Lead Cybersecurity WAF Engineer

Company: Cox Automotive
Location: Athens
Posted on: February 18, 2026

Job Description:

The Lead Cybersecurity Web Application Firewall (WAF) Engineer is the enterprise's foremost expert and strategic owner of WAF and application-edge security. This role sets the vision, strategy, and standards that govern how public-facing applications are protected across Cox Automotive. The Lead Engineer drives the architecture of WAF implementations, leads complex threat response efforts, advances automation and logging capabilities, and partners with cross-functional engineering, cybersecurity, and business teams to ensure resilient, scalable, and modern WAF protections. Main responsibilities are tuning and improving security policies, implementing the WAF for new public websites based on established architecture patterns, and participating in security events to use the WAF as a protective and defensive measure against threat actors. This role will use their technical knowledge in implementing and using a web application firewall as a protective and defensive cybersecurity control. They will use their experience with networking concepts such as DNS, HTTP/S, and edge services to route website traffic, understand how web applications and mobile applications are designed to use client-server communication, and must be able to partner with cross-functional teams throughout the organization. This role will report directly to the Senior Manager of Application Security at Cox Automotive. What You'll Do: - Own and champion the enterprise WAF, shaping its strategy, patterns, and standards in partnership with the architecture team. We're looking for someone who lives and breathes WAF and can elevate security for all public-facing sites and APIs. - Analyze WAF rules to identify improvements and explain recommended changes to improve the protections the WAF provides. - Collaborating with security architecture on long-term WAF strategy, including technology standards, architectural patterns, and security roadmaps. - Author and maintain runbooks, playbooks, and threat specific WAF tuning strategies. Lead the creation and continuous improvement of runbooks, playbooks, and automated detection/triggers. - Perform cyber engineering trend analysis and reporting, defining and recommending tool, infrastructure and other improvements. - Proposes and helps review plans and policies to improve the overall security environment. - Participate in security events and incident response (e.g., botnet traffic spikes, Layer 7 attacks) to identify gaps in current design and propose solutions to prevent threats from reoccurring. - Research and evaluate emerging security trends, threats, and technologies, and recommend appropriate solutions and enhancements. - Partnering closely with AppSec, Cyber Defense, and Engineering teams for secure-by-default adoption. Who Are You: Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor's degree in a related discipline and 6 years' experience in a related field. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years' experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 18 years' experience in a related field - At least 4 years focused on cybersecurity with at least 2 years managing enterprise WAF. - Demonstrated expert level experience architecting, implementing, and operating enterprise WAF solutions across multiple environments. - Must have deep knowledge of how network traffic routes between clients and servers across the internet (e.g., DNS, HTTP/S, CDN/edge routing). - Clearly articulate the objective of specific cybersecurity policies and procedures to technical and non-technical stakeholders. - Proven experience leading technical initiatives and mentoring engineering teams. - Excellent customer service skills, writing, and presentation skills. - Develop a strong and productive working environment with key stakeholders and collaborate closely with other Cox entities' cybersecurity teams to implement cybersecurity best practices. - Consultative nature to work through controversial or complex topics to employees, leaders, and/or senior leadership. - Proficient in Python and Terraform. - Creatively solving complex cybersecurity challenges while exhibiting solid, pragmatic business acumen. - Experience utilizing Agile methodologies and DevSecOps. - Initiating change and deploying solutions in Fortune 1000 companies. - Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks (e.g., ISO 27000, NIST, FFIEC) and industry relevant regulations that will guide architectural requirements (e.g., GDPR, FFIEC, GLBA). Preferred Qualifications - Knowledge of current cybersecurity and technology architectures such as zero trust, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, virtualization, and containerization. - A strong understanding of cloud containers and/or serverless platforms (e.g., EKS, ECS, Lambda, Fargate). - Experience with security testing tools such as Fortify, BurpSuite, and Wiz. - Extensive technology knowledge and recognized expertise in several areas including .NET framework, Mono, Spring frameworks, Oracle, serverless, cloud patterns, cloud service and user authentication or similar. - Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and services and on-premises infrastructure. - Experience in the development and design of cybersecurity standard methodologies to all layers of the hosting and application stack in both cloud and on-premises environments. - Knowledge of Identity and Access Management (IAM), cryptography / key management, secrets management, access controls and security protocols (e.g., multi-factor, SAML, OAuth, OIDC). - Experience with firewall, web application firewalls, and other edge services as well as deep understanding of DMZ and other network architectures. - AWS Well-Architected Framework. - Experience in national critical infrastructure industries (telecommunications, financial services, defense, government, etc.). - Big four consulting or Fortune 500 company experience. - Relevant industry certification (e.g., CISSP, CEH, OSCP, Azure, AWS, CISM, CISA). USD 122,600.00 - 204,400.00 per year Compensation: Compensation includes a base salary of $122,600.00 - $204,400.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program. Benefits: The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.

Keywords: Cox Automotive, Columbus , Lead Cybersecurity WAF Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Athens, Ohio