Application Security Specialist

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To identify potential vulnerabilities within the banks IT systems using penetration testing tools and techniques to ensure security of computer systems, applications, servers, and networks.

Accountabilities

• Development and execution of assessments, audits, and threat models to identify vulnerabilities within the banks systems, applications and servers using penetration tools and techniques, and communicate key findings and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Collaboration with stakeholders and IT teams to identify emerging cyber-attack techniques, tools and technologies and to support the development of penetration testing methodologies.
• Development and maintenance of comprehensive documents and reports for senior stakeholders on penetration test findings, and remediation guidance.
• Collaboration with stakeholders to understand their security requirements and controls in business processes, application/services, to enhance overall security posture and assurance.
• Identification of emerging vulnerabilities, exploit codes and cyber-attacks to develop testing methodologies and assurance activities.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L - Listen and be authentic, E - Energise and inspire, A - Align across the enterprise, D - Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship - our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset - to Empower, Challenge and Drive - the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a Application Security Specialist for Barclays, where you will play a critical role in safeguarding the bank’s technology landscape. You will lead hands-on analysis, delivery and continuous enhancement of Application Security and DevSecOps capabilities, bringing specialist experience in one or more of the following areas: SAST, SCA, DAST, API security and AI-assisted security testing. You will translate complex security-testing data into actionable risk insights, embed proportionate controls across the software development lifecycle, and partner with engineering, risk and governance stakeholders to improve control effectiveness, standards compliance and secure innovation.

To be successful as a Application Security Specialist, you should have experience in one or more of the following application security testing areas:

• Operating and analysing results from one or more SAST, SCA or DAST tools, including tuning policies, validating findings, reducing false positives, assessing exploitability and guiding remediation
• Assessing APIs using automated and manual techniques, with strong knowledge of authentication, authorisation, input validation and common API vulnerabilities
• Applying secure coding and remediation practices in at least one development ecosystem, such as Java/Spring, .NET, Go, Python or JavaScript/TypeScript
• Integrating application security testing into CI/CD pipelines, developer workflows and cloud-native environments, including containers, Kubernetes and infrastructure as code
• Using data-analysis techniques and reporting tools to identify trends, prioritise risk, monitor remediation, and produce clear KRI/KCI dashboards and leadership insights
• Leading technical analysis, defining testing strategies and providing authoritative challenge to engineering teams on complex application security risks

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Strong knowledge of cyber governance, security policies, control frameworks and standards, with the ability to interpret requirements, assess conformance, manage exceptions and support audit or regulatory evidence
• Understanding of software supply chain security, dependency risk, secrets scanning, SBOMs and vulnerability management across the secure SDLC
• Hands-on exposure to AI-assisted security testing and AI application security, including prompt injection, insecure output handling, model and agent risks, data leakage, human-in-the-loop validation and responsible use of AI-generated findings
• Ability to communicate complex technical findings to senior stakeholders, influence remediation priorities and coach analysts and engineering teams

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role will be based in Knutsford.