Senior Penetration Testing Engineer

Alliant Credit Union; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 92,600 - 144,100; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Vision & dental

401k with employer match

Work from home up to 3 days a week

Education reimbursement

Job summary

Alliant Credit Union in Chicago is seeking an experienced penetration tester to plan, execute, and report on security testing of web apps and APIs across internal, vendor, and cloud environments. This hybrid role combines hands-on testing with collaboration across software engineering, security operations, and threat mitigation teams.

You will develop PoCs, guide remediation, and help strengthen the organization's security posture while staying current on threats.

Qualifications

• Minimum a 4-year degree in CS, Cybersecurity, Information Systems, or related field.
• Minimum 3 years of penetration testing or offensive security experience.
• In lieu of education, 6 years of penetration testing or related work.
• Industry certifications such as OSWE/OSCP/GPEN are preferred.

Responsibilities

• Perform hands-on penetration testing focusing on web applications and web APIs across homegrown, vendor, and cloud systems.
• Conduct manual and automated testing, including authenticated and unauthenticated scenarios.
• Identify, exploit, and validate vulnerabilities; provide risk and impact assessments.
• Develop PoCs and document attack paths where appropriate.
• Guide remediation with engineering teams and validate fixes.
• Collaborate on threat assessments, modeling, and secure-by-design reviews.
• Prioritize findings by exploitability, severity, and business impact.
• Produce clear penetration test reports for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Present findings to security leadership and management; help drive testing standards.

Skills

Penetration testing

Threat modeling

Report writing

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CCybersecurity/IS

Tools

OSWE

OSCP

GPEN

Job description

In this hybrid role based at our Chicago Headquarters, you will plan, execute, and report on penetration tests with a focus on web applications and web APIs across both internally developed and vendor SaaS solutions. Perform hands‑on offensive security testing to identify, validate, and drive remediation of vulnerabilities in modern application and API architectures. Support targeted testing of related infrastructure, cloud services, and internal systems as needed. Work with software engineering, application security, and cyber threat mitigation teams to strengthen the organization’s overall security posture.

Essential Responsibilities

• Perform hands‑on penetration testing with a primary focus on web applications and web APIs across homegrown and vendor systems, support testing of cloud, mobile, and internal systems.
• Conduct manual and automated testing, including authenticated and unauthenticated attack scenarios.
• Identify, exploit, and validate vulnerabilities, provide realistic assessments of risk and impact.
• Develop proof‑of‑concept exploits and document attack paths when appropriate.
• Work with development teams to guide remediation efforts, provide recommendations, review fixes, validate resolutions, and retesting.
• Collaborate proactively with engineering through threat assessments, threat modeling, and “what‑could‑go‑wrong” reviews before code is written.
• Analyze and prioritize vulnerability findings based on exploitability, severity, and business impact.
• Produce clear, actionable penetration test reports tailored for technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Present findings and trends to engineering teams, security leadership, and management.
• Contribute to improving internal testing methodologies, tooling, and standards.
• Stay current on emerging threats, attack techniques, and best practices relevant to modern web applications, APIs, and cloud environments.

Education & Years of Experience

• Minimum - 4 Year Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Systems or related
• Minimum - 3 Years of Penetration testing, offensive security or related

In Lieu of Education

• 6 Years of Penetration testing, offensive security or related

License/Certifications/Training

• Preferred: Industry certifications such as OSWE, OSCP, OSCE, GPEN, GWAPT, CRTO, or related offensive security credentials

Compensation & Benefits

Typical hiring range: $92,600.00 to $144,100.00 Annually. Actual compensation will be determined using factors such as experience, skills & knowledge.

Alliant provides a benefits package including health care, vision, dental, and 401k with employer match. Benefits include:

• Annual performance bonus
• Work from home up to 3 days a week
• Paid parental leave
• Employee discount programs
• Time off including paid personal and sick days
• 11 paid holidays
• Education reimbursement
• Note that eligibility and cost of benefits can vary depending on the number of regularly scheduled hours, and job status such as regular full-time, regular part-time, or temporary employment.