← Overview: Cybersecurity recruiting
Cybersecurity role profile
Hire an Application Security Engineer (AppSec)
Security across the SDLC — design, CI/CD and runtime
Our IT recruitment team combines IT executive search, specialist IT recruiters and scalable technology recruitment for security-critical hiring.
AppSec engineers secure the software supply chain: threat modelling, secure defaults, reviews and automated pipeline scanning. The OWASP Top 10 frames common flaws; OWASP ASVS defines verification levels.
Maturity guidance comes from OWASP SAMM; NIST CSF and CSA context cover architecture and cloud identity.
Regulated environments fold NIS2 and GDPR into security-by-design.
Hiring rewards developer-first mindset, API/microservice depth and measurable reduction of recurring classes.
Role profile
Purpose
Prevent defects early and pay down debt — pragmatic controls in the SDLC.
Typical accountability
Champions, pipeline tooling, secure coding standards, pentest follow-through, cloud and SOC alignment.
Example KPIs
- • MTTR for critical app findings
- • release coverage
- • reduction in OWASP Top 10 classes
Responsibilities in detail
1. Threat modelling
STRIDE/LINDDUN-style sessions with architecture and product.
2. Pipeline security
SAST/DAST/SCA, secret scanning, dependency hygiene; quality gates with exceptions.
3. Runtime and APIs
WAF/API gateway policies where appropriate; map to ASVS.
4. Enablement
Training, guidelines, pair programming.
Interfaces
Internal
- engineering
- product
- cloud/platform
- SOC
External
- external pentesters
- bug bounty
AppSec succeeds with engineering trust — pure gatekeeping fails.
Qualifications
Professional
- Strong dev background
- web/API security
- tooling and metrics
Collaboration
- Coaching
- empathy for delivery pressure
- clear prioritisation
Salary orientation (Germany)
AppSec often tracks senior engineering; see benchmark references and specialist demand.
Hiring challenges
Strong demand for coders who ship security; supply-chain and API risk raises the bar.
- • Tool sprawl without ownership.
- • Legacy debt without budget.
- • Missing executive sponsorship for SAMM.
More role profiles
See the cybersecurity recruiting overview for all profiles — or jump to related roles:
- • Hire a Cloud Security Engineer
- • Hire a Security Architect (Information Security)
- • Hire a Penetration Testing Consultant
- • Hire a CISO
We also fill roles in industrial IT recruitment — including OT/ICS security, manufacturing IT and industrial architecture.
Hire an application security engineer
We qualify AppSec hires via pipeline metrics, review culture and recurring defect classes — not tool logos.
Search tuned to your languages, CI/CD shape and release cadence.