WAF & Application Security SME

Role Title: WAF & Application Security SME
Location: Birmingham B1 1HQ (Hybrid 60% office/40% home - 3 days in the office is mandatory)
Start Date: 15/09/2025
End Date: 15/09/2026
Rate: £495p/d via Umbrella

Job Description:

This role will play a critical role in enhancing our Web Application Firewall (WAF) across multiple solutions and applications and will be pivotal in crafting, testing, and implementing advanced WAF uplifts.
This role involves a strong focus on WAF Effiacy and security posture uplift by crafting efficacy testing custom rules and configurations; additionally, the role will cover WAF tuning via detailed log analysis, false positive detection and mitigation, and making tuning and configuration recommendations. The ideal candidate will have experience in SOC or CSIRT and AppSec or Ethical Hacking for in-depth log analysis and have previously worked with at least three major WAF vendors such as Akamai, F5, AWS, GCP, etc.
The successful candidate will help defend the organization and its customers from web-based attacks that could cause substantial harm to the company's operations, reputation, and customers and monitor and review tuning request, proactively assist with identifying false positives and provide expert recommendations and stay updated with the latest web security threats and trends to ensure optimal protection and performance.

Candidate Profile Summary:
The primary role is to tune WAF accurately and safely - avoiding outage and bypass.
We are not looking for Engineers that only list WAF as a past experience

We are looking for people with:

• SOC/Threat/Forensics or CSIRT backgrounds - very experienced with analysing security logs to quickly ascertain TP/FP conviction and the techniques to except
• Ideally some AppSec/DevSecOps or Ethical Hacking experience - with a good understanding of Web Application attacks and security; they must be familiar with the OWASP Top 10
• If they have Security Engineering skills too, this a bonus

Key Responsibilities:

• Identification and crafting of complex custom WAF rules & features to mitigate MVP and security posture gaps.
• Crafting efficacy testing for baseline & custom rules and features and integrating testing in the automation pipelines.
• Providing SME support for other security testing such as WAF PoCs, new features and solutions - with a potential cost saving if we use in-house resource instead of 3rd party vendors.
• Providing WAF focused SME support and advice on Web & API based attack methodologies, evasions and mitigation techniques.
• Providing DevSecOps SME & pipeline build support for the automation works
• Monitor and review all tuning requests.
• Conduct detailed log analysis to identify false positives and optimize WAF rules for improved accuracy and performance.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for WAF tuning, tuning procedures, policies, and configurations.
• Develop, test, and recommend WAF policies and rules tailored to specific applications and environments.
• Proactively assist with identifying false positives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of WAF solutions into existing security infrastructure.
• Provide recommendations for WAF configuration based on best practices and security requirements.
• Perform regular assessments and audits of WAF configurations to ensure optimal security posture and compliance with industry standards.
• Stay updated with the latest web security threats, vulnerabilities, and trends to continually enhance WAF effectiveness.

Ideal Candidate Profile:

• Extensive experience in WAF management, tuning, and engineering, with a strong understanding of web application security principles.
• Proven track record of proactively identifying and mitigating false positives to optimize WAF performance.
• Background in SOC or CSIRT and AppSec or Ethical Hacking, demonstrating hands-on experience for the key responsibilities.
• Proficiency in log analysis tools and techniques, with the ability to identify patterns and anomalies in web traffic.
• Experience with tools such as Splunk, Wireshark, or custom scripts to process and analyze logs.
• Experience with at least three major WAF solutions (eg, Akamai, F5, AWS, GCP) and an understanding of their unique configurations and capabilities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a keen attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating complex security concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to develop, test, and recommend WAF policies and rules tailored to specific applications and environments.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams to integrate WAF solutions into existing security infrastructure.
• Competence in maintaining comprehensive documentation for WAF tuning procedures, policies, and configurations.
• Extensive experience in configuring WAF solutions to align with best practices and security requirements.
• A proactive, detail-oriented individual who thrives in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and stays updated with the latest web security threats and trends.