Remote Volunteer Penetration Tester & Cybersecurity (Part Time)

Job Overview

Job Description

About SkilledUp Life

At SkilledUp Life, we empower individuals to gain valuable real-world experience that accelerates their careers, while enabling tech startups to grow with the support of skilled Volunteers. Our global community has grown to over 57,500 Volunteers across 147 countries, helping hundreds of startups primarily in the UK and USA scale sustainably

Purpose of role: The Penetration Tester will assess the security of SkilledUp Life’s Platform V2 (Vue 3 frontend, PHP/Laravel backend, APIs, and infrastructure) by simulating real-world cyberattacks. This role identifies vulnerabilities, validates security controls, and collaborates with developers to strengthen the platform’s resilience against evolving threats.

Key activities: Plan and execute black-box, grey-box, and white-box penetration tests on web apps, APIs, and infrastructure.
Identify, analyse, and exploit vulnerabilities, with focus on the OWASP Top 10 risks.
Conduct manual and automated testing using industry-standard tools (e.g., Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, Nmap, Metasploit, SQLMap).
Document findings clearly with proof of concept, impact assessment, and remediation advice.
Collaborate with developers, security architects, and QA testers to prioritise and address vulnerabilities.
Re-test fixes to validate successful remediation.
Stay current with emerging threats, attack vectors, and tools.
Contribute to product team meetings, sprint delivery, and Slack updates.
Submit daily progress updates and actively collaborate across channels.

Disclaimer: This is a voluntary position, i.e. there is no direct financial compensation, a promise of future paid work or any taxable benefit in kind.

Endorsements:
Once a satisfactory outcome is delivered, we will:
* Provide a testimonial against your profile on SkilledUp Life.
* Allow you to add Company Name to your Linkedin Profile.
* Provide a Letter of Recommendation (LoR).
For Volunteer team mates who deliver exceptional results:
* Provide a Linkedin testimonial, when requested.
* Write a Linkedin Post thanking you for your contribution.
* Provide further references, when required (we have the right to reject these)