Q&A
How involved should SDETs be in security testing — and what skills does it require?
Ajitesh MohantaAmbassador
May 8, 2026 1,467 0
My company is adding basic security testing requirements. Leadership wants SDETs to own it since we already own automation.
I'm comfortable writing functional tests but security testing feels like a different discipline. Specific things they're asking for:
- OWASP Top 10 checks integrated into the regression suite
- API fuzzing
- Dependency vulnerability scanning in CI
Dependency scanning (OWASP Dependency Check, Snyk) is clearly doable. API fuzzing and OWASP testing feel like a different skill set entirely.
Do SDETs commonly own security testing, or is there usually a dedicated security engineer? What tools can be meaningfully integrated without needing deep security expertise?