PROFESSIONAL RÉSUMÉ
Trent Shelton
Penetration testing & secure coding
Profile
Security-focused software professional with experience building, reviewing, and securing enterprise applications. Brings practical backend engineering expertise across Java, Spring, REST APIs, authorization controls, third-party integrations, and dependency management, with a focus on penetration testing and secure coding.
Experience
Independent security work & instruction
Self-employed
March 2026 — Present
- Freelance application-security work informed by secure software development experience.
- Technical instruction, learning materials, and mentorship in cybersecurity and software development.
Software Engineer
TransConnect Services
June 2023 — March 2026
- Performed secure code reviews, strengthened authorization controls, upgraded dependencies, and remediated vulnerabilities.
- Built and maintained backend services and REST APIs for customer-facing applications, internal systems, and third-party integrations.
- Developed Stripe payment and Comdata service integrations; managed database schema changes with Liquibase across Oracle and MySQL environments.
Software Developer
Hare Media Group
October 2022 — March 2023
- Helped build a Background Check as a Service platform supporting sensitive-data workflows.
- Developed Java and Spring Boot services integrating third-party data providers, with ingestion, normalization, and report-generation logic.
Software Developer
GenSpark
March 2022 — October 2022
- Developed full-stack applications and REST APIs using Java, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, React, and MySQL.
- Designed database schemas, optimized SQL queries, and wrote unit tests with JUnit and Mockito.
Tax Examiner & Lead Instructor
Internal Revenue Service
January 2020 — March 2022
- Examined federal tax returns and researched complex records in a high-volume environment.
- Selected as a lead instructor across three onboarding cohorts; developed supplemental training materials and mentored new examiners.
Technical skills
- Offensive Security
- Penetration testing, web and API testing, Active Directory security, attack-path analysis, enumeration, privilege escalation, lateral movement, credential attacks, vulnerability validation, post-exploitation
- Application Security
- Secure code review, authentication and authorization testing, threat modeling, vulnerability remediation, dependency security, OWASP methodology, security architecture, secure design, API security, security control validation
- Software Engineering
- Java 25, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Hibernate, REST APIs, SOAP, JMS, object-oriented design, backend services, enterprise integrations, distributed systems, React, automated testing
- Security Research & Tooling
- Vulnerability research, CVE analysis, exploit reproduction, proof-of-concept development, attack-surface analysis, Burp Suite, Nmap, BloodHound, Impacket, Metasploit, Mimikatz, Rubeus, ffuf, NetExec, Ligolo-ng
- Systems, Cloud & Delivery
- Linux, Windows, AWS, Docker, networking, virtualization, Git, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, Liquibase, Gradle, Maven, security lab design
- Programming & Technical Leadership
- Java, Python, Bash, PowerShell, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, C#, automation, CLI development, technical instruction, curriculum development, mentorship, technical writing, security reporting, documentation
Certifications
OffSec Certified Professional+ (OSCP+) ↗
OffSec · Issued June 2026 · Expires May 2029
Artificial Intelligence Master’s Program Certificate ↗
Simplilearn · Professional training certificate
Education
Bachelor of Science — Cybersecurity
In progress