JDjosephdickinson.com

Cloud & application security engineer · Philadelphia

Joe Dickinson

I secure software where it is built and where it runs: code, pipelines, containers and the cloud underneath them.

From defensive tooling for the NSA and U.S. Navy ships to container and application security for a Fortune 500 insurer. I write the code, run the scanners, break the apps, and show developers exactly what to fix.

Connect on LinkedIn See the work
  • CompTIA Security+
  • CompTIA Network+
  • B.S. Information Systems, Drexel
Joseph (Joe) Dickinson, cloud and application security engineer
Greater Philadelphia · Remote · Open to conversations
11+
years in security engineering
100+
security professionals briefed in the CISO organization

Career arc · 2006 to today

From writing the software to securing it

Each bar is a role, colored by the kind of work. Select a bar to see what I did there.

  1. May 2025 – presentAmerican Family Insurance · Remote

    Lead Cloud Platform Engineer

    • Led enterprise testing and rollout of runtime anomaly detection for containers with Palo Alto Prisma Cloud and Cortex Defender agents.
    • Rebuilt the non-functional container security integration in GitLab CI/CD for AWS (EKS, ECS) and GKE. Hundreds of containerized applications now scan through it.
    • Built Terraform automation for golden-image deployments in Azure and led Infrastructure-as-Code policy controls in GitLab pipelines.
    • Integrated Prisma Cloud with AWS, XSOAR and ServiceNow for agentless scanning, and wrote the enterprise container security standards.
  2. Aug 2020 – May 2025American Family Insurance · Remote

    Lead Application Security Engineer

    • Subject-matter expert for Snyk SCA, Snyk Code SAST and Prisma Cloud Compute. Wrote the GitLab includes (Bash, Python) that scan thousands of applications across five operating companies.
    • Ran internal penetration tests and Burp DAST triage so developers only received true-positive findings.
    • Led STRIDE threat modeling, manual code review, vulnerability remediation management and company-wide incident response for critical vulnerabilities.
  3. Oct 2018 – Apr 2020Nuix · Remote

    Application Security Engineer

    • Introduced the secure SDLC: Checkmarx, Coverity and AppScan SAST plus Nessus scanning wired into CI/CD.
    • Penetration tested seven Nuix products, desktop and web, and briefed C-suite executives on business risk.
    • Wrote the application security documentation for ISO 27001 certification and trained engineers on OWASP Top 10, OWASP API Top 10 and SANS Top 25.
  4. Sep 2016 – Sep 2018Naval Surface Warfare Center · Philadelphia

    Cyber Security Software Engineer

    • Led Python development of a shipboard situational-awareness tool that monitors boundary traffic for anomalies.
    • Wrote tshark/Python tooling to hunt through ship packet captures and analyzed pcap data in breach scenarios.
    • Hardened ship software with SonarQube and Nessus, reviewed Java code by hand, built sample exploits, evaluated NIDS products and mentored junior engineers. Secret clearance.
  5. Feb 2015 – Sep 2016National Security Agency · Fort Meade, MD

    Software Engineer

    • Lead for software security on the team: guided developers and stakeholders and delivered remediations for identified vulnerabilities.
    • Built Python/Django applications in Docker, hardened Ruby on Rails software and tuned MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and MongoDB. TS/SCI clearance.
  6. Jul 2014 – Jan 2015Drexel University, Digital On-Ramps · Philadelphia

    Software Engineer

    • Federally funded literacy project: built the LAMP/Drupal career-pathways app, wrote an open-source Python tool to manage Drupal updates and backups, and ran the Ubuntu web server and TLS.
  7. Nov 2013 – May 2014VulnAware · Wayne, PA

    Founder

    • Built a SaaS web-application vulnerability scanner (Python, Django, AWS EC2, Nginx) focused on fewer false positives, and piloted it with clients.
  8. Jul 2012 – Nov 2013QVC · West Chester, PA

    Application Developer

    • Java and DB2 development on QVC.com. Found and fixed numerous SQL injection vulnerabilities and business-logic defects affecting thousands of customers.
  9. 2006 – 2011While at Drexel

    Co-ops and student roles

    • Independence Blue Cross (data warehouse developer), PJM Interconnection (C# ASP.NET developer), NAVSEA (student engineer, Secret clearance), Drexel IRT help desk, VisionLineMedia web design.

Secure SDLC coverage

Hands-on at every stage of delivery

The tools and techniques I have used myself, at each stage from design to runtime.

    Languages
    PythonBashJavaC++PHPSQL
    Containers
    KubernetesOpenShiftDockerPodman
    Cloud
    AWSAzureGCP / GKE

    Depth by domain

    Years of hands-on practice

    Counted from role dates, not self-rated. Overlapping roles count once.

    Selected work

    Problems I was brought in to solve

    0 → 100s

    containerized apps scanned on every build

    Container security pipeline, rebuilt

    American Family Insurance · 2025

    1. ProblemThe GitLab container scanning integration was broken. Images shipped unscanned.
    2. FixRebuilt it for EKS, ECS and GKE. Added Prisma Cloud agentless scanning for AWS.
    3. ResultScanning across GitLab Registry and ECR, plus enterprise container standards.

    5

    operating companies on one scanning standard

    One pipeline include, thousands of apps

    American Family Insurance · 2020–2025

    1. ProblemScanning was inconsistent across Perl, Java, Python, JavaScript and C#.
    2. FixWrote reusable GitLab includes for Snyk SCA, Snyk Code and Prisma Cloud.
    3. ResultUniform SAST, SCA and Prisma Cloud container scanning, with findings triaged to true positives.

    7

    products penetration tested

    An AppSec program for a software vendor

    Nuix · 2018–2020

    1. ProblemNo secure SDLC, and ISO 27001 certification on the roadmap.
    2. FixSAST and DAST in CI/CD, STRIDE threat models, OWASP training.
    3. ResultAppSec documentation for ISO 27001; risk briefed to the C-suite.

    Ship-ready

    defensive tooling, lab to installation

    Situational awareness for Navy ships

    NAVSEA · 2016–2018

    1. ProblemShip networks needed to spot anomalous traffic and foreign actors.
    2. FixLed Python development of a boundary-monitoring tool; wrote pcap hunting scripts.
    3. ResultBuilt and tested in the lab, then installed on shipboard systems.

    Recommendations

    Joseph is extremely innovative and well ahead of his time. He is hard working and a fantastic motivator.
    Dianna L. Mathews via LinkedIn
    Joe is an honest, hardworking and punctual guy…
    Altaf H. via LinkedIn

    Need someone who can secure the pipeline and still ship?

    I'm open to conversations about cloud security, application security and DevSecOps roles, and to speaking about container security in practice.

    Message me on LinkedIn