Sr. Penetration Tester

A BIT ABOUT US

Appknox is one of the top Mobile Application security companies recognized by Gartner and G2. A profitable B2B SaaS startup headquartered in Singapore & working from Bengaluru.

The primary goal of Appknox is to help businesses and mobile developers secure their mobile applications with a focus on delivery speed and high-quality security audits.

Appknox has helped secure mobile apps at Fortune 500 companies with major brands spread across regions like India, South-East Asia, Middle-East, US, and expanding rapidly. We have secured 300+ Enterprises globally.

We are a 65+ incredibly passionate team working to make an impact and helping some of the biggest companies globally. We work in a highly collaborative, very fast-paced work environment. If you have what it takes to be part of the team, we are excited and let’s speak further.

The Opportunity

To join the security team engaging with multiple clients, helping them with end to end security audits, also research about new topics and vulnerabilities to be added to the scanner, present it in conferences.

What An Ideal Candidate Would Look Like: 

• Skills - Application Penetration Testing (Web, iOS and Android), experience with IoT testing, source code audits.
• Technology Stack: AWS, GCP, Objective C, Java, Python
• Responsibilities: Engage with clients for scoping call, perform security audits, remediation call with clients to patch the issues, research on new technologies/vulnerabilities

Minimum Requirements

• 2-4+ years of experience in application security and vulnerability research
• Strong foundation in mobile app security - Android or Ios
• Proven track record of discovering and disclosing CVEs in mobile platforms or popular applications (provide - github/bug bounty profiles)
• Strong understanding of exploit mitigations and proven ability to bypass them
• Should be able to architect automated detection logic for new vulnerabilities and integrate them into our security products
• Develop AI-driven agents to automate dynamic analysis
• Should be able to Leverage AI/LLMs to augment Pentesting efforts
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, balancing deep research with practical deliverables

Good to have Requirements

• Understanding of AI/ML security risks

Responsibilities

• Security assessment of web/mobile applications on various platforms
• Focusing on Mobile Application Security Research for new vulnerabilities
• Static and Dynamic Code Analysis
• Develop and interpret security standards and guides
• Automation of exploit development 
• Understand and explain the results with impact on business and compliance status
• Continuously learning and training on latest tools and technique

Work Expectations

Within 1 month

Training on processes, security workflows and develop understanding on internal tools.

Within 3 months

Actively contributing in exploit development and automation of it with the team.

Within 6 months

Expected to achieve Subject Matter Expert status on our core security products. We expect you to validate your findings against real-world conditions, with a strong emphasis on translating internal discoveries into actionable bug bounty submissions and earned CVEs to benchmark your impact against the external security community.

Within 1 Year

By the end of your first year, you will be expected to produce and submit a piece of novel, peer-reviewed security research. This deliverable must be of a quality suitable for top-tier industry conferences.

Personality traits we really admire

• A confident and dynamic working persona, which can bring fun to the team, and a sense of humour, is an added advantage.
• Great attitude to ask questions, learn and suggest process improvements.
• Has attention to details and helps identify edge cases.
• Highly motivated and coming up with fresh ideas and perspectives to help us move towards our goals faster.
• Follow timelines and absolute commitment to deadlines.

Interview Process - would be team specific

• Round 1- CTF round 
• Round 2 -Profile Evaluation; HR
• Round 3 -Technical Interview with security team members
• Round 4 -Technical Interview with the Hiring Manager
• Round 5 -Technical round with CTO
• Round 6 -HR Round

Compensation

• As per Industry Standards

Why Join Us

• Freedom & Responsibility: If you are a person who enjoys challenging work & pushing your boundaries, then this is the right place for you. We appreciate new ideas & ownership as well as flexibility with working hours.
• Great Salary & Equity: We keep up with the market standards & provide pay packages considering updated standards. Also as Appknox continues to grow, you’ll have a great opportunity to earn more & grow with us. Moreover, we also provide equity options for our top performers.
• Holistic Growth: We foster a culture of continuous learning and take a much more holistic approach to train and develop our assets: the employees. We shall also support you all on that journey of yours.
• Transparency: Being a part of a start-up is an amazing experience, one of the reasons being open communication & transparency at multiple levels. Working with Appknox will give you the opportunity to experience it all first-hand.

Responsibilities

• Execute and support application vulnerability assessments (SAST, DAST, SCA, and manual code review), ensuring findings are accurate, actionable, and relevant to application risk.
• Validate scanner results, perform false-positive analysis, and track findings through remediation, including retesting to confirm effective fixes.
• Manage multiple application security initiatives concurrently while meeting strict timelines in a fast‑paced environment.
• Prioritize vulnerabilities based on business impact, exploitability, exposure, and likelihood, using industry best practices (e.g., CVSS scoring).
• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports tracking vulnerability metrics such as severity distribution, remediation SLAs, and mean time to remediation (MTTR).
• Support the integration of security scanning and vulnerability workflows into CI/CD pipelines, leveraging existing tooling and automation.
• Facilitate remediation planning by providing actionable recommendations and coordinating root cause analysis.
• Support threat modeling and application risk assessments, with a focus on discovering insecure design patterns.
• Participate in high‑severity or zero‑day vulnerability response activities, including impact analysis and coordinated remediation efforts, as needed.
• Provide input into policies and standards related to application and cloud security controls.

Qualifications and Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, or related discipline—or equivalent professional experience.
• 5-7 years of relevant experience in application security and/or vulnerability management.
• Solid understanding of common vulnerability classes (e.g., OWASP Top 10) and secure architecture principles.
• Proficiency in using Burp Suite for manual security testing of web applications and APIs, including validation of automated findings and identification of complex authentication, authorization, and business‑logic vulnerabilities.
• Hands-on experience with tools such as Burp Suite, Fortify, Checkmarx, SonarQube, Black Duck, Tenable, and common network discovery tools (e.g., Nmap).
• Familiarity with NIST, MITRE ATT&CK, and CIS benchmarks.
• Programming/scripting proficiency in languages such as Python, Java, .NET, or similar.
• Excellent documentation, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.

Desired Skills

• Professional certifications (e.g., Security+, SSCP, GWAPT, or pursuing CISSP, OSCP).
• Experience using the ServiceNow platform for vulnerability or incident tracking.
• Proficiency in Azure cloud and Azure DevOps environments.
• Experience using Power BI or similar tools to visualize vulnerability metrics and remediation trends for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Cybersecurity Engineer – AI Training Project

About the Opportunity

We’re looking for experienced Cybersecurity Engineers to contribute technical expertise to a customer project focused on improving the capabilities of next-generation AI systems.

In this role, you’ll use your real-world experience in cybersecurity, software engineering, vulnerability assessment, and secure development to create high-quality technical inputs that help AI systems better understand, debug, secure, and reason about complex software.

What You’ll Do

• Analyze, debug, and resolve software bugs, vulnerabilities, and security issues across complex codebases.
• Review source code and identify potential security weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and attack vectors.
• Perform security assessments, vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and codebase audits.
• Develop and modify software using languages such as Python, Java, Rust, Go, C++, or TypeScript.
• Implement new features and fix existing functionality while maintaining strong security and engineering standards.
• Refactor legacy code to improve security, maintainability, reliability, and performance.
• Work on backend systems and help optimize applications for scalability, performance, and security.
• Analyze real-world security scenarios and translate your expertise into high-quality technical examples and problem-solving tasks.
• Document technical findings, vulnerabilities, debugging approaches, and recommended solutions.
• Provide domain expertise that helps improve how AI systems reason about software engineering and cybersecurity problems.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong professional experience in Cybersecurity / Application Security / Product Security / DevSecOps / Penetration Testing / Vulnerability Management.
• Strong programming experience in one or more of:
• Python
• Java
• Rust
• Go
• C++
• TypeScript
• Proven experience with debugging, troubleshooting, and fixing complex software issues.
• Hands-on experience with penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, security auditing, or application security.
• Understanding of secure software development practices and modern security threats.
• Strong knowledge of data structures, algorithms, software architecture, and code quality.
• Ability to review unfamiliar codebases and quickly understand how systems work.
• Strong written communication and the ability to explain complex technical findings clearly.

Nice to Have

• Experience with OWASP, API security, cloud security, DevSecOps, or threat modeling.
• Experience performing security assessments on production applications or enterprise systems.
• Experience with tools such as Burp Suite, Metasploit, Nmap, Wireshark, SAST/DAST tools, or vulnerability scanners.
• Contributions to open-source security or software projects.
• Experience working with AI/ML systems, LLMs, data annotation, or AI training projects.
• Relevant security certifications such as OSCP, OSWE, CEH, CISSP, Security+, or equivalent practical experience.

Engagement

• Role: Cybersecurity Engineer
• Work: Remote(Contract)
• Experience: Mid-level to Senior
• Programming: Required
• Cybersecurity expertise: Required

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to apply your existing cybersecurity expertise to an emerging area of technology. Your practical experience debugging software, identifying vulnerabilities, securing applications, and solving complex engineering problems will directly contribute to improving the capabilities of next-generation AI systems.

If you enjoy breaking down complex technical problems, finding vulnerabilities, fixing software, and thinking deeply about how systems work, this project could be a strong fit.