Lead Application Security Engineer – Secure SDLC & AI Tools

Nelnet, Inc.; Oklahoma; Hybrid; USD 135,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

HSA and FSA

401K/student loan repayment

Life insurance & AD&D insurance

Employee assistance program

Employee stock purchase program

Tuition reimbursement

Performance-based incentive pay

Short- and long-term disability

Wellness program

Job summary

Nelnet, Inc. is seeking a Senior Application Security Engineer to lead hands‑on testing, secure code reviews, and secure SDLC enablement.

You will partner with engineering, cloud, and product teams to identify and reduce security risks, leveraging AI assisted tooling to scale DevSecOps practices across applications. The role requires 5–7+ years in application security, strong communication to both technical and non-technical audiences, and a Bachelor’s in a related field.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in CS, cybersecurity, IT, or software engineering.
• Advanced training in application security or cloud security preferred.
• 5–7+ years hands-on application security or secure software engineering experience.
• Experience integrating security tooling into CI/CD pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Lead manual source code review focusing on business logic, access control, auth, data protection risks.
• Perform and guide application security testing using SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning, secrets detection, and web/API testing.
• Expand Security Champions program through enablement and coaching.
• Develop and improve automated source code review processes and CI/CD security checks.
• Embed secure SDLC practices across design, development, testing, release, and production support.

Skills

Cybersecurity

Proficiencies in required areas

Coding/Programming Languages

Automation & Scripting

Testing & Quality Assurance

Stakeholder Management & Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or related field

Advanced degree or specialized training in application security, cybersecurity, software engineering, cloud security, or related technical discipline

Tools

SAST

DAST

SCA

Container Scanning

Secrets Detection

Web/API Testing

Job description

Nelnet, Inc. is seeking a Senior Application Security Engineer to lead hands‑on testing, secure code reviews, and secure SDLC enablement.

You will partner with engineering, cloud, and product teams to identify and reduce security risks, leveraging AI assisted tooling to scale DevSecOps practices across applications. The role requires 5–7+ years in application security, strong communication to both technical and non-technical audiences, and a Bachelor’s in a related field.