For the vulnerability a scanner was never going to find
Hire Security Testers
Automated scanners catch known patterns only. What actually costs a company is usually a business logic flaw no scanner can reason about, like a manipulable price or a subtly broken authentication flow. These testers are evaluated on finding exactly that kind of flaw, then placed to test what an attacker would actually try.
- Profiles typically within two business days
- Replacement Assurance: If an engineer is not the right fit, a replacement from our own team starts within ten business days of your request, at no extra cost
- You interview before placement if you want to
- At least four hours a day inside your core working hours. Two hours plus a daily written handover for the US West Coast
- 14-Day Risk-Free Trial: For your first engineer on a time-and-materials engagement. Up to 14 calendar days or 80 logged working hours, whichever comes first. End within the trial and pay nothing for trial hours. Continue beyond it and those hours are billed at the agreed rate. Unpaid trial work remains ours if you stop
How we evaluate a security tester
The tasks, the signals and the onboarding, walked through by the people who run them.
90 secSample frame · video pending01Published, not promised
The assessment behind every tester we send.
The security testing bar is published, not assumed: five competencies, the exact task behind each, and the shortcut that ends a candidacy. Most interviews ask about certifications. This one asks whether a real exploit would actually be found.
What we listen forWhether they test the real risk, not just run a checklist.
An application passed functional QA but has a broken authentication flow allowing session fixation. Walk us through how you would have caught it.
- What strong sounds like
- Describes a specific, deliberate authentication-flow test targeting session handling, not a generic scan that happened to catch it.
- What gives us pause
- Assumes an automated scanner would have caught it without describing what specific test would have targeted this flow.
Burp Suite · OWASP ZAP · Metasploit
OWASP Testing Guide · PTES · Threat Modeling
SAST/DAST · API Security · Authentication Testing
CVSS Scoring · Remediation Tracking · JIRA
02Who you actually meet
The bench, priced by seniority.
Three seniority tiers, priced honestly, and the engineers who fill each one today. Real names and photos take their place as soon as we can share them, and the standard stays exactly the same.
Engineer
Features scoped tightly enough to ship inside your review bar, every time.
The right first hire when your seniors already set the standard.
$2,500–3,200per month
Senior
The hard module nobody else wants to own, taken end to end.
Ownership of a surface, without adding a manager to your headcount.
$3,500–4,400per month
Lead
The workstream's decisions, made daily, so nothing waits on a meeting.
One accountable voice for a pod or initiative that can't afford to drift.
$4,700–5,900per month
Security tester
3 yrs · US East overlap
Found a session-fixation flaw that a year of automated scans had passed cleanly
- Burp Suite
- OWASP Testing
- API Security
Senior security tester
6 yrs · UK + EU hours
Cut two hundred scanner findings down to the eleven that were genuinely exploitable
- Metasploit
- Threat Modeling
- CVSS Scoring
Lead security tester
9 yrs · EU + US split
Owns the business-logic testing standard now applied across every checkout release
- Architecture
- PTES
- Remediation Verification
Indicative ranges, representative profiles. Exact figures and named engineers arrive with your shortlist.
Weighing this against a freelancer, a direct hire or a marketplace? See the honest comparison
03From stated problem to first change
Four steps, each closing on evidence.
This process tests attacker-style judgement, not certification recall. You owe nothing if you decide to stop at any step.
Define the risk problem
We map where your application's real exposure is likely to be. The brief names that risk, not a list of security certifications to know.
A brief your leads signMatch against your application
Candidates are matched against your actual attack surface, your data sensitivity and your review culture. Three testers who understand your risk beat thirty who list penetration testing on a CV.
Three fits, not thirty CVsAssess on the real tasks
Your team can watch the business-logic and scanner-triage exercises directly. What shows up is attacker-style thinking, not a certification recital.
Evaluation you can watchOnboard inside your process
Access, standards and a first real assessment of production-representative code. Continuity cover keeps a departure from ever becoming your exposure.
A merged change in week one
04Evidence and proof
Testers who found what a scanner never would.
Security testing proof is a real exploit path closed before an attacker found it, not a clean scan report. Every record here waits for written client approval before production.
Explore case studies
A price-manipulation flaw no scanner would ever have found.
Aster North's checkout had no scanner-detectable vulnerability, but an embedded security tester found that a discount code's value could be manipulated through the client before the server validated it, and closed the gap before launch.
- Revenue at risk
- Closed before launch
- Scanner findings related to this flaw
- Zero
He found a session-fixation flaw our automated scans had passed cleanly for over a year.
Sample · pending client approval
She cut our scanner's two hundred findings down to the eleven that actually mattered.
Sample · pending client approval
05Three shapes, one standard
Add a tester, a security pod, or a practice.
Most teams start with one tester assessing an existing application. Some need a pod that owns security testing across every release. Where a platform needs security built in from the ground up, we point you to the practice instead.
- Team extension
One named tester
A single security specialist inside your direction and your reviews. The smallest commitment, and the usual first step.
- Delivery pods
A security pod
A pod with its own lead that owns vulnerability testing and remediation across every release. You set priorities while the pod carries delivery.
- Data & Cloud
The practice, not the person
Where a platform needs security built in from the ground up, data and cloud engineering takes that scope on instead.
06Straight answers
Asked before a security testing hire is signed.
01What does a security tester actually do day to day?
Tests authentication and business logic the way an attacker would, triages scanner findings by real exploitability rather than volume, and verifies a fix actually closes the original exploit path. The unglamorous majority of the work is separating genuine risk from noise.
02Is this the same as an automated vulnerability scan?
No. A scan catches known patterns automatically. This role covers manual testing for business logic flaws and authentication gaps that a scanner structurally cannot reason about.
03Can we run our own interviews as well?
Yes, the published tasks are built to be reused directly. Several clients now run the business-logic exercise themselves in later hiring rounds.
04How fast can a security tester start?
A shortlist arrives within days from a bench evaluated continuously. Onboarding speed after that depends mostly on how quickly your side can grant application access.
05Who manages the tester day to day?
Your leads set priorities and hold the risk standards. What we carry is the layer behind the tester: continuity, payroll, replacement risk and the handoff if plans shift.
06What if the tester is not the right fit?
Point it out in the opening weeks, and we take care of the replacement cost ourselves. The next tester is briefed on exactly what missed, keeping a repeat mismatch uncommon.
07Do your security testers use AI tools?
Yes, for drafting repetitive test scaffolding and report formatting. The exploit discovery and risk judgement stay entirely with the tester.
08How does pricing work for a hired security tester?
The tier bands above set realistic expectations; the shortlist confirms the exact figure once scope is agreed. Monthly billing, no placement fee, notice-period exit only.