterns and tooling (OAuth2, JWT, API gateways, rate limiting, schema validation).
  • Experience integrating security checks into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) and automating security workflows.
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), CDNs (Cloudflare, Fastly), and securing cloud-native web deployments.
  • Basic scripting skills for automation and orchestration (Python, Bash, PowerShell) and use of IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation) to manage security configurations.
  • Understanding of container and orchestration security for web workloads (Docker, Kubernetes) and runtime protection.
  • Knowledge of compliance standards relevant to web applications (PCI-DSS, SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR) and evidence collection for audits.
  • Experience working with bug bounty programs and handling coordinated vulnerability disclosures.

Soft Skills

  • Strong communicator able to translate technical risk into business impact and present to engineering and executive audiences.
  • Excellent stakeholder management skills to influence cross-functional teams and drive remediation across engineering, product, and operations.
  • Analytical thinker with attention to detail for triage and validation of complex security findings.
  • Project and time management skills to prioritize high-risk issues and manage remediation pipelines.
  • Collaborative mindset for working within agile teams and building trust with developers and DevOps.
  • Calm under pressure and decisive during incident response activities.
  • Teaching and mentoring ability to uplift developer security practices and run effective training sessions.
  • Problem-solving and continuous-improvement orientation to tune controls and reduce recurring vulnerabilities.
  • Ethical mindset and integrity in handling sensitive security incidents and vulnerability reports.
  • Adaptability and willingness to learn new tooling, frameworks, and attack techniques as threat landscape evolves.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master’s degree in Cybersecurity, Information Assurance, Computer Science, or related discipline.
  • Professional certifications such as CISSP, CISM, CEH, OSCP, GIAC (GWEB, GWAPT, GCIH) or vendor-specific certs relevant to web security.

Relevant Fields of Study:

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

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–6 years of progressive experience in web application security, application security engineering, or security operations with a strong focus on web-layer protections.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years of direct experience managing web application security programs, WAF operations, and vulnerability remediation in medium to large-scale web environments. Demonstrated experience working with engineering teams to integrate security into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and CI/CD pipelines.
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