Application Security Engineer

At Ardent, we hire people who want more than a job — they want to serve a mission that matters. Our teams support the federal government’s most critical national security and defense priorities, helping protect the nation, strengthen resilience, and advance the technologies and capabilities that keep America secure. For veterans, cleared professionals, and purpose-driven innovators, Ardent is a place to continue serving alongside a team that understands the importance of the mission and the people behind it.

We also know top talent has choices, which is why we back our mission with benefits and flexibility that stand out: competitive pay, comprehensive health coverage, flexible PTO, federal holidays off, tuition reimbursement, professional development support, wellness stipends, and a culture that values and rewards hard work, dedication, and adaptability. If you want to build something meaningful, while enjoying the kind of flexibility and support that you need to do your best work — Ardent is where your next mission begins.

Ardent is seeking an Application Security Engineer to join our team.  

This is a remote position.

Position Description:

Ardent is seeking an Application Security Engineer to join the team. The Application Security Engineer supports application security assessment, vulnerability management, DevSecOps enablement, and secure reference implementation activities across USCIS systems and delivery environments. This role works closely with development, security, platform, and operations teams to identify application security risks, support remediation, validate fixes, improve security automation, and maintain consistent security practices throughout the application lifecycle. The position also supports the development of proof-of-concept reference implementations and utility applications that demonstrate secure design patterns, integrate with DevSecOps tools, and help bridge process and technology gaps between development and security teams.

Responsibilities and Duties:

1. Perform application security testing and vulnerability assessments
   • Conduct application security testing using approved tools, processes, and techniques.
   • Assess web applications, APIs, services, containers, dependencies, and delivery environments for security weaknesses.
2. Support automated security scanning
   • Support automated scanning of applications, APIs, services, software dependencies, containers, and CI/CD pipelines.
   • Assist with configuring and maintaining security scanning tools used during development, build, test, release, and runtime activities.
3. Document, track, and validate vulnerabilities
   • Document, triage, track, and validate vulnerabilities and security findings through remediation and closure.
   • Maintain accurate vulnerability status, remediation evidence, and closure documentation.
4. Assist development teams with secure coding and remediation
   • Provide technical guidance to development teams on secure coding practices and remediation of identified weaknesses.
   • Help teams understand scan results, vulnerable dependency reports, policy violations, and recommended fixes.
5. Support DevSecOps tool integration and automation
   • Support integration and operation of security tools and controls within CI/CD pipelines.
   • Help implement automated security gates, policy enforcement, and reporting workflows.
   • Integrate DevSecOps tools through APIs to improve visibility, automation, and operational efficiency.
6. Develop proof-of-concept secure reference implementations
   • Design and develop proof-of-concept sample applications using common technology stacks to demonstrate application security best practices.
   • Build reference examples that illustrate secure authentication, authorization, logging, dependency management, secrets handling, containerization, API security, and secure CI/CD workflows.
   • Maintain reusable patterns and examples that development teams can reference when implementing security controls.
7. Ideate and develop security utility applications
   • Identify process and technology gaps between development and security teams.
   • Design and develop utility applications, scripts, dashboards, integrations, or automation workflows that improve vulnerability management, reporting, remediation tracking, tool interoperability, and DevSecOps operations.
   • Integrate with security, development, repository, observability, and CI/CD tools through available API interfaces.
8. Monitor compliance with application security standards
   • Monitor security findings and alignment with established application security standards and controls.
   • Support security improvement initiatives aligned to Zero Trust principles and applicable NIST, CISA, and CIS security frameworks.
9. Collect metrics, evidence, and reporting data
   • Collect and maintain security assessment data, scan results, vulnerability evidence, remediation status, and operational metrics.
   • Support reporting for continuous monitoring, vulnerability reduction, and application security improvement initiatives.
10. Support DevSecOps and vulnerability reduction initiatives
    • Support enterprise DevSecOps, vulnerability reduction, secure software development, and application security modernization efforts across USCIS programs.

Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum of 4 years of professional IT experience, plus 4 years of experience supporting application security, cybersecurity, DevSecOps, or closely related subject matter requirements.
• Advanced technical knowledge of application security technologies, specialized applications, and operational environments.
• Experience performing technical and functional analysis, system integration, implementation, documentation, and technical guidance for complex application security or DevSecOps initiatives.
• Experience with application security testing and vulnerability assessment.
• Experience with secure coding practices and providing remediation guidance to development teams.
• Experience with static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), software composition analysis (SCA), container scanning, and dependency security.
• Experience integrating security controls and tools into CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps workflows.
• Experience developing proof-of-concept applications, secure reference implementations, utility applications, scripts, dashboards, or API-based integrations.
• Experience with vulnerability management workflows, including triage, documentation, remediation tracking, validation, and closure.
• Knowledge of application security frameworks and guidance, including Zero Trust, NIST, CISA, CIS, OWASP, and secure software development lifecycle practices.
• Experience working collaboratively with development, security, platform, operations, and other technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

The ideal candidate can:

• Review and interpret security scan results from tools such as SonarQube, Nexus IQ, Checkmarx, and Twistlock.
• Configure and support Nexus Repository Firewall policies and dependency blocking workflows.
• Analyze CVEs, CVSS scores, vulnerable dependency paths, and recommended component versions.
• Build simple proof-of-concept applications in common technology stacks such as Java/Spring Boot, Node.js, Python, Ruby, or .NET.
• Create automation scripts or utility applications using APIs from DevSecOps tools.
• Develop integrations that collect, normalize, and report security findings from multiple tools.
• Support Kubernetes and container security practices.
• Use Splunk and New Relic data to support application security monitoring and operational visibility.
• Work with Harness or similar CI/CD platforms to support security scanning and deployment controls.
• Translate security framework requirements into practical application security practices.

Due to the nature of the work we support, all candidates in consideration for this role must be willing to undergo the government issued background investigation process. We highly encourage all Veterans and those with disabilities to apply.

Ardent is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other basis protected by state, local, or federal law.