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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Web Security Supervisor

💰 $ - $

SecurityWeb SecurityCybersecurityDevSecOps

🎯 Role Definition

This role requires an experienced Web Security Supervisor to lead and operationalize web and application security across our digital estate. The Web Security Supervisor will oversee vulnerability management, secure SDLC adoption, web application firewall (WAF) tuning and policy, threat modeling, penetration testing coordination, incident response for web threats, and cross-functional coaching to embed security into engineering and DevOps practices. This role requires strong technical hands-on expertise in SAST/DAST, WAF, cloud-native application security (containers, Kubernetes, serverless), and proven leadership in driving security roadmaps, metrics, and compliance for high-traffic web properties.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Senior Web Application Security Engineer
  • Application Security Engineer / DevSecOps Engineer
  • Security Incident Response Team (SIRT) Lead

Advancement To:

  • Head of Application Security
  • Director of Cybersecurity / Director of Web Security
  • VP of Security Engineering

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Security Architect
  • Secure Software Development Manager
  • Compliance and Risk Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead and manage a web security team to design, implement, and maintain a comprehensive web application security program that reduces exposure to OWASP Top Ten risks, API threats, and business logic vulnerabilities.
  • Own the vulnerability management lifecycle for web and API assets: discovery, triage, risk scoring, remediation tracking, verification, and reporting to engineering and leadership.
  • Design, configure, and operate Web Application Firewalls (WAF) including policy creation, tuning, false-positive reduction, performance impact analysis, and integration with CI/CD and monitoring pipelines.
  • Drive a secure SDLC by integrating SAST, DAST, software composition analysis (SCA), and dependency scanning into build pipelines, establishing gating criteria, and validating fixes prior to production deployment.
  • Coordinate and manage periodic external and internal penetration tests, red team exercises, and third-party security assessments focused on web applications, microservices, and public APIs; convert findings into prioritized remediation plans and track closure.
  • Lead web application incident response for exploitation of web vulnerabilities, including containment, root cause analysis, post-incident remediation, and documentation of lessons learned for engineering teams.
  • Establish and maintain threat modeling processes and run threat model workshops with product and engineering teams to identify attack surfaces, privilege boundaries, and mitigation controls for new features and architecture changes.
  • Implement and operate runtime application self-protection (RASP), API gateways, bot management, anti-automation controls, and behavioral analytics to detect and prevent web-based attacks in real time.
  • Define, track, and report security metrics and KPIs for web security posture (time-to-remediate, vulnerability trends, scan coverage, WAF blocked events, mean-time-to-detect) and present actionable insights to senior leadership.
  • Collaborate with DevOps and platform teams to secure cloud and container-based web platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), enforce least-privilege IAM, secure service-mesh configurations, and implement network segmentation for application tiers.
  • Author and enforce secure coding standards, code review checklists, and security acceptance criteria; provide expert guidance and code-level remediation suggestions to engineering teams.
  • Manage the lifecycle of cryptographic controls for web applications: TLS configurations, certificate management, secure key storage, cipher suite policies, and SSL/TLS vulnerability mitigation (e.g., POODLE, Heartbleed).
  • Maintain and operationalize logging, monitoring, and detection for web threats through SIEM integrations, log enrichment, alert tuning, and escalation playbooks tailored to web-layer threats.
  • Oversee and maintain compliance-related technical controls for web applications including PCI DSS for payment flows, GDPR for data protection, and other industry-specific security requirements; prepare technical artifacts for audits.
  • Lead the adoption of DevSecOps practices by working with engineering leadership to automate security checks, shift-left testing, and introduce security champion programs within product squads.
  • Conduct and oversee adversary emulation exercises and use threat intelligence to map likely attack vectors against web assets, prioritize hardening efforts, and inform detection rules.
  • Evaluate, select, and manage relationships with security tooling vendors and managed service providers for web protection, scanning, DDoS mitigation, and managed detection for web workloads.
  • Create and maintain runbooks, playbooks, and operational run-of-show documents for web security incidents, deployable mitigations, and failover procedures for site continuity during attacks.
  • Coach and mentor engineers and security analysts on secure web coding practices, vulnerability remediation, secure configuration, and operational response for web incidents to uplift organizational capability.
  • Perform regular configuration reviews and security hardening for web servers, application servers, reverse proxies, API gateways, and CDN integrations to reduce attack surface and eliminate insecure defaults.
  • Lead cross-functional risk assessments for new web projects, acquisitions, and third-party integrations; define compensating controls and remediation timelines to reduce residual risk.
  • Maintain a continuous improvement plan for web security operations, including playbook refinement, automation opportunities, and cost-optimization of security toolset utilization.

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.
  • Develop training materials and run security awareness sessions specifically focused on web threat scenarios and secure development practices.
  • Provide on-call support rotation for high-severity web security incidents and coordinate cross-team remediation actions.
  • Review and approve third-party web integrations and API partners for security posture prior to production onboarding.
  • Assist procurement and legal teams with technical security questionnaires (e.g., SOC, ISO, and vendor security questionnaires) related to web application vendors.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Web application security expertise: deep knowledge of OWASP Top Ten, API security, CSRF, XSS, SQL injection, SSRF, and business logic flaws.
  • Web Application Firewall (WAF) administration: rule authoring, tuning, policy lifecycle, and performance impact analysis (e.g., ModSecurity, AWS WAF, F5 ASM, Imperva).
  • SAST and DAST tooling experience: static and dynamic scanning tools, pipeline integration, triage and remediation guidance (e.g., Veracode, Checkmarx, Snyk, Burp Suite).
  • Vulnerability management and exploit validation: CVSS scoring, risk-based prioritization, remediation tracking, and vulnerability verification processes.
  • Penetration testing and red team coordination: scoping, managing external testers, and translating findings into remediation plans and technical tickets.
  • Cloud-native application security: securing workloads on AWS/Azure/GCP, container and Kubernetes security (CIS Benchmarks, Pod Security, runtime hardening), and IaC scanning for Terraform/CloudFormation.
  • Secure SDLC and DevSecOps practices: CI/CD pipeline security, automated gating, secret scanning, dependency management, and developer-focused security automation.
  • Incident response and forensic basics for web incidents: log analysis, memory capture basics, web request replay, and root cause investigation of web attacks.
  • Authentication and authorization controls: SSO, OAuth2/OIDC, JWT best practices, session management, MFA integration, and role-based access control (RBAC).
  • Network and transport security: TLS/SSL configuration, cipher management, HSTS, secure cookie attributes, and CDN/WAF integration practices.
  • Logging, monitoring, and detection: SIEM integration, rule development, alerting, and instrumenting web telemetry at the application and edge layers.
  • Automation and scripting: experience automating security tasks using Python, Bash, or scripting within CI/CD and orchestration tooling.
  • Familiarity with compliance and regulatory frameworks relevant to web apps: PCI DSS, GDPR/CCPA, HIPAA (where applicable), and SOC2 requirements.
  • API security tooling and patterns: API gateways, rate limiting, schema validation, and contract testing.
  • Container and orchestration security: image scanning, runtime protection, supply-chain security, and Kubernetes admission controls.

Soft Skills

  • Strong leadership and people management: mentoring, performance feedback, and building high-performing security teams.
  • Excellent stakeholder management: communicate risk clearly to engineering, product, and leadership, and influence remediation priorities.
  • Effective written and verbal communication: produce clear technical documentation, runbooks, and executive-level security reporting.
  • Analytical and problem-solving mindset: triage complex incidents, identify root causes, and design pragmatic mitigations.
  • Project management and organizational skills: drive cross-functional security projects to completion on time and on budget.
  • Coaching and training: ability to transfer security knowledge to engineers, product owners, and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning: stay current with evolving web threat landscape, tools, and best practices.
  • Risk-based decision making: balance security controls with product velocity and business needs.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Cybersecurity, or related technical field; or equivalent practical experience in web/application security.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or related field and/or industry certifications (CISSP, CSSLP, CEH, OSCP, GIAC AppSec).

Relevant Fields of Study:

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

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 5–10+ years in information security with at least 3–5 years focused on web/application security and 1–3 years in a supervisory or team lead role.

Preferred:

  • Proven track record leading web security programs for high-traffic web platforms or large SaaS products.
  • Hands-on experience implementing WAFs, SAST/DAST pipelines, cloud application security, and incident response for web threats.
  • Demonstrated success integrating security tooling into CI/CD, driving developer adoption of secure coding practices, and reducing time-to-remediate for application vulnerabilities.
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