Senior DevSecOps Engineer

northwesternmutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual is seeking an experienced DevSecOps professional focused on application and cloud security. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to mature security across the enterprise, automate security workflows, and guide engineering in secure-by-default practices.

The role emphasizes hands-on development, security testing, and continuous improvement within an agile environment. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in CS/engineering.
• 4+ years of cloud tech and CI/CD pipelines (AWS, Gitlab CI, Kubernetes).
• 5+ years in development, infrastructure, or cybersecurity.
• Experience with security testing (SAST/DAST/SCA) including CI/CD pipelines.
• Proficient in Python and JavaScript preferred.

Responsibilities

• Engineer automation-focused security solutions across applications and cloud environments.
• Guide application and engineering teams in security best practices.
• Operationally support security tools across the software development lifecycle (SAST, DAST, SCA, CSPM).
• Monitor threats and implement remediation based on findings.
• Mentor staff to ensure quality and consistency of deliverables.
• Collaborate with architects and engineers to improve security posture.

Skills

Application Security

Adaptive Communication

Cloud Security

DevOps

Engineering Expertise

Threat Awareness

Vulnerability Management

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

SAST

DAST

SCA

CSPM

Job description

About the Job:

Northwestern Mutual is looking for enthusiastic technologists who want to grow their career in DevSecOps - Application & Cloud Security. You're the right fit if you love to solve problems and are always striving to learn new things. We're looking for self-motivated and self-driven engineers who are passionate about what they do and love cybersecurity. Your knowledge in application security, DevSecOps practices, and cloud technologies will be instrumental in further maturing our application and cloud security posture throughout the Enterprise. In this position, you will work with cross-functional teams across a set of diverse technologies to manage application and cloud security tools with an automation-first mindset. You will work in an agile and innovative environment, solving complex problems and collaborating with architects and engineers to ensure the safety and security of Northwestern Mutual's applications.

What You'll Bring to the Role:

• Passionate about security
• A team player who enjoys collaborating with cross-functional teams
• A great communicator (written and verbal) with an ability to articulate complex topics in a clear and concise manner
• Employs a flexible and constructive approach when solving problems
• Proficient with development and scripting languages, Python and JavaScript preferred
• Bachelor's or equivalent experience with an emphasis in computer science, computer engineering, software engineering, MIS related field
• 4+ years' experience with cloud technologies and CICD pipelines (AWS, Gitlab CI, Kubernetes)
• 5+ years' experience in development, infrastructure, or cybersecurity
• Experience conducting security tests (static and dynamic code analysis, software composition analysis, or penetration tests)
• Experience with modern DevOps development practices
• Experience with CICD pipelines to automate application and infrastructure-as-code deployments
• Continuously looking for opportunities to improve our processes and capabilities
• Experienced working with application and engineering teams
• A self-directed individual contributor

What you'll get to do:

• Engineer solutions with a focus on automation to reduce manual and repetitive tasks
• Guide and advise application and engineering teams in the areas of Application and Cloud Security
• Operationally support Application & Cloud Security tools integrated into our software development lifecycle. Examples include SAST, DAST, SCA, CSPM, and infrastructure vulnerability scanners
• Actively monitor, assess and recommend tactical and strategic initiatives based on new and emerging threats posing risk to our company
• Stay apprised of current and proposed security changes impacting regulatory, privacy and security industry best practices
• Implement remediation efforts after security assessment findings outline weaknesses requiring attention
• Mentor other staff members to ensure consistency, quality and productivity of deliverables

Further impress us with:

• Your passion for all things security
• Your ability to employ a flexible and constructive approach to solving problems
• Knowledge of application and cloud security principles
• Experience with implementing secure-by-default architecture
• Experience automating and improving manual processes
• Relevant certifications from GIAC, ISC(2) and other recognized cybersecurity industry organizations

Skills You Have:

• Application Security - Introduces security standards during application development and implements security procedures to protect applications in production. Utilizes knowledge to implement authentication for applications that contain sensitive data. Ensures that no PII/PCI information is logged. Conducts PenTest for external facing apps.
• Adaptive Communication - Formulates strategies to be used to convey complex information about services, products, systems, or processes to targeted audiences; communicates and liaises between technical and non-technical audiences.
• Cloud Security - Creates a set of policies, technologies, applications, and controls across the cloud ecosystem to protect virtualized IP, data, and the cloud computing infrastructure.
• DevOps - Applies continuous integration and delivery to implement applications and services at a higher velocity.
• Engineering Expertise & Practices - Applies specialized experiences in different facets of engineering, including data, applications, cyber, systems, operations, product, security, and testing, along with technical aptitude to adapt new expertise as they become relevant through an understanding of underlying engineering principles.
• Threat Awareness - Utilizes knowledge of threats to support tracking of common and emerging security threats to increase awareness of potential risks and the protections against them.
• Vulnerability Assessment & Management - Conducts assessments of threats and vulnerabilities to identify the technical outcome if a vulnerability is exploited and determines deviations from acceptable configurations, enterprise or local policy; as