Software Engineering Manager, Application Security Testing

Overview of the Role: Software Engineering Manager, Application Security Testing

As an Engineering Manager for Composition Analysis and Dynamic Analysis at GitLab, you will lead multiple teams dedicated to building application security scanning capabilities. These capabilities are crucial for helping GitLab customers identify and remediate vulnerabilities within their software supply chain and web applications. You will guide engineers working on critical areas such as software composition analysis, container scanning, API security, dynamic application security testing (DAST), and fuzz testing. Your responsibilities include setting priorities, shaping product architecture, and running agile processes across these groups to ensure GitLab's security offerings remain effective, reliable, and user-friendly in real DevSecOps environments.

This role involves balancing complex, security-focused roadmaps, authoring comprehensive project plans that span both groups, and coordinating their efforts to deliver a cohesive, end-to-end application security experience within the GitLab platform. In your initial year, you will be instrumental in driving key initiatives such as auto-remediation of vulnerable packages, scanning unmanaged C/C++ dependencies, static reachability analysis at the function level, snippet detection for open source dependencies, and significant enhancements to the DAST crawler's efficiency and stability.

Examples of Our Projects

• Designing auto-remediation workflows for vulnerable open source and third-party dependencies.
• Improving the DAST crawler to provide more consistent and reliable coverage of modern web applications.

What You'll Do

• Lead engineers across the Composition Analysis and Dynamic Analysis groups, establishing clear priorities and expectations.
• Drive significant security initiatives, including auto-remediation of vulnerable software packages, scanning unmanaged C/C++ dependencies, static reachability analysis, and snippet detection for open source dependencies.
• Enhance Dynamic Analysis Security Testing (DAST) capabilities by improving the crawler for greater efficiency, stability, and consistent traversal of web applications.
• Strategically balance priorities and resources among multiple security-focused engineering teams to ensure sustainable delivery and high-quality outcomes.
• Author and maintain detailed project plans for large epics spanning both groups, ensuring work alignment, identifying dependencies, and preventing duplicate efforts.
• Manage agile project management processes for multiple teams, encompassing planning, estimation, and continuous improvement of delivery practices.
• Provide expert guidance on the architecture of security products, ensuring that software composition analysis and dynamic analysis solutions are robust and scalable.
• Collaborate closely with Composition Analysis and Dynamic Analysis teams to implement consistent, complementary approaches to application security across GitLab’s platform.

What You'll Bring

• A proven background leading multiple technical teams or groups, preferably in application security or related domains.
• A practical understanding of software composition analysis (SCA), including methods for assessing and managing risks in application dependencies.
• Extensive knowledge of dynamic application security testing (DAST), API security, and various web application security testing techniques and tools.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies, package managers, and dependency management systems.
• Experience working with or around open source security tooling, such as OWASP ZAP, Trivy, or similar tools.
• The ability to plan and execute agile project management processes across several teams, including coordinating priorities and dependencies.
• Skill in guiding product and architecture decisions for security scanning tools, effectively balancing technical constraints with customer needs.
• An openness to candidates with transferable experience in security engineering, DevSecOps, or vulnerability management who are motivated to grow in application security leadership.

About The Team

The Composition Analysis and Dynamic Analysis teams are integral to GitLab’s security product area, focusing on developing and enhancing application security scanning capabilities across the DevSecOps platform. These groups collectively own core features such as software composition analysis, container scanning, API security, dynamic application security testing, fuzz testing, and associated remediation workflows. You will lead a distributed team of security-focused engineers who collaborate asynchronously across different time zones, utilizing GitLab itself for planning, code review, and delivery. The team's current focus is on advancing capabilities like auto-remediation of vulnerable packages, scanning unmanaged C/C++ dependencies, static reachability analysis, snippet detection for open source dependencies, and improving the DAST crawler for more efficient, stable coverage of modern web applications, all while maintaining architectural alignment and consistent approaches across both groups.

Key skills/competency

• Application Security
• Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
• Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
• Team Leadership
• Agile Project Management
• DevSecOps
• Vulnerability Management
• API Security
• Container Security
• Fuzz Testing