Free Access No Registration Updated: 2026-06-01

Security Engineer Career Market Report 2026

6,827 active jobs. 1,896 companies. Median salary $108K. Data from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby, SmartRecruiters, Workable, and 14 additional ATS sources. Last computed: 2026-06-01.

6,827
Active Job Openings
1,896
Companies Hiring
$108K
Median Salary (US)
75%
With Salary Data

About This Report

The Security Engineer market data on this page is updated daily from 800,000+ active job postings across 20 ATS platforms.

Greenhouse Lever Workday Ashby SmartRecruiters Workable + 14 more ATS sources

Salary: Extracted via NLP. Only USD $5K-$3M included. Skills: Named entity recognition, noise-filtered (generic soft skills excluded). Experience: Inferred from title + description. Coverage: 75% of positions include salary data.

Key Findings

Median salary: $108K in the US

Middle 50% of salaries range from $73K to $191K.

Remote roles pay 21% above the US national median

Remote-first employers competing nationally for talent. The premium reflects company quality (remote-first firms tend to be well-funded), not a work-mode bonus.

AI/LLM is the most-demanded skill at 30%

Terraform demand rose +7.6pp — fastest-growing skill

Target leads hiring with 284 open positions

Biggest salary jump: Lead → Staff (+$43K, +31%)

Salary increase: +$43K · Sample: Lead → Staff

AI automation risk: medium (score 55/100)

Score: 55/100 · AI/LLM demand: 51% of postings

Week-over-week changes reflect dataset expansion, not market surge

Recent growth in tracked postings is from adding new data sources, not a one-week hiring boom. Interpret trend data with this in mind.

Salary by Experience Level

LevelJobsP25MedianP90
Senior332$104K$131K$196K
Mid-Level177$69K$99K$159K
Staff86$130K$180K$240K
Lead64$113K$137K$175K
Junior62$45K$64K$120K
Manager43$105K$128K$164K
Director28$136K$157K$210K

What jumps out

Lead → Staff: +$43K (31%) — the biggest single-step increase. The salary curve is back-loaded: the largest raises come at transitions where scope changes from executing tasks to owning outcomes, or from owning outcomes to shaping architecture across teams.

Salary by Country

CountryJobsMedianCurrency
United States766$113KUSD
Remote94$137KUSD
United Kingdom26$30KGBP
Canada22$130KUSD
India8$10KUSD
Germany7$78KEUR

Work Mode

ModeShare
On-Site3.6%
Remote8.9%
Hybrid2.1%

~80% of postings do not specify work mode. Figures show only positions where it is explicitly stated.

Top Skills in Demand

AI/LLM
30%
AWS
22%
CISSP
21%
Python
20%
Azure
15%
GCP
12%
Linux
11%
CI/CD
10%
TypeScript
8%
Terraform
8%
Kubernetes
7%
R
7%

Skills on the Rise

Terraform ↑+7.6ppKubernetes ↑+7.4ppR ↑+6.7ppPowerShell ↑+6.5ppBash ↑+5.7pp

Declining in Demand

Risk Management ↓-18.2ppJournalism ↓-17.4ppCase Management ↓-8.2ppAccounts Payable ↓-8.2ppAuditing ↓-6.6pp

Top Companies Hiring

CompanyOpeningsShare
Target2844.2%
Bah1031.5%
Marksman941.4%
Securitas871.3%
Globalhr721.1%
Waldensecurity681.0%
Leidos651.0%
Nttlimited530.8%

Top Countries by Job Volume

CountryJobs
United States2,676
Remote370
India368
United Kingdom299
Germany93
Canada89
Singapore84
Australia49

Education Requirements

LevelSharePositions
Associate Degree61.3%3,066
Master's Degree11.1%557
Bachelor's Degree10.8%538
PhD / Doctorate0.4%18
High School / GED0.3%16

Certifications

CISSP (18%)CISM (7%)CEH (5%)CISA (4%)CompTIA (4%)CompTIA Security+ (3%)CCNA (2%)AWS Certified (2%)Azure Certified (1%)ITIL (1%)

Explore Related Content

This Role: In-Depth Guides

Salary GuideSkills & TechCareer PathAI ImpactResume Tips

Related Roles

Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist (586)Security Operations (SOC) Analyst (505)GRC Analyst (436)Application Security Engineer (379)Cloud Security Engineer (336)Security Architect (260)
Search Security Engineer Jobs →

Browse Security Engineer job listings

Free access. No registration required. Updated daily.

View Security Engineer Jobs