W2 Only (No C2C) :: DALLAS, TX/TAMPA, FL/NYC, NY (Hybrid) :: Senior AI-Driven Penetration Platform Engineer - Banking and Capital Markets Exp plus || G.C / U.S.C

Senior AI-Driven Penetration Platform Engineer - Banking and Capital Markets Exp plus || G.C / U.S.C

6+Months

DALLAS, TX/TAMPA, FL/NYC, NY (Hybrid)

W2 Only (No C2C) ::

Locations: Dallas/Irving, TX; Tampa, FL; New York City, NY (Hybrid: 3 days onsite per week; candidate selects site)

Engagement: Contract (minimum 6 months) with strong likelihood of extension based on performance

Industry: Financial Services; Banking and Capital Markets experience is a plus

Role Summary:
Lead the end-to-end engineering of a hybrid, AI-enabled penetration testing platform operating across cloud and on-prem environments. Own the full platform lifecycle—architecture, build, certification, integration, deployment, and ongoing operations—while integrating third-party security technologies and ensuring reliability, scalability, and compliance. Cloud-native engineering expertise is essential and non-negotiable.

Key Responsibilities:
- Architect, build, harden, and operate a hybrid AI-assisted penetration testing platform across AWS/Azure (Google Cloud Platform a plus) and on-prem infrastructure
- Integrate, orchestrate, and automate third-party security tools (SAST/DAST/SCA, vuln scanners, fuzzers, red-team tooling) and AI/ML-assisted capabilities for discovery, prioritization, and triage
- Implement infrastructure as code, configuration management, and CI/CD for repeatable, auditable deployments (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, GitHub Actions/Jenkins/GitLab)
- Containerize and operate workloads on Kubernetes; manage networking, policy, and image scanning at scale
- Develop APIs, workflows, and event-driven automations to run campaigns, schedule tests, and integrate with SIEM/SOAR, ticketing (Jira/ServiceNow), and collaboration tools
- Enforce platform security: RBAC/ABAC, secrets management, PKI/KMS, data encryption, network segmentation, zero trust controls
- Establish SLOs; implement monitoring/observability, logging, capacity planning, and cost optimization; lead incident response and root-cause analysis for platform issues
- Partner with Red Team, AppSec, Cloud, and Compliance to define test strategies, threat models, and operational runbooks; support audits and control evidence
- Manage vendor relationships, product evaluations, certification, and upgrades for third-party platforms

Required Qualifications:
- 7+ years of hands-on, closely related experience in penetration testing and/or enterprise security platform engineering (education, bootcamps, and certifications do not count toward the 7+ years)
- Strong cloud-native engineering experience in AWS and/or Azure (Google Cloud Platform a plus): VPC/VNet design, IAM, KMS, security groups/NSGs, load balancing, networking
- Expert-level Linux and networking (TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, proxies, firewalls); strong scripting/automation (Python, Bash; Go a plus)
- Proficiency with offensive security tooling and techniques: Burp Suite, Nmap, Metasploit, Cobalt Strike/Brute Ratel, fuzzers, Kali; enterprise vuln management (Tenable/Qualys); SAST/DAST/SCA; API and cloud pentesting
- Proven experience integrating and operating third-party security platforms at scale via APIs/webhooks; building resilient, automated pipelines
- Containerization/orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) with image scanning, policy enforcement (e.g., OPA/Gatekeeper), and secure supply chain
- IaC and configuration management (Terraform, Ansible/CloudFormation) and CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins); GitOps practices
- Security architecture and hardening; secrets management (e.g., HashiCorp Vault); zero trust; PKI and cert management
- Demonstrated ownership of platform SLAs, on-call participation, and production change management
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management across security, engineering, and compliance teams

Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in a technical field (distinct from work experience)
- Experience in Banking and Capital Markets or broader financial services; familiarity with relevant regulatory frameworks (e.g., SOX, PCI, FFIEC, NYDFS, SOC 2, ISO 27001)
- Experience applying AI/ML to security testing (LLM-assisted payload generation, deduplication/prioritization, vector stores, prompt safety/governance)
- SIEM/SOAR and EDR/XDR integrations (e.g., Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar, Chronicle; Cortex XSOAR, Palo Alto/XDR, CrowdStrike)
- Data protection: DLP, tokenization, HSMs, KMS
- Recognized certifications (OSCP, OSCE, OSEP, GPEN, GXPN, GWAPT, CRTO, CCSK, AWS/Azure security), valued but not a substitute for required experience

Work Model:
- Hybrid attendance required: 3 days/week onsite at one of the listed client offices (candidate’s choice)

Contract Term:
- Minimum 6 months with strong potential for extension based on performance and business needs