Security Engineer I
Shoprite Group of Companies · Cape Town, Western Cape
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Start free — we apply for you →About the role
- The purpose of the Cyber Security Engineer I in the Red Team is to support the planning, execution and reporting of red team engagements that simulate real-world attacks against the Group's networks, applications, cloud environments, endpoints and people.
- The role participates in reconnaissance, vulnerability identification, exploitation support and adversary emulation activities under the guidance of senior red team members and takes ownership of the human risk management workstream - including social engineering simulations and human risk reporting - as part of a broader offensive security remit.
- The Cyber Security Engineer I in the Red Team supports the execution of low to fairly complex offensive security initiatives and requires a developing professional who is comfortable working through varied, sometimes ambiguous problem-solving challenges, operates effectively and ethically in a fast-paced environment, and demonstrates a clear passion for offensive security and adversarial thinking.
What you'll do
- Support the planning, scoping and execution of red team engagements across network, application, cloud, endpoint and physical environments, working to defined rules of engagement.
- Conduct reconnaissance and open-source intelligence OSINT gathering to map an organisation's attack surface, including infrastructure, applications and people.
- Assist with the identification, validation and exploitation of vulnerabilities across networks, applications, cloud platforms and endpoints, under senior guidance.
- Support post-exploitation activities such as privilege escalation, lateral movement and persistence testing within approved scope, using recognised red team tooling and frameworks.
- Contribute to adversary emulation exercises aligned to recognised frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK, simulating the tactics, techniques and procedures used by real-world threat actors.
- Plan, build and run phishing, vishing and other social engineering simulations as part of the red team's human risk workstream, testing employee resilience to real-world attack tactics.
- Assist with the measurement, tracking and reporting of human cyber risk indicators, such as phishing click and report rates, repeat-offender trends and awareness training completion, to inform the Group's overall risk posture.
- Support the development and delivery of security awareness content and culture-building initiatives that reduce employee susceptibility to social engineering, alongside technical remediation recommendations.
- Document findings from red team and social engineering exercises, including root cause, business impact, evidence and practical, prioritised recommendations for remediation.
- Collaborate with blue team and security operations stakeholders on purple-team style exercises to validate detection and response capability.
- Support the development and maintenance of red team playbooks, attack scenarios and rules of engagement, ensuring all activity - technical and human-focused - remains within approved legal and ethical boundaries.
- Stay abreast of emerging attack tactics, techniques and procedures, both technical and human-focused, to keep engagements realistic and relevant.
- Maintain strict confidentiality, discretion and professionalism given the sensitive nature of red team and human risk testing.
What you bring
- A Qualification in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Information Systems or a related field - essential.
- A recognised industry certifications relevant to offensive security, such as CompTIA Security+, CompTIA PenTest+, or a practical junior penetration testing certification e.g. PJPT, eJPT - beneficial.
- Demonstrable online portfolio evidencing hands-on practical ability, such as an active GitHub profile, CTF Capture the Flag participation, or completed rooms and rankings on TryHackMe, HackTheBox or similar platforms - beneficial
- 1-2 years of experience in cybersecurity, with exposure to penetration testing, red teaming, vulnerability assessment or offensive security tooling - essential.
- Knowledge of common attack techniques across networks, web applications, cloud platforms and endpoints, including exposure to social engineering tactics and the psychology of manipulation - essential.
- Demonstrable understanding and exposure to information security standards, cybersecurity architecture, risk management practices and security models - essential.
- Practical exposure to offensive security tooling for web applications, network and host exploitation frameworks. - desired.
- Exposure to phishing simulation and security awareness platforms, and breach and attack simulation BAS - desired.
- Understanding of the cyber kill chain and MITRE ATT&CK across both technical and human-focused techniques - desired.
- Knowledge of automation, scripting and basic programming to support red team tooling and reporting - desired.
Closing Date
- 2026/09/20