Defines organizational algorithmic strategy for security testing: enterprise scanning optimization standards, cross-team fuzzing algorithm governance, security testing computational efficiency frameworks. Makes strategic decisions on security testing infrastructure and tooling investments.
Roles · Penetration Testing Engineer · Principal
What a Principal } should know
35 core skills, 50 in total. Expectations per skill, and what changes at the next level.
This page lists what a Principal } is expected to know and do, skill by skill. Core skills are the ones a manager and peers assess in a review cycle; the rest count only in self-assessment. Main areas: Programming Fundamentals, API & Integration, Cloud & Infrastructure.
Core skills for a Principal
Grouped by area. The label on the right is the expected depth: Awareness, Working, Advanced or Expert.
Programming Fundamentals · 6
Defines organizational async strategy for security testing: enterprise concurrent scanning standards, cross-team async security tool governance, async maturity model for security assessment. Makes strategic decisions on async infrastructure for security testing at scale.
Defines organizational code quality strategy for security testing: penetration testing methodology standards, cross-team security tooling governance, exploit code ethics and safety frameworks. Makes decisions on security tool investments and shapes organization-wide offensive security practices.
Defines organizational data structure strategy for security testing: enterprise vulnerability data governance, cross-team security finding correlation standards, threat modeling data frameworks. Makes strategic decisions on security data platform investments.
Defines organizational multithreading strategy for offensive security: evaluates enterprise approaches to concurrent assessment tooling, makes technology decisions on parallel scanning and exploitation frameworks, mentors leads on high-performance concurrent offensive security architectures.
Defines organizational OOP strategy for security testing: enterprise exploit framework architecture standards, cross-team scanner plugin governance, security tool class design maturity model. Makes strategic decisions on security tooling architecture investments.
API & Integration · 5
Shapes the organization's API security testing vision and long-term strategy. Pioneers adoption of AI-augmented API fuzzing, runtime API threat detection, and zero-trust API architectures. Publishes research on novel API attack techniques and contributes to industry standards (OWASP API Security). Advises executive leadership on API risk posture across the product portfolio and drives strategic security investments.
Defines organizational GraphQL security strategy spanning all API surfaces. Designs enterprise-grade GraphQL security frameworks including automated vulnerability detection, query cost enforcement, and zero-trust authorization patterns. Establishes GraphQL security governance standards and certification processes for production deployments.
Defines the organization's API strategy. Designs platform API. Establishes enterprise API governance and standards.
Defines organizational API security testing strategy: enterprise API penetration testing standards, cross-team API security governance, security testing infrastructure investment decisions. Designs enterprise-grade API security testing architecture.
Defines enterprise security strategy for real-time communication infrastructure. Shapes organizational capabilities for WebSocket and streaming protocol security assessment. Drives adoption of continuous security validation for real-time communication systems. Coordinates with industry on emerging WebSocket security threats and countermeasures.
Cloud & Infrastructure · 4
Shapes enterprise container offensive security strategy and threat intelligence program. Drives adoption of advanced container security testing methodologies across the organization. Defines container threat landscape analysis and risk assessment frameworks.
Defines organizational container strategy for security testing: enterprise pentest lab standards, cross-team security testing infrastructure governance, container security assessment frameworks. Designs enterprise-grade container infrastructure for security testing and evaluates security tooling investments.
Defines organizational network security strategy spanning enterprise, cloud, and edge network environments. Evaluates multi-layered network defense architectures and designs enterprise-grade red team network assessment programs. Establishes FinOps practices for security infrastructure balancing protection investment with threat landscape analysis.
Defines the organization's cloud strategy. Evaluates multi-cloud vs single-cloud. Designs enterprise-grade infrastructure. Establishes FinOps practices.
Testing & QA · 1
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy. Shapes organizational red team capabilities and continuous security validation programs. Drives adoption of adversary simulation and breach-and-attack simulation (BAS) platforms. Coordinates with industry on emerging threats and offensive security research. Represents the organization in security conferences and standards bodies.
Security · 13
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy for cloud environments across all major providers. Shapes red team architecture and advanced cloud exploitation research programs. Coordinates compliance of penetration testing practices with regulatory frameworks and represents the organization in offensive security communities and conferences.
Defines the organizational strategy for integrating dependency scanning intelligence into offensive security programs at enterprise scale. Shapes the architecture for correlating SCA, SBOM, and threat intelligence data to prioritize penetration testing engagements across business units. Coordinates compliance-driven supply chain security assessments aligned with NIST SSDF, SLSA, and EU CRA requirements. Represents the organization in security communities, contributing to industry standards for supply chain attack simulation and SCA-driven red teaming.
Defines enterprise-wide offensive security forensic standards that align with legal and regulatory frameworks. Shapes the industry approach to forensic-integrated penetration testing. Advises executive leadership on forensic capabilities required for advanced threat simulation and incident preparedness.
Shapes enterprise security posture by aligning offensive testing programs with incident response maturity models. Drives industry-level contributions to attack simulation frameworks and adversary emulation standards. Advises executive leadership on threat landscape trends and organizational readiness for advanced persistent threats.
Defines enterprise security testing strategy for identity and authentication infrastructure. Shapes organizational red team capabilities for authentication system assessment. Drives adoption of continuous authentication security validation across all products. Coordinates with identity vendors and standards bodies on emerging authentication threats.
Defines enterprise Kubernetes offensive security strategy addressing evolving container and orchestration attack surfaces. Shapes industry standards for cloud-native penetration testing and adversary simulation. Advises executive leadership on container security risks and drives research into novel attack vectors targeting Kubernetes ecosystems.
Defines the organization's network penetration testing strategy and standards: establishes red-team network attack frameworks, sets maturity benchmarks for network defense across all departments, and drives executive-level reporting on network risk posture. Builds cross-functional partnerships with network engineering and cloud teams to embed offensive security validation into infrastructure change management processes.
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy spanning application, infrastructure, and supply chain attack surfaces. Shapes organizational red team capabilities and advanced persistent threat simulation programs. Coordinates industry compliance and represents the organization at security conferences and in vulnerability research communities.
Defines enterprise-wide authorization security assessment strategy across all access control systems. Shapes offensive security architecture targeting RBAC/ABAC at scale. Coordinates compliance-driven authorization testing with regulatory bodies. Represents the organization in offensive security community.
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy integrating SAST/DAST with manual penetration testing at scale. Shapes security testing architecture for complex distributed systems. Coordinates with tool vendors and regulatory bodies on scanning standards. Represents the organization in offensive security community.
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy integrating code-level vulnerability research with infrastructure and application security assessments. Shapes organizational red team capabilities combining source code analysis with advanced exploitation techniques. Coordinates industry compliance and represents the organization in vulnerability research and security conference communities.
Defines organizational threat modeling strategy that drives offensive security priorities. Shapes enterprise red team roadmap based on evolving threat landscape and adversary TTPs. Establishes frameworks linking threat intelligence, threat models, and penetration testing coverage across the organization. Influences industry offensive security practices through research and community engagement.
Defines enterprise offensive security strategy feeding vulnerability management across all systems and platforms. Shapes vulnerability assessment architecture combining internal red team and external testing at scale. Coordinates responsible disclosure programs with vendors and CERTs. Represents the organization in vulnerability research community.
AI-Assisted Development · 1
Defines organizational GitHub Copilot strategy for offensive security: evaluates enterprise approaches for AI-assisted security tool development, designs ethical governance for AI code generation in penetration testing practices, establishes standards for responsible AI usage across offensive security organizations.
Observability & Monitoring · 2
Defines the organization's security observability strategy integrating ELK Stack across offensive and defensive operations. Implements platform-level solutions: centralized Elasticsearch clusters for multi-team security data with cross-cluster replication. Builds reliability culture around security tooling with SLO frameworks for detection pipelines, log completeness, and alert delivery. Establishes enterprise governance for security log retention, chain-of-custody requirements in Elasticsearch indices, and compliance reporting through Kibana Canvas.
Defines organizational observability assessment strategy for offensive security: implements enterprise evaluation frameworks for security monitoring maturity, builds observability-aware security culture across client organizations, establishes enterprise standards for security monitoring effectiveness measurement.
Version Control & Collaboration · 2
Defines organizational security code review strategy: enterprise security review standards, cross-team security review governance, security review culture maturity model. Mentors leads on integrating security review into development workflows.
Defines organizational Git security strategy for offensive security: evaluates enterprise approaches for secure management of assessment artifacts, designs governance for repository access and audit across penetration testing practice, establishes standards for confidential data handling in version control systems.
Documentation · 1
Defines organizational strategy for offensive security runbooks: establishes enterprise-wide red team and purple team engagement frameworks, drives industry-aligned methodology standards (PTES, OWASP, MITRE ATT&CK), creates runbook governance for regulatory compliance across penetration testing programs.
Additional skills
Not assessed by the team, but part of the self-assessment and the development plan.
} in the open competency matrix: 50 skills across 5 levels. The matrix is free for individuals and stays free.