Advanced Specialist, Application Security
Pearson · Durham · $100,000–$160,000 (stated in the posting)
Summary
The Sovereign Team is the technical cybersecurity team of Pearson’s cybersecurity organization that works with the Lines of Business on contractual and regulatory obligations as it relates to sovereign requirements from countries around the world. We are not a compliance or audit function; we are the deep technical experts on cloud, infrastructure and application security who hold the architectural knowledge that makes certifications such as FedRAMP, GovRAMP and Cyber Essentials Plus achievable and defensible.
As Application Security Engineer, you will own application security across the software development lifecycle for Pearson’s regulated and sovereign estate. You will embed security into existing product, engineering, DevOps and release processes; threat modeling and architecture review at design, scanning and policy enforcement in the pipeline, and validated remediation before and after release; so that findings reduce real risk rather than accumulate in a queue.
This is a technical role with leadership responsibility. You will set AppSec technical direction, mentor engineers, and act as the escalation point for complex application security problems. It is not a people-management role, but you will be expected to carry senior-level conversations, including tooling, budget and vendor discussions.
Key Responsibilities
Secure SDLC ownership
Own and continuously improve a repeatable Application Security process spanning concept and intake, requirements and design, development, build and CI/CD, test and preproduction, release, and production monitoring.
Work with Enterprise Application Security to define which AppSec activities and tools apply at each phase, what evidence each phase must produce, who owns the work, and how findings are handled before and after release.
Lead threat modeling, use case review and secure design review; authentication and authorization design, privacy, and logging requirements.
Set risk based security gates: critical and high risk issues reviewed before release, lower risk items tracked to agreed remediation timelines.
Ensure every finding has an owner and an SLA, and is triaged, remediated, accepted or closed as not applicable; never left open by default.
AppSec tooling & automation
Own selection, design, onboarding and optimization of the AppSec toolchain; SAST, SCA, secrets scanning, IaC scanning, container scanning, DAST and IAST/RASP.
Operate and mature the current stack across the development pipelines/code repositories.
Drive repository and space onboarding to close coverage gaps, and run the discovery loop that finds unscanned origins as the estate changes.
Enforce pipeline policy and artifact integrity; CI/CD gates, SBOM generation, image scanning and artifact signing.
Automate triage, ticket routing and evidence collection to reduce manual effort and improve consistency.
Assist with tuning of preventative technologies such as RASP and WAF.
Sovereign & regulated assurance
Translate FedRAMP 20x, GovRAMP Rev5, NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework, UK Cyber Essentials Plus and equivalent requirements into concrete application security controls and defensible evidence.
Validate that application architecture is deployed correctly against each sovereign requirement; not merely documented as compliant.
Provide application penetration test scoping and assurance, and manage remediation followup through to closure.
Lead technical audit preparation and evidencequality review; support POA&M and continuous monitoring cycles.
Engage directly with 3PAOs, external assessors and government customers on application control questions.
Engagement & technical leadership
Act as an application security entry point at project intake and cyber security kickoff; confirming application tier, scantool onboarding, baseline compliance and go live requirements.
Provide oversight, direction and advice to engineers by reviewing security designs and implementations.
Coach developers on secure coding and give actionable feedback while design and code decisions are still fresh.
Build reusable standards, playbooks and onboarding material so AppSec capability scales beyond individuals.
Communicate application risk clearly to engineering teams, business partners and senior leadership.
Essential Skills & Experience
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Security, MIS or an equivalent technical discipline.
Significant handson application security experience at a senior or lead level, in an enterprise environment.
Deep practical experience with SAST, SCA, secrets scanning and container/IaC scanning; including tuning, falsepositive management and developerfacing triage.
Proven experience integrating security into CI/CD pipelines and defining riskbased release gates.
Strong threat modeling and secure design review capability (e.g. STRIDE), including authentication and authorization architecture.
Working knowledge of OWASP Top 10 and secure coding practice across modern web and API stacks.
Cloud security depth in Azure and/or AWS as it applies to application workloads and boundaries.
Ability to script and automate (Python or comparable) to reduce manual triage and evidence work.
Experience defining and evidencing technical controls for external audit or penetration test.
Excellent written and verbal communication; credible with developers and with executive audiences.
Desirable Skills & Experience
Direct experience supporting a FedRAMP or GovRAMP authorization from the application side.
Familiarity with additional sovereign regimes; UK Cyber Essentials Plus / NCSC Secure Design Principles, EU GDPR and NIS2, China MLPS/PIPL, Saudi NCA ECC, Australia ASD Essential Eight.
Experience with vulnerability aggregation and posturemanagement platforms (ArmorCode, Wiz or equivalents).
Software development background and the ability to review code credibly, not just scan output.
Experience running a developer security enablement or training programme.
Prior experience mentoring engineers or leading a small technical function.
Comfort operating in an agile environment with multiple concurrent regulatory deadlines.
Professional accreditation such as CISSP, CSSLP, CCSP or equivalent.
Compensation at Pearson is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, and location.
The full-time salary range for this role is $100,000 – $160,000. This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. Information on benefits can be found here.
Applications will be accepted through 2nd November 2026. This window may be extended depending on business needs.
Apply today and imagine the impact you can make.
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