Security Engineer salary
What a security engineer actually earns, from 825 live job postings blended with the official US OEWS (Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics) wage anchor. Pick a market for its median and range, then read the seniority split, the trend, and the country comparison below. Updated 2026-07-23.
Switch the market above to see security engineer pay in the 3 countries our sources cover, each with its own cost of living. The trend, seniority, and state detail below are United States data, where the official record runs deepest.
What the number means
Security engineering posts a blended US median near 145,000 dollars, among the highest of the engineering tracks, and the premium is a scarcity story: the supply of people who can both build and break is thin, and the cost of getting it wrong is unbounded. The band widens fast toward offensive and cloud-security roles, where the ethical-hacking market pushes pay past the median. The seat is a short hop from software and DevOps engineering for anyone who has run production systems, and the demand is structural rather than cyclical. Security is where “senior engineer plus a specialty” pays the most reliably.
Open security engineer roles
Live openings tagged to this occupation, from company career pages and remote boards. Apply at the source.
- Senior Application Security EngineerIntapp · PortugalRemoteJul 23
- Security Engineer - Corporate SecurityBitsight · United States$100k–$140kRemoteJul 23
- Senior Product Security EngineerCloudflare · HybridJul 22
- Information Security Engineer, ProductAptos · United StatesRemoteJul 22
- Senior Penetration TesterExperian · Hyderabad, INJul 22
- Senior Software Security EngineerGitLab · Bangalore, India; Remote, Canada; Remote, Israel; Remote, Un$139kRemoteJul 21
By seniority
Posted-median pay by seniority signal in the title, from our corpus. Noisy at the edges where sample sizes are small.
By country
- United States$110,562 – $169,016 · median $137,435
- United Kingdom$45,708 – $74,021 · median $60,496
- Canada$90,940 – $145,576 · median $109,128
Top-paying US states
OEWS median by state, highest first.
- New Yorkmedian $167,920
- Washingtonmedian $142,920
- Californiamedian $140,660
- Marylandmedian $140,480
- Virginiamedian $132,460
- Coloradomedian $130,570
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Move into or out of security engineer
- software engineer → solutions architectmeasured route
Related salaries
- Software Engineer salary$181,991 median
- DevOps Engineer salary$134,499 median
- Solutions Architect salary$143,641 median
Quick answers
How much do security engineers make?
The blended US median is about 145,000 dollars, among the top engineering tracks, rising toward offensive and cloud-security specialties.
Why do security engineers earn so much?
Scarcity: few people can both build and break systems, and the downside of failure is unbounded, so the market pays up.
How do you become a security engineer?
Commonly from software or DevOps engineering, adding a security specialty on top of production experience.
Method: bands are the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of live US postings with stated pay, shrunk toward the official OEWS anchor by sample size (the “blended” figure). Trend is the OEWS annual median for SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) code 15-1212. Live corpus 825 observations, 2026-07-23. Definitions in the glossary.