Software Engineering Manager, Application Security Testing

Overview of the Software Engineering Manager, Application Security Testing Role at GitLab

As an Engineering Manager for Composition Analysis and Dynamic Analysis at GitLab, you will lead multiple teams dedicated to building sophisticated application security scanning capabilities. These tools empower GitLab customers to efficiently identify and remediate vulnerabilities across their software supply chain and web applications. Your leadership will guide engineers specializing in software composition analysis, container scanning, API security, dynamic application security testing, and fuzz testing.

You will be instrumental in setting priorities, shaping product architecture, and streamlining agile processes across these groups. The goal is to ensure GitLab's security offerings remain effective, reliable, and user-friendly within real DevSecOps environments. This role requires balancing complex, security-focused roadmaps, authoring comprehensive project plans spanning both teams, and coordinating efforts to deliver a cohesive, end-to-end application security experience within the GitLab platform.

In your first year, you will drive critical initiatives such as auto-remediation for 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.

Key Projects Examples

• 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 key 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 increased efficiency, stability, and consistent web application traversal.
• Strategically balance priorities and resources across multiple security-focused engineering teams to ensure sustainable delivery and high-quality outcomes.
• Author and maintain detailed project plans for epics spanning both groups, aligning work, identifying dependencies, and preventing duplicate efforts.
• Implement and manage agile project management processes for multiple teams, covering 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 guarantee consistent, complementary approaches to application security across GitLab’s platform.

What You'll Bring

• Proven background in leading multiple technical teams or groups, ideally within application security or related domains.
• 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 (e.g., OWASP ZAP, Trivy, or similar tools).
• 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.
• Openness to candidates with transferable experience in security engineering, DevSecOps, or vulnerability management who are motivated to grow into 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 diverse time zones, utilizing GitLab itself for planning, code review, and delivery. The team is currently 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 ensuring architectural alignment and consistent approaches across both groups.

Key skills/competency

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