Cybersecurity Assurance Testing Lead

Lead, Cyber Security Assurance Testing

The Lead, Cyber Security Assurance Testing is a working‑lead / “player‑coach role” within Guardian’s Cybersecurity Assurance organization. This role includes formal people management responsibility for a small number of senior engineers, with a focus on operational and tactical planning ,execution, and reporting, contributing to strategic planning, and accountable for project and program outcomes.

The role is structured roughly as:

~60% leadership, coordination, and program execution

~40% hands‑on technical contribution and research

This position leads through influence, technical credibility, and ownership. It is designed for an experienced security professional who demonstrates ambition, strong execution discipline, and the potential to grow into broader leadership over time, while remaining close to the work today. The role supports and helps evolve Guardian’s Application Security Testing, Ethical Hacking (Red Team), and Third‑Party Testing programs, working closely with Cyber Defense, application owners, and Guardian India Security Assurance.

Key Responsibilities

Lead and coordinate day‑to‑day execution of:

• Application Security Testing
• Ethical Hacking / Red Team activities
• Third‑party penetration testing engagements
• Lead the Improvement and evolution of AppSec and Red Team programs, increasing consistency, structure, and measurable outcomes.
• Own and maintain processes, procedures, playbooks, and documentation to ensure clarity, repeatability, and quality.
• Contribute to and execute against program planning artifacts, including Roadmaps, backlogs, and quarterly and annual goals
• Coordinate work across US And India Based assurance staff and third party testing vendors.
• Remain actively involved in application security testing and ethical hacking, providing technical guidance and quality assurance

Participate selectively in:

• Targeted application security testing
• Rating & Validation of high‑risk or high‑impact findings
• Red‑team or adversarial exercises where appropriate

Provide technical review and direction:

• Support security product evaluation, selection, proof‑of‑concepts, and implementation, ensuring tools are operationalized effectively.
• Communicate technical findings clearly and simply to non‑technical stakeholders.
• Translate testing results into risk‑based, actionable insights.
• Collaborate closely with Cyber Defense, application teams, and security stakeholders to ensure testing results lead to defensive improvements and remediation.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in application security testing, ethical hacking, or offensive security, with demonstrated leadership responsibility.
• Strong understanding of:
• Application security testing techniques
• Penetration testing vs. red team objectives
• Secure SDLC and risk-based testing
• Hands on technical experience validating vulnerabilities and testing application security controls.
• Experience improving or evolving existing security programs, rather than only building from scratch.
• Strong process orientation with proven ability to create practical, lightweight documentation.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical concepts in simple, business relevant terms.
• Demonstrated ambition and intent to grow into broader leadership scope over time.
• Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent experience/certifications.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services or other large, regulated enterprise environments.
• Exposure to cloud‑native application security and modern CI/CD environments.
• Experience working with globally distributed teams (e.g., US and India).
• Familiarity with AppSec and Offensive Security tools.

Location

• Three days a week at our Guardian office in New York, NY or Bethlehem, PA

Salary Range:

The salary range reflected above is a good faith estimate of base pay for the primary location of the position. The salary for this position ultimately will be determined based on the education, experience, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate. In addition to salary, this role may also be eligible for annual, sales, or other incentive compensation.

Our Promise

At Guardian, you’ll have the support and flexibility to achieve your professional and personal goals.  Through skill-building, leadership development and philanthropic opportunities, we provide opportunities to build communities and grow your career, surrounded by diverse colleagues with high ethical standards.

Inspire Well-Being

As part of Guardian’s Purpose – to inspire well-being – we are committed to offering contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources to our colleagues. Explore our company benefits at www.guardianlife.com/careers/corporate/benefits. Benefits apply to full-time eligible employees. Interns are not eligible for most Company benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardian is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, creed, religion, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, marital status, disability, military or veteran status, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

Accommodations

Guardian is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Guardian also provides reasonable accommodations to qualified job applicants (and employees) to accommodate the individual's known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected]. Please note: this resource is for accommodation requests only. For all other inquires related to your application and careers at Guardian, refer to the Guardian Careers site.

Visa Sponsorship

Guardian is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment visas. In order to be a successful applicant. you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship.

Notice Regarding Guardian’s Use of Artificial Intelligence in Recruitment

As part of Guardian’s job application process, Guardian may use artificial intelligence tools (“AI Tools") to automate the sorting and filtering of information provided by applicants as part of its preliminary screening. This preliminary screening may be used to help identify applicant materials and resumes relative to their indication that the applicant meets the requirements for the specific job for which they are applying, as specified in the listing posted on Guardian’s jobs website (Careers at Guardian at https://www.guardianlife.com/careers). At Guardian, we do not use AI Tools to substantially assist or replace human judgment or discretionary decision making in our hiring process. All hiring decisions will be made by Guardian colleagues.

Please be aware that if you apply for a specific position with Guardian, you will have the choice of opting out of Guardian’s use of AI Tools during the job application process. If you would like to request an alternative process that does not utilize AI Tools or would like to request a reasonable accommodation, within ten business days of your position application, you must email your request to [email protected], making sure to provide your name and job requisition identification number. Guardian will retain your applicant materials and resume and all information therefrom in accordance with Guardian’s document retention policy, a copy of which you may request via [email protected].

Additionally, at applicable times, Guardian will make public the most recent bias audit results for such AI tools, which may be found here. 

Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday.