Curriculum Vitae
Arya Pokharel
Professional & Academic Experience
Application Security / Red Team Researcher
Nov 2022 - PresentSoftwarica College of IT & E-Commerce / Coventry University
- ·Deliver undergraduate lectures and practical laboratories in Application Security, Secure Software Engineering, Ethical Hacking, and Cybersecurity.
- ·Designed and developed intentionally vulnerable applications in MERN and LAMP stack to teach SSJI, Insecure Deserialization, Request Smuggling, and OWASP Top 10 exploits.
- ·Built and maintained containerised lab environments (Docker, Ludus) enabling students to practice red teaming and penetration testing in isolated settings.
- ·Developed CTF-style assessment platforms distributed as hardened VirtualBox/UTM OVA images for black-box student evaluation.
- ·Mentored students through structured assessments, report writing, and vulnerability documentation.
Penetration Tester (Contractor)
Jan 2025 - PresentPrivate Engagements
- ·Conduct web and mobile penetration tests for enterprise clients; identified and exploited critical vulnerabilities including SQLi, SSRF, Prototype Pollution, and RCE.
- ·Deliver validated Proof-of-Concept exploits with documented business impact.
- ·Manage full engagement lifecycle under NDA: scoping, manual exploitation, report writing, and debrief with development teams.
- ·Drive critical remediation directly through structured reporting and technical debriefs.
Penetration Tester (Intern)
Aug 2022 - Nov 2022Bugv
- ·Validated vulnerabilities across web applications and authored exploitation documentation for client-facing security reports.
Certifications
Burp Suite Certified Practitioner- PortSwigger
HTB Certified Penetration Testing Specialist- Hack The Box
APIsec Certified Practitioner- APIsec University
Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)- EC-Council
Expired Apr 2026CRTP- Altered Security
ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security Associate™- SkillFront
Certified AppSec Practitioner (CAP)- The SecOps Group
Certified Network Security Specialist- DefensityOne