Security & Compliance Topics
Governance, compliance frameworks, regulatory requirements, compliance implementation, and compliance-driven risk management. Covers compliance frameworks (SOX, GDPR, HIPAA, FCPA, etc.), regulatory interpretation, compliance control design, audit and control effectiveness evaluation, and compliance process management. For operational security implementation and technical threat mitigation, see Security Engineering & Operations.
Regulatory Frameworks and Standards
Thorough knowledge of the major regulatory, privacy, and security frameworks and standards that organizations use to define controls and demonstrate conformance. Candidates should be able to explain the purpose, scope, and typical control categories of frameworks such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology cybersecurity framework and related publications, International Organization for Standardization 27001 for information security management and International Organization for Standardization 27701 for privacy management, Service Organization Controls type two, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act and the California Privacy Rights Act, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies, and the Center for Internet Security critical controls. Interviewers may probe the difference between mandatory regulation and voluntary standards, prescriptive versus principles based approaches, how frameworks map to business risk drivers, how to map controls across multiple frameworks, and how audit assessment and certification processes operate in practice. Candidates should also be able to describe common gaps, typical remediation strategies, and how to build evidence and documentation to support audits and assessments.
NIST Framework Alignment
Demonstrate the ability to map penetration testing findings into the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework functions, categories, and subcategories, and to translate technical issues into controls language that governance and risk teams use. Cover how to align test results with framework objectives for identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover, how to prioritize remediation based on framework outcomes, and how to produce artifacts and executive summaries that integrate with risk and compliance processes. Also discuss crosswalks between the framework and remediation planning and how testing can be used to measure program maturity.
Organizational Security Challenges and Strategy
Evaluate and articulate the security risks, maturity, and strategic priorities an organization faces, and explain how the security function and this role would address them. Topics include threat landscape assessment, security program maturity, incident response and penetration testing roles, executive alignment and resourcing, trade offs between usability and security, compliance and regulatory implications, risk prioritization, and practical mitigation approaches tailored to the organization size and business model. Interviewers look for evidence of company-specific research, an understanding of how security integrates with product and engineering teams, and actionable recommendations for near term and longer term improvements.
Security Culture and Awareness
Covers strategies and practice for creating and sustaining a security minded organization where security is a shared responsibility. Topics include designing and running awareness programs and campaigns, embedding secure practices into the software development life cycle and daily workflows, translating policies into observable behaviors, and fostering psychological safety so people raise concerns and report issues. Includes practical initiatives such as role based training, phishing simulations, tabletop exercises, onboarding flows, manager and executive engagement, incentives and recognition programs, and tooling or process changes that make secure choices easier. Also covers measurement and evaluation approaches such as baseline and follow up surveys, behavior and compliance metrics, incident trends, adoption rates, training completion, and return on investment calculations, plus change management techniques used to drive sustained behavior change across teams and business units.
Compliance and Data Protection Regulations
Understanding of regulatory requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, CCPA, PCI-DSS), implementing controls to meet compliance obligations, data retention policies, audit requirements, and working with compliance and legal teams.
Responsible Disclosure and Ethics
Evaluate understanding of ethical hacking principles and responsible vulnerability disclosure practices, including coordinated disclosure processes, safety and legal constraints, and how to avoid causing undue harm during testing. Candidates should be able to explain how they would handle sensitive data, interact with vendors or stakeholders, participate in disclosure programs, and prioritize safe proof of concept demonstrations versus full exploit execution.
Communicating Security to Stakeholders
Ability to translate security concepts, findings, incidents, and trade offs into business language for non technical audiences. This includes presenting security risks and threat models in terms of business impact, explaining severity and likelihood, recommending mitigations and investments, and persuading executives or other stakeholders to prioritize security actions. Candidates should show how they remove technical jargon, frame trade offs between security functionality and cost, and communicate incident details, remediation steps, and residual risk clearly.
Security Strategy and Roadmap
Covers the candidate ability to define, articulate, and operationalize an enterprise security strategy, long term vision, and multi year roadmap. Core skills include setting security goals and risk tolerance, aligning security priorities with broader business objectives and product roadmaps, designing governance and accountability models, and defining metrics and key performance indicators to measure security outcomes. Candidates should be able to translate high level principles into concrete programs, controls, processes, and team structures, and to justify prioritization and sequencing of investments across tooling, process, and people while balancing security rigor with development velocity and user experience. Interviewers may probe how the candidate engaged executives, engineering teams, product managers, legal and compliance partners, and boards; how they secured funding and sponsorship; and examples of initiatives, decisions, and measurable impact driven by the security vision. The scope also includes forward looking program evolution such as how penetration testing and security assessment practices are changing with artificial intelligence and machine learning, adoption of zero trust architectures and serverless platforms, and long term considerations such as quantum computing. Emphasis is on strategic trade offs between immediate operational threats and multi year maturity planning, vendor and tooling selection, resource and capability building, and positioning security as an enabling function rather than a blocker.
Security Privacy and Compliance
Comprehensive knowledge of security policy, privacy principles, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations across the system lifecycle. Candidates should be able to discuss security governance and policy creation, rules of engagement for testing, authorized scope and documentation requirements for penetration testing, and the ethical and legal boundaries of security research. Understand incident response procedures when vulnerabilities are discovered and how security testing and controls support audits. Be familiar with major compliance frameworks and laws such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Service Organization Control Two, General Data Protection Regulation, and California Consumer Privacy Act, and how to map controls to requirements. Technical skills include security architecture principles, authentication and authorization patterns, encryption strategies for data in transit and data at rest, key management and secrets management, secure design and privacy by design, data governance and minimization, threat modeling and risk assessment, vulnerability management, logging and monitoring, and how to evolve security posture as systems scale. Candidates should also be able to explain operational practices for secure deployment, secure configuration, trade offs between security and usability, and how to measure and improve compliance over time.