Danish Siddiqui

Senior Product Security Engineer — AppSec, AWS Cloud Security, DevSecOps, ISO 27001, Bug Bounty, CVEs.

3 minute read

Flagship Case Study: Building Product Security from Scratch at a High-Growth Product Company

Context

Licious is a high-growth consumer product company with rapidly evolving web, mobile, API, and cloud infrastructure. At the time I joined, there was no centralized product security function, limited visibility into security risk, and no consistent security ownership across engineering teams.

I joined as the first dedicated Product Security Engineer, with the mandate to establish, scale, and operationalize product security end-to-end without slowing engineering velocity.

Problem Statement

The core challenges were not tool gaps, but structural security risks:

  • No single owner for product security decisions
  • Security findings scattered across teams with inconsistent triage
  • Limited proactive detection of application and cloud misconfigurations
  • No standardized vulnerability lifecycle or severity model
  • Increasing external attack surface and bug bounty signal without governance
  • Compliance expectations (ISO 27001) without a mature security baseline

The risk was not theoretical: vulnerabilities were reaching late stages of delivery, remediation cycles were slow, and security decisions were reactive rather than preventative.

My Role and Ownership

As the first and sole Product Security owner, I was responsible for:

  • Defining the product security strategy across AppSec, Cloud Security, and DevSecOps
  • Making security architecture and tooling decisions
  • Embedding security into the SDLC with minimal developer friction
  • Acting as the single point of accountability for vulnerabilities, bug bounty, and compliance readiness
  • Partnering directly with engineering, platform, IT, HR, and leadership teams

This role required both hands-on execution and decision-making authority.

Approach and Strategy

1. Establishing Security Ownership and Baselines

I started by defining clear security ownership, risk classification, and remediation expectations across teams. This included:

  • A unified vulnerability severity and prioritization model
  • Clear ownership mapping for services and infrastructure
  • A standard vulnerability lifecycle from discovery to closure

This shifted security from “best effort” to measurable accountability.

2. Embedding Security into the SDLC (Shift-Left)

Rather than relying on periodic testing, I focused on early, automated detection:

  • Integrated SAST (Semgrep) into CI/CD to catch code-level issues early
  • Added container and dependency scanning (Trivy) for build-time risk visibility
  • Tuned findings to reduce noise and improve developer trust in results

The goal was not maximum findings, but actionable signal that developers would actually fix.

3. Cloud Security and Attack Path Visibility

To address cloud risk at scale, I designed and operated a lightweight AWS cloud security posture program:

  • Used CSPM tools (Prowler, ScoutSuite) to continuously assess AWS configurations
  • Identified real attack paths, not just isolated misconfigurations
  • Prioritized fixes based on exploitability and business impact, not checklist compliance

This allowed teams to focus on high-risk paths rather than chasing low-impact alerts.

4. Bug Bounty Program Design and Governance

I revamped and operated the bug bounty program end-to-end, including:

  • Defining scope boundaries aligned with business risk
  • Creating a consistent severity taxonomy and triage workflow
  • Establishing payout governance to balance researcher engagement and signal quality
  • Acting as the primary triager, coordinating remediation with engineering teams

This transformed bug bounty from a reactive inbox into a controlled external signal.

5. Compliance Enablement (ISO 27001:2022)

Alongside technical controls, I acted as the primary security SPOC for ISO 27001 readiness, working across:

  • Engineering (technical controls and evidence)
  • IT and HR (access control, policies, processes)
  • Leadership (risk acceptance and prioritization)

Rather than treating compliance as a checklist, I aligned controls with actual security posture to avoid “paper security”.

Impact and Outcomes

  • ~30% reduction in critical production-bound vulnerabilities through early detection
  • Established a repeatable product security operating model
  • Improved remediation speed and developer security adoption
  • Enabled proactive identification of high-risk cloud attack paths
  • Brought structure and governance to external vulnerability reporting
  • Created a security baseline that supported ISO 27001:2022 readiness

Most importantly, security shifted from a reactive function to a trusted engineering partner.

Key Skills Demonstrated

Product Security Strategy and Ownership • Application and API Security • AWS Cloud Security and Attack Path Analysis • DevSecOps and Security Automation • Bug Bounty Operations and Governance • Security Risk Management and Compliance Enablement

Skills & Signals

Secure SDLC · OWASP Top 10 · OWASP API Top 10 · Vulnerability Management Lifecycle · CSPM · Stakeholder Management

Why This Matters

This engagement demonstrates my ability to build security programs from zero, make pragmatic security decisions, and operate as a senior individual contributor with ownership mindset – not just execute tools or assessments.