How to Convince Your Manager to Pay for a Security Bootcamp

First things first, you are not asking for a perk. 

The AppSecEngineer Certification bootcamps are a way to help your team move faster, reduce risk, and meet compliance requirements without hiring more people. This isn’t only for your personal growth (though you’ll level up, no doubt). It’s about giving your company a real advantage: faster delivery with fewer security gaps.

So don’t feel weird asking. Your company gets the benefit. You just happen to be the one bringing it to the table.

Table of Contents

1. This is a win-win for you and your boss
2. How to respond when your manager pushes back
3. Make it an easy yes for your manager
4. Secure coding is a competitive advantage

This is a win-win for you and your boss

When you bring back practical skills, your company gets more than just a smarter team member. And who doesn’t want that nowadays, right?

They get faster delivery, fewer incidents, less dependency on bottlenecked security teams, and fewer expensive hires to fill every AppSec gap. This is how modern teams scale securely. It’s by enabling the people already doing the work to solve more of the problem.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Catch security issues earlier

Every bug caught in development is one less fire to fight in production. Training helps you identify and fix security flaws before they escalate, which reduces the need for rework, late-stage patching, or emergency escalations.

Reduce load on AppSec teams

Most AppSec teams are stretched thin. When you build more security knowledge into the engineering side, you stop relying on one team to catch everything. That unblocks pipelines, reduces review cycles, and lets security teams focus on higher-impact work instead of hand-holding every sprint.

Close skill gaps without hiring

Hiring external AppSec talent is expensive and slow, especially when you need someone who understands your stack and your architecture. Training an internal engineer with that context is faster and far more effective. It’s how smart teams scale securely without bloating the org chart.

Stop wasting time on fire drills

Security should never be the thing that slows you down. When developers and DevOps teams have the right skills, they make secure decisions by default without waiting on checklists or approvals. This reduces last-minute fixes, fire drills before release, and audit stress when compliance checks roll in.

In short, proper security training is how you can help your company move faster, stay safer, and control costs all at once.

How to respond when your manager pushes back

Even if the value is clear to you, your manager might have concerns. That’s normal. The key is to position the training as a business decision instead of a personal request. Here’s how to respond without sounding defensive, entitled, or patronizing.

“We don’t have budget for training.”

Totally fair, budgets are tight. But this kind of training prevents much bigger costs down the line. A single security issue can eat up more time and money than an entire year of proactive upskilling. It’s worth pointing out that the cost of one bootcamp is often less than the effort it takes to fix a single production vulnerability.

“We already have security tools in place.”

Absolutely! And this training helps us use them better. Tools are only effective if people know how to act on what they find. When teams understand how to interpret results, tune false positives, and write more secure code from the start, the tools become far more valuable.

“We don’t have time for training right now.”

Totally valid. Teams are stretched, but the reality is we’re already spending time on rework, escalations, and security reviews. Investing a few hours now means less time lost fixing things later. It’s all about reducing work in the long run.

Make it an easy yes for your manager

Remember, you are not asking for a favor. Instead, you are proposing an investment that pays off. When you bring this to your manager, the way you frame it matters. You’re offering a way to help your team deliver faster, reduce risk, and improve security outcomes without extra headcount.

Lead with business impact

Start by tying the training to outcomes the business already cares about: reducing risk, meeting compliance requirements, and increasing delivery speed. Make it clear this isn’t a theoretical bootcamp. It’s practical, role-specific, and designed to solve problems your team deals with daily.

Show how it fits your actual workflow

This is hands-on and aligned with how your team builds and ships. Whether it’s secure coding, threat modeling, or DevSecOps automation, the content maps to real-world stacks and real-world risks, so the value translates immediately.

Highlight what the company gets out of it

Help your manager see the ROI:

• Fewer delays due to last-minute security fixes
• Less reliance on overstretched AppSec resources
• Stronger audit readiness through compliance-focused content
• Clear reporting on skills progress and completion

You’re offering a way to reduce risk, save time, and improve team capability, all with one decision. Frame it that way, and the bootcamp becomes a strategic investment instead of an expense.

Just send this email to your boss

(PS. You can find all the bootcamps on this page)

Secure coding is a competitive advantage

Security isn’t someone else’s job anymore. If you write or ship code, you’re part of the equation. And the more you know, the better your work holds up under real-world pressure.

AppSecEngineer helps you build those skills. Through hands-on training, you learn how to catch issues early, avoid rework, and ship with more confidence. You don’t need to wait for someone else to make things secure. You can do it yourself and prove it.

So don’t hesitate to ask for support. You’re only leveling up and helping your team ship safer, faster, and with fewer headaches. And that’s worth backing.