Principal Application Security Engineer (SAST, AI)

About the role

A leading technology organisation in Abu Dhabi is looking for a Principal Application Security Engineer to lead its application security programme. This is a hands-on leadership role focused on embedding secure software development practices across engineering teams while driving the adoption of modern application security and AI-powered security capabilities.

Key responsibilities

• Lead and mature the application security programme across software engineering teams.
• Own and manage SAST platforms, policies and processes.
• Drive secure code practices throughout the SDLC and manage source repository security, including controls across code repositories and development pipelines.
• Oversee vulnerability management activities.
• Establish application security standards, frameworks and governance across development teams.
• Partner with engineering leaders to build security capabilities and embed security-by-design principles.
• Introduce AI-assisted application security to improve vulnerability detection, code review and remediation efficiency.
• Drive adoption of security tooling, metrics and reporting to improve the software security posture.
• Provide subject matter expertise on secure architecture, secure development practices and application security controls.

Required profile

• 7+ years of experience in software engineering, including 3+ years in a dedicated application security role.
• Hands-on experience with SAST, dependency scanning, vulnerability management and secure SDLC practices.
• Strong experience securing source code repositories and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with cloud-native application security, container security and DevSecOps.
• Experience evaluating and implementing AI-driven security tooling and managing risks around AI-generated code and coding assistants.

Required skills

• Proficiency in at least two of: Python, Java, Go or TypeScript.
• SAST, dependency scanning, CI/CD pipeline security and DevSecOps.

What we offer

• The opportunity to lead and shape a modern application security function within a growing organisation.
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI security initiatives and secure software engineering practices.