Software & Security Engineer

Aidan McDonagh

DevSecOps · Application Security · Penetration Testing

Certified security professional building and defending production systems. Currently a Penetration Tester at Starling Bank, testing web apps, infrastructure and internal systems end-to-end. Background in Software Engineering, System Security and Ethical Hacking from the University of Portsmouth, since certified in Penetration Testing (CompTIA PenTest+, Security+).

View Experience Certifications

Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire

01 · Experience

Experience

Jul 2025 – Present

Penetration Tester

Starling Bank

Penetration testing across web applications, infrastructure, in-office/WiFi security and Windows environments (Azure AD)
Built internal Go security tooling: a TruffleHog triager/reporter and SAST scanning with an LLM-based reviewer
Building a Python-based Penetration Testing AI agent Harness and IOC Detection Script for supply chain attacks
Led penetration testing of Ember (a fintech acquired by Starling) and of developer-facing passkey implementations
Ensured Settle Up for Business was PCI-DSS compliant with Tenable ASV Scanning and Remediation

Go
Python
Java / Burp Suite
Azure AD
Wireless & Infrastructure Security
SAST / LLM Review
IOC Detection
Passkeys / WebAuthn

Jan 2022 – Jul 2025

DevSecOps Engineer / Software Engineer (Security) & Team Lead

Sky UK

Tech Lead on a 12-person team building Wholesale Ethernet applications serving businesses across the UK
Identified severe vulnerabilities in Wholesale Ethernet 1.0 within the first two weeks and mitigated a risk evaluated at up to £14M
Lead the engineering team for development of Wholesale Ethernet 2.0
Vice Chair of the Security Forums, driving cybersecurity engagement across the company
Won a Google Generative AI competition

Django 5 / DRF
FastAPI
PostgreSQL / PostGIS
Redis
RabbitMQ
ReactJS
Bandit / Semgrep
Trivy
GitLab CI/CD
Docker
Ansible
Google Cloud

Nov 2020 – Dec 2021

Software Engineer (Security)

Unipart Digital

Built device authentication and barcode/QR scanning systems running in production warehouse logistics
Reduced bundle sizes and identified/mitigated race conditions across multiple applications
Applied penetration-testing experience to harden current and future applications

React
Material UI
Redux Toolkit
Django / DRF
PostgreSQL
Jenkins
Docker Compose
Ansible
OpenStack

Jan 2019 – Nov 2020

DevSecOps Engineer / Penetration Tester

KHIPU Networks

First engineer hired into the role, with freedom to select the technology stack
Built a SIEM service monitoring Access Points and Switches, alerting on outages or compromise
Built a technical-documentation generator that significantly sped up report delivery
Delivered analytics for Greenbone OpenVAS scans and stood up the company's Penetration Testing team

Node.js / Fastify
Angular
TypeScript
Socket.io
Deno.js
Python
Docker
RancherOS

02 · Projects

Projects

Jul – Aug 2020

Web Developer

Laura McDonagh Illustrations →

Freelance single-page portfolio site for an illustration artist, built front-to-back solo
Implemented lazy-loading, responsive srcsets and automated next-gen image formats

HTML5 / SCSS
JavaScript
Bootstrap 5
Node.js / Bun

Jul – Aug 2018

Web Developer

Westport Car Parks →

Freelance single-page portfolio site showcasing the company's property development work

HTML5 / SCSS
JavaScript
Bootstrap 5
Node.js

03 · Skills

Skills

Languages

Python
JavaScript / TypeScript
Java
C
C++
C#
Go
Ruby
Swift
Haskell

Web & Frameworks

React / Redux
Angular
Node.js
Express
Fastify
Nest.js
Django / DRF
HTML5 / CSS3 / Sass
Bootstrap

DevOps & Cloud

Docker / Docker Compose
Ansible
Jenkins
GitLab CI/CD
Google Cloud
OpenStack
Git / GitHub

Testing

Jest
Cypress
Mocha
React Testing Library
Enzyme
Pytest

Databases

PostgreSQL
MySQL
MongoDB
Redis
Firebase

04 · Security Focus

Security Approach

Trained in Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing at university under the System Security and Reliable & Secure Systems units, and applied continuously since. Currently working toward OSCP, with CREST to follow.

Threat Analysis: tracking current and emerging threats against the OWASP Top 10 and NIST NVD
Penetration Testing: applications, websites and infrastructure
Security Tooling: hands-on with Kali Linux, Burp Suite, SQLMap, Metasploit and Nmap
Virtualisation: VMware, VirtualBox and Virtual Machine Manager for isolated test environments
Offence vs. Defence: internal red-team exercises against the PTES external testing standard

Practice & Competitions

TryHackMe
HackTheBox
Vulnhub
HackerRank
UK Cyber Security Challenge

05 · Education

Education

2014 – 2018

BSc (Hons) Software Engineering

University of Portsmouth

High 2:1 · GPA 3.25 · Dissertation: “The HandyMan: A Bartender's Encyclopedia”

System Security
Reliable & Secure Systems
Security & Cryptography

2012 – 2014

A-Levels: Maths, ICT & Economics

Aldenham School

UCAS Points: 220 · 11 GCSEs A*–C

06 · Certifications

Courses, Awards & Certifications

CompTIAClick to download PDF

SololearnClick to view certificate

IBM Courses

07 · Interests

Interests

Outside of work I keep learning: courses on Udacity, Udemy and Sololearn, IBM's Quantum/Bitcoin/Security tracks, and programming challenges on HackerRank. Outside of the screen, I train self-defence (BJJ & kickboxing), play squash and golf, and played American Football at Portsmouth University.

Learning

Udacity
Udemy
Sololearn
HackerRank

Sport

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Kickboxing
Squash
Golf
American Football
Powerlifting