Penetration Testing Lead

Lloyds Banking Group; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Lloyds Banking Group is seeking an experienced Penetration Testing Lead to shape the group’s testing capability and roadmap for both human-led and autonomous security testing. You will lead a team of testers, collaborate with engineering, security and business stakeholders, and drive improvements across the testing lifecycle.

The role requires deep technical expertise in application, API, cloud, infrastructure and network testing, and a proven ability to communicate risks and remediation to

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on penetration testing experience across applications and infrastructure.
• Experience leading penetration testing, application security, or offensive security teams in large organisations.
• Strong understanding of testing methodologies, vulnerability discovery, and attacker tradecraft.

Responsibilities

• Draw on extensive hands-on penetration testing experience to shape testing strategy, guide the execution of complex assessments, and ensure high-quality, risk-focused testing.
• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of penetration testers with a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
• Define and carry out the Penetration Testing roadmap aligned to CSO and Group security objectives across threat resilience and continuous assurance testing.
• Drive evolution of autonomous security testing with teams to embed automation and scalable validation across testing lifecycle.
• Build relationships across security and wider organisation; communicate risks, outcomes, and recommendations to technical and executive audiences.

Skills

Penetration testing

Application security

Leadership

Communication

Cloud security

Security controls

Automation

Programming

Education

Crest OSCP OSCE OSEP GIAC GWAPT CPTS CAPE

Tools

Offensive security tooling

Job description

We're looking for an experienced and highly capable Penetration Testing Lead to lead and evolve our penetration testing capability. Reporting to the Offensive Security Lead, you'll be accountable for the strategic direction, operational delivery and technical excellence of the team. This role combines deep technical expertise with inspirational leadership, leading a team of highly skilled penetration testers while shaping the roadmap for both human-led and autonomous security testing across the Group. Spanning traditional end-to-end penetration testing services and continuous assurance capabilities, you'll work closely with engineering, security and business stakeholders, as well as the Autonomous Vulnerability Research and Harness Engineering teams, to continuously improve the Group's security posture., We're looking for an experienced and highly capable Penetration Testing Lead to lead and evolve our penetration testing capability. Reporting to the Offensive Security Lead, you'll be accountable for the strategic direction, operational delivery and technical excellence of the team. This role combines deep technical expertise with inspirational leadership, leading a team of highly skilled penetration testers while shaping the roadmap for both human-led and autonomous security testing across the Group. Spanning traditional end-to-end penetration testing services and continuous assurance capabilities, you'll work closely with engineering, security and business stakeholders, as well as the Autonomous Vulnerability Research and Harness Engineering teams, to continuously improve the Group's security posture. What You'll Be Doing:

• Draw on extensive hands-on penetration testing experience to shape testing strategy, guide the execution of complex application and infrastructure security assessments, and ensure the delivery of high-quality, risk-focused testing that helps strengthen the Group's security posture.
• Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of penetration testers, encouraging a culture of technical excellence, continuous improvement, innovation and open communication.
• Define and carry out the Penetration Testing roadmap, ensuring alignment to CSO and wider Group security objectives while delivering a comprehensive security testing programme spanning threat resilience, regulatory, change-driven and continuous assurance testing.
• Drive the evolution of autonomous security testing through close collaboration with the Autonomous Vulnerability Research and Harness Engineering teams, helping embed automation, frontier model testing and scalable security validation capabilities across the testing lifecycle.
• Build positive relationships across the Chief Security Office and wider organisation. Communicate security risks, testing outcomes, and recommendations to technical practitioners and executives. Collaborate with teams to prioritise and remediate findings swiftly.
  Extensive experience leading penetration testing, application security testing or offensive security functions within a large and complex organisation.
• Demonstrable expertise in conducting and supervising complex application, API, cloud, infrastructure and network penetration testing engagements.
• Strong understanding of penetration testing methodologies, vulnerability discovery techniques, offensive security tooling and attacker tradecraft.
• Experience building, developing and leading high-performing technical teams.
• Excellent customer interaction skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership.
• Strong understanding of modern enterprise technology environments, cloud platforms, operating systems, networks, software development practices and security controls.
• Passion for cyber security research, continuous learning and advancing security testing practices., Recognised offensive security certifications such as CREST, OSCP, OSCE, OSEP, GIAC, GWAPT, CPTS, CAPE or equivalent.
• Software development, automation or engineering experience in any low-level or high-level language (C#, C++, C, Python, Bash, Java, Rust, etc.).
• Experience within financial services or other highly regulated environments.
• Degree or postgraduate qualification in Cyber Security, Computer Science, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Familiarity with autonomous vulnerability discovery, AI-enabled security testing, frontier model evaluation, fuzzing frameworks and modern security engineering practices.
  At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers,