Position: Senior Security Consultant

7-9+ years experience

Full-time onsite

Initial 1 year

Location: Muscat

1. Job description (JD)

The Senior Security Consultant will conduct penetration testing and security assessments for business projects and change requests deployed in pre-production and production environments. The consultant will assess applications, APIs, infrastructure, networks, containers and Kubernetes environments; identify vulnerabilities and security risks; recommend remediation; validate corrective actions; and support compliance with banking security standards and regulatory requirements.

Key responsibilities

• Perform web, mobile, API, network, container and Kubernetes penetration testing.
• Conduct Istio service mesh security assessments.
• Review operating systems, databases, firewalls and network-device configurations.
• Assess security architecture, configurations, vulnerabilities and associated risks.
• Conduct threat modelling, security assessments and risk workshops.
• Coordinate internal and external penetration-testing vendors, including test planning, access coordination, findings validation, remediation tracking and retesting.
• Support security tool proof-of-concept (POC) activities and evaluate their effectiveness.
• Prepare technical assessment reports, executive summaries, risk ratings and remediation recommendations.
• Engage with application development, infrastructure, cloud and Information Security teams.
• Track remediation activities and validate closure of identified security findings.

2. Mandatory technical skills

Skill area

Required expertise

Web application security

Grey-box penetration testing; OWASP Top 10; SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, SSRF, IDOR, authentication and session-management weaknesses, business logic flaws

Mobile application security

Android and iOS penetration testing; secure storage and communication; certificate pinning; reverse engineering; root/jailbreak detection; OWASP Mobile Top 10

API and microservices security

API Gateway testing, JWT, authentication and authorisation, rate limiting, mTLS, BOLA, excessive data exposure and business logic bypass

Container and Kubernetes security

Cluster, worker-node, control-plane, namespace and workload assessments; RBAC, privilege escalation, container escape, image security and hardening

Istio service mesh

mTLS, authentication and authorisation policies, ingress/egress gateways, service-to-service security and observability

Network penetration testing

Internal/external network attacks, firewalls, load balancers, exposed services, ingress points, cloud workloads and network devices

Configuration reviews

Linux, Windows, database servers, middleware, firewalls, ACLs, VPNs, IDS/IPS, network segmentation, logging and administrative access

Security assessment and risk

Threat modelling, vulnerability validation, risk rating, remediation recommendations, risk workshops and reporting

Penetration-test vendor management

Scoping, test planning, access coordination, findings validation, remediation tracking, retesting and reporting

3. Experience requirements

• Overall experience: 79+ years in cybersecurity, penetration testing and security assessments.
• Proven experience in Banking and Financial Services (BFSI), digital banking, mobile banking and payment systems.
• Exposure to SWIFT, RTGS, PCI DSS, API security assessments and regulatory compliance reviews.
• Hands-on experience with banking applications, payment platforms, digital banking systems and their business logic.
• Experience in internal and external penetration testing, security reporting, risk workshops and POCs.

4. Qualifications and certifications

Graduate with following industry certifications are highly preferred:

• OSCP Offensive Security Certified Professional
• OSEP Offensive Security Experienced Penetration Tester
• OSWE Offensive Security Web Expert
• CREST certifications
• CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional
• CISM Certified Information Security Manager
• CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional
• CCSK Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
• GWAPT GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester
• GPEN GIAC Penetration Tester
• CKS Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
• Equivalent relevant industry certifications

Desired Candidate Profile

• OSCP Offensive Security Certified Professional
• OSEP Offensive Security Experienced Penetration Tester
• OSWE Offensive Security Web Expert
• CREST certifications
• CISSP Certified Information Systems Security Professional
• CISM Certified Information Security Manager
• CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional
• CCSK Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
• GWAPT GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester
• GPEN GIAC Penetration Tester
• CKS Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
• Equivalent relevant industry certifications