{"id":3490436,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ahead-practice-director-application-security","title":"Practice Director - Application Security","company":{"id":3614,"name":"AHEAD","domain":"ahead.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/ahead","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":40,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.8,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":78,"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"}},"role":"Leadership","role_family":"Leadership","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":250000,"max":350000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":350000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"OWASP","optional":false},{"name":"OWASP SAMM","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"SBOM","optional":false},{"name":"Threat Modeling","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-29T20:27:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-29","last_verified_at":"2026-10-31T05:23:53Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"The Practice Director - Application Security leads the growth, performance, and ongoing development of AHEAD’s Application Security practice. This leader is accountable for building executive client relationships, creatingand advancing sales opportunities, shaping services and go-to-market strategy, and developing a high-performing team. The role partners closely with AHEAD sales teams and other practices to bring clients integrated security solutions that address business and technology risk.\nThe position is weighted approximately70% toward sales and practice managementand30% toward delivery leadership. The Director brings deep expertisein application security, DevSecOps, cloud-native security, and secure software delivery, and applies that expertiseto advise clients, differentiate AHEAD’s offerings, and ensure successful outcomes on selected strategic engagements.\nRole Allocation\n70% - Sales and practice management:Revenue growth, pipeline development, client relationships, solution and proposal development, service portfolio and go-to-market leadership, team development, and practice operations.\n\n30% - Delivery leadership:Executive client advisory, engagement oversight, delivery quality, risk management, and selective hands-on or lead delivery for strategic engagements.\n\nKey Responsibilities\nSales and Practice Management - 70%\nBuild and execute the Application Security practice growth strategy, translating market needs and AHEAD priorities into a focused portfolio of services and go-to-market plans.\n\nDevelop trusted relationships with client executives and technology leaders; identifybusiness priorities, security challenges, and opportunities to expand AHEAD’s impact.\n\nPartner with sales specialists to qualify, shape, and advance opportunities from discovery through proposal, negotiation, and transition to delivery.\n\nLead client discovery, visioning, and solution-design sessions; communicate the business value, approach, scope, outcomes, assumptions, and investment for proposed services.\n\nOwn or contribute to opportunity plans, pipeline development, forecasts, and practice growth objectivesin coordination with AHEAD sales and practice leadership.\n\nCreate, refine, and commercialize differentiated Application Security offerings, including new services related to AI Application Security and AI-DLC, as well as program assessments and roadmaps, secure SDLC and DevSecOpsenablement, application and API security, threat modeling, ASPM, and software supply-chain security.\n\nDrive new partnerships with industry-leading AI development and security technology partners.\n\nIdentifyopportunities to combine Application Security services with cloud, infrastructure, data, AI, and other AHEAD capabilities to deliver integrated client outcomes.\n\nGuide service positioning, packaging, repeatability, and supporting sales materials; ensure offerings remainaligned with client needs and current technology and market trends.\n\nBuild and develop the practice team through hiring, talent development, coaching, mentoring, and succession planning; foster collaboration across delivery and sales teams.\n\nDirect practice capacity and resource planning in partnership with delivery leaders, balancing team capability, client demand, utilization, and quality.\n\nEstablish a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, knowledge sharing, and strong client service. Support consistent operating practices and financial performance for the practice.\n\nRepresent AHEAD through executive briefings, industry events, partnerand client engagements, and thought leadership.\n\nDelivery Leadership - 30%\nProvide executive oversight and delivery leadership for selected strategic or complex Application Security engagements, ensuring work meets agreed scope, quality, schedule, and business outcomes.\n\nLead or adviseclient strategy, roadmap, architecture, and planning workshops covering application security, secure software delivery, cloud-native applications, APIs, and risk prioritization.\n\nGuide teams delivering application security program assessments and maturity improvements, secure SDLC controls, threat modeling, DevSecOpsenablement, application and API security reviews, and remediation planning.\n\nEnsure recommendations are practical and risk-based, translating technical findings into prioritized actions and clear business implications for technical teams and executive stakeholders.\n\nMonitor engagement health, milestones, dependencies, risks, and client expectations; intervene to resolve issues and maintaindelivery quality.\n\nReview key deliverables and executive presentations, andcoach engagement leaders and practitioners in client communication and delivery excellence.\n\nMaintain a selective client-delivery role to stay close to client needs, validateservice approaches, and bring delivery insight back into the practice portfolio.\n\nTechnical and Market Expertise\nThe successful candidate brings credible, current expertiseacross Application Security and related cloud security disciplines, including:\nApplication security program strategy and maturity, secure SDLC, DevSecOps, and secure coding practices.\n\nApplication and API threat modeling, architecture and design review, and risk-based vulnerability prioritization.\n\nApplication Security Posture Management and the use of SAST, DAST, SCA, secretsdetection, and related tooling to prioritize and coordinate remediation.\n\nAPI security, including common REST and GraphQLrisks, authenticationand authorization patterns, and relevant OWASP guidance.\n\nCI/CD and software supply-chainsecurity, including dependency and open-source risk, SBOM practices, artifact integrity, and provenance.\n\nCloud-native application security and the relationship between code, infrastructure-as-code, containers, Kubernetes, runtime context, and cloud posture.\n\nSecurity frameworks and maturity models relevant to application security, such as OWASP SAMM and DSOMM, and the ability to map technical controls to governance and compliance needs.\n\nRelevant applicationsecurity platforms and the broader security ecosystem, with the ability to evaluate technology in the context of client outcomes rather than a single vendor.\n\nQualifications\n15+ years of consulting or commensurateprofessional experience in information security, application security, cloud security, or a relatedfield.\n\nSignificant leadership experience in a practice, program, business development, or consulting leadership role, including responsibility for developing people and influencing business outcomes.\n\nDemonstrated success building client relationships and growing consulting opportunities, including leading discovery, solution shaping, scoping, proposal development, and executive presentations.\n\nExperience developing or scaling professional services, security capabilities, or go-to-market offerings.\n\nDemonstrated experience establishing, assessing, or maturing application security and DevSecOpsprograms.\n\nStrong understanding of application and API security concepts, modern software delivery, cloud-native architectures, and the tools and practices used to secure them.\n\nAbility to lead complex client engagements, manage executive stakeholders, and guide teams through ambiguity, competing priorities, and delivery risks.\n\nExcellent written, verbal, presentation, facilitation, and relationship-building skills; comfortable communicating with technical practitioners and executive audiences.\n\nStrong business acumen, strategic judgment, and ability to connect security investments to client objectivesand measurable outcomes.\n\nUndergraduate degree in Computer Science, Business Management, or a related field preferred, but not required.\n\nIndustry-recognized security certifications are preferred, such as CISSP, CCSP, CSSLP, or relevant GIAC certifications.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7812,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":15,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Application Security","IT Consulting & Digital Transformation","Managed IT Services (MSP)","AI Consulting & Integration"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-29T23:21:12Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 23 · green card filings: 4","filings_12m":23,"filings_prev_12m":21,"green_card_filings_12m":4,"median_offered_wage_usd":151759,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":78,"reasons":["conf:2","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":350000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ahead-practice-director-application-security","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ahead-practice-director-application-security.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-31T05:26:57Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7838,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-01T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":3614},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3614"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fahead-practice-director-application-security"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fahead-practice-director-application-security"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fahead-practice-director-application-security"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/ahead-practice-director-application-security\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fahead-practice-director-application-security"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3490436}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"ahead.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3490436},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); 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