Global Head of Application Security & DevSecOps

theapexgroup; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 2,400,000 - 4,200,000; Full time

Job summary

The Apex Group seeks a Head of Application Security to lead and mature its global security capability. This senior role defines strategy, sets standards, and drives execution across Application Security, DevSecOps, AI Security, and Cloud-Native Security Engineering.

You will ensure security is embedded by design throughout the technology lifecycle, enabling rapid and safe innovation while complying with regulatory and business requirements.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in cybersecurity, software engineering, or platform engineering roles.
• 8+ years in senior management positions within security engineering, architecture, or similar leadership roles, with proven accountability for strategy, team leadership and delivery of enterprise-scale security programs.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the global Application Security strategy aligned to Apex's cyber risk posture and regulatory obligations.
• Ensure developers meet KPI's and business deliverables.
• Ensure developers keep up with emerging threats and technologies.
• Lead and develop multiple security engineering teams across Application Security, DevSecOps, AI & Data Security, and Cloud & Infrastructure Developer Platform Security.
• Serve as the senior security authority for application, platform, and DevSecOps-related design and engineering decisions.
• Ensure security controls are documented and embedded throughout the SDLC and CI/CD pipelines.
• Oversee application threat modelling, secure design reviews, and architecture risk assessments.
• Drive adoption of secure coding standards, automated security testing (SAST, DAST, SCA), and secrets management.
• Provide oversight on cloud-native and infrastructure security patterns in hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
• Define security guardrails for AI-enabled applications, data pipelines, and emerging technologies.
• Partner with Architecture, Engineering, Cloud, and Platform teams to deliver secure-by-default solutions.
• Translate security policies and standards into practical, consumable engineering guidance.
• Communicate application and platform risk to senior leadership and governance forums.
• Support audit, regulatory, penetration testing and assurance activities related to application and platform security.
• Execute delegated tasks as deemed appropriate by the Group CISO and other empowered Group Cyber leadership authorities, ensuring timely and effective completion in alignment with organizational priorities.
• Support the Group Cyber Strategy end-to-end, driving alignment of all activities, decisions, and deliverables with strategic objectives and business outcomes.

Skills

Security leadership

App security architecture

Threat modeling

DevSecOps

Cloud security

API security

Microservices security

Regulatory compliance

Leadership

Tools

GitLab

GitHub

Job description

The Apex Group seeks a Head of Application Security to lead and mature its global security capability. This senior role defines strategy, sets standards, and drives execution across Application Security, DevSecOps, AI Security, and Cloud-Native Security Engineering.

You will ensure security is embedded by design throughout the technology lifecycle, enabling rapid and safe innovation while complying with regulatory and business requirements.