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Resume template

Security engineer resume template

This security engineer resume template is ATS-safe through standard headings, clear contact details, simple bullets, and quantified outcomes. It is role-specific by naming application security, threat modelling, IAM, vulnerability management, cloud security, detection engineering, incident response, and secure development work.

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Sample resume

Single-column, plain-text structure with standard headings and quantified bullets.

The person, employers, and figures in this sample are illustrative, written to show the format.

Nina Patel

nina.patel@example.com+44 20 7946 0136linkedin.com/in/ninapatelgithub.com/ninapatel

Summary

Security engineer with 8 years protecting web applications, cloud infrastructure, and identity systems.

Experienced in application security reviews, threat modelling, vulnerability management, IAM, secure SDLC, incident response, and developer enablement.

Experience

Senior Security Engineer

CivicCloud | London, UK | February 2021 - Present

  • Lead application security reviews for 24 product teams shipping citizen-facing digital services.
  • Built threat modelling programme that covered 78 high-risk services and reduced late-stage security findings by 44%.
  • Implemented SAST, dependency scanning, and secret scanning in CI, blocking 320 high-risk issues before production.
  • Designed AWS IAM guardrails and least-privilege patterns that reduced admin access by 63%.
  • Mentor engineers through secure design reviews, vulnerability triage, and incident follow-up.

Security Engineer

FinGate | Manchester, UK | June 2017 - January 2021

  • Managed vulnerability triage for payment systems, reducing critical remediation SLA misses from 18% to 3%.
  • Built detection rules for credential stuffing, account takeover, and suspicious API usage.
  • Led OAuth and SSO hardening across 9 customer-facing applications.
  • Investigated security incidents with logs, packet captures, endpoint telemetry, and post-incident actions.

Application Security Analyst

SecureNorth | York, UK | September 2015 - May 2017

  • Performed web application testing across OWASP Top 10 risks for finance and retail clients.
  • Wrote remediation guidance that helped engineering teams close 86% of high findings within 30 days.
  • Automated report generation and evidence capture, saving consultants 12 hours per engagement.
  • Delivered secure coding workshops to 140 developers across JavaScript, Java, and Python stacks.

Skills

Security

Application security, Threat modelling, OWASP Top 10, Vulnerability management

Cloud

AWS IAM, Kubernetes security, Container scanning, Terraform

Detection

SIEM, Sigma, CloudTrail, EDR, Incident response

Tools

Burp Suite, Semgrep, Snyk, GitHub Advanced Security, Splunk

Education

  • BSc Cyber Security, Lancaster University
  • CISSP, AWS Security Specialty

Adapting this template for Security engineer applications

Choose your security lane before adapting anything, because this field screens by specialism. An analyst moving up should keep testing bullets like the OWASP work in the SecureNorth role and add evidence of fixing, not just finding, since the remediation-closure figure there is what separates consultants from engineers. Senior applicants should lead with programme-scale bullets: secure design reviews across many teams, CI scanning that blocks issues before production, and IAM guardrails, because seniority in security means multiplying the safety of other people's work.

Security screeners look first for domain vocabulary matched to the posting: AppSec terms for product security roles, SIEM and detection terms for operations roles, IAM and cloud terms for platform roles. This template spreads all four skill groups so each lane surfaces, but your bullets should concentrate on the lane the job describes. The second look is for developer empathy, which is why the sample includes remediation guidance, secure coding workshops, and mentoring; teams reject security candidates who read as pure gatekeepers.

Common filters: tool-scan output presented as personal achievement, with finding counts but no closure rates; fear-based language about breaches instead of measured risk reduction; and certifications doing all the work while bullets stay vague. Certifications open doors in this field more than most, but reviewers still expect each role to show a system made measurably safer, the way this sample tracks SLA misses falling and privileged access shrinking.

ATS notes for Security engineer

  • Use security keywords literally, including AppSec, threat modelling, OWASP Top 10, IAM, SAST, and vulnerability management.
  • Quantify risk reduction with critical findings closed, SLA misses, privileged access reduction, and incident volume.
  • Mention cloud and identity terms when targeting product security or cloud security roles.
  • Avoid decorative risk matrices or logos because ATS tools cannot reliably parse image content.
  • Separate security domains in Skills so application, cloud, detection, and tooling keywords all surface.

Security engineer resume questions

How much do certifications like CISSP matter on a security resume?

More than in most engineering disciplines, because compliance-driven hiring often filters on them, so list relevant ones in Education as this template does. They get you screened in, not hired. Pair every certification with bullets showing applied outcomes, such as findings closed within SLA or admin access reduced, or interviews will expose the gap.

Offensive or defensive experience: which should I emphasise?

Mirror the role. Product security postings reward the build-side story: reviews, CI scanning, secure design guidance. Detection and response postings reward hunting, rules, and incident work. This sample shows both but weights the current role toward enablement. If you only have offensive experience, add a line showing your findings actually got fixed.

How do I quantify security work when success means nothing happened?

Measure the leading indicators instead of absent breaches. This template counts issues blocked in CI before production, remediation SLA misses reduced, admin access cut, and workshop attendance. Each proves the machinery of prevention improved on your watch. Never invent prevented-attack numbers; experienced reviewers treat unverifiable claims as a negative signal in this field especially.

Continue your prep

Security engineer interview questions

Practise the security engineer questions recruiters use to test role knowledge, judgement, and depth.

ATS resume checker

Paste this resume into the free checker to see how an applicant tracking system parses your headings, dates, and keywords.