Application Security Engineer
Courses for this role
Foundations
Security fundamentals, OWASP top 10, and the cryptography basics that everything else builds on.
PortSwigger's free, comprehensive AppSec course.
Build the stack
Pen testing, fuzzing, and the secure-coding loop that catches vulnerabilities before they ship.
Knowing how to attack is how you know what to defend.
The single highest-leverage bug-finding tool.
AppSec work happens in code review, not just on perimeter.
eBPF (Falco, Cilium Tetragon, Linux audit hooks) is the dominant way modern defense platforms catch container-level threats without crippling overhead. AppSec teams that own production must speak eBPF.
OSCP prep — the standard offensive security cert.
The cryptography rules defense systems must comply with.
Field experience
Defense-grade security reviews, CVE process, and the ATO / RMF world that defense AppSec lives in.
Knowing how to file and track CVEs is part of the job.
How DoD systems get authorized to operate.
DoD's configuration-hardening standards — every system that operates in IL4+ environments must pass STIG compliance.
Rapidly becoming required for defense software.
The standard pen-testing credential.