Cyber security engineer vs cyber security analyst

The differences between cyber security engineers and cyber security analysts can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a cyber security engineer and a cyber security analyst. Additionally, a cyber security engineer has an average salary of $99,492, which is higher than the $88,422 average annual salary of a cyber security analyst.

The top three skills for a cyber security engineer include cyber security, python and linux. The most important skills for a cyber security analyst are incident response, windows, and SIEM.

Cyber security engineer vs cyber security analyst overview

	Cyber Security Engineer	Cyber Security Analyst
Yearly salary	$99,492	$88,422
Hourly rate	$47.83	$42.51
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	73,419	64,387
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does a cyber security engineer do?

A cyber security engineer specializes in designing and establishing security measures to protect a company's network and data from hackers or cyber attacks. Their responsibilities primarily revolve around planning and implementing cyber security systems, responding to any problems or concerns, handling security breaches and emergencies, and troubleshooting to identify any issues or vulnerabilities. Moreover, a cyber security engineer may perform clerical tasks such as producing progress reports and documentation, creating instructional materials for systems, managing schedules, and coordinating with department managers, all while adhering to the company's policies and regulations.

What does a cyber security analyst do?

A cybersecurity analyst is responsible for planning and carrying out security measures to protect a company's computer networks and systems. They constantly keep tabs on threats and monitor their organization's networks for any security breaches. Their tasks involve installing computer programs or software and encryption, reporting breaches or weak spots, exploring new IT trends, educating the company's information security team on security. They also do simulate security attacks to find possible network and system vulnerabilities.

Cyber security engineer vs cyber security analyst salary

Cyber security engineers and cyber security analysts have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Cyber Security Engineer	Cyber Security Analyst
Average salary	$99,492	$88,422
Salary range	Between $75,000 And $131,000	Between $66,000 And $117,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Los Angeles, CA
Highest paying state	California	Oregon
Best paying company	Dotdash	Neighborly
Best paying industry	Technology	Automotive

Differences between cyber security engineer and cyber security analyst education

There are a few differences between a cyber security engineer and a cyber security analyst in terms of educational background:

	Cyber Security Engineer	Cyber Security Analyst
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 61%
Most common major	Computer Science	Computer Information Systems
Most common college	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	California State University - Bakersfield

Cyber security engineer vs cyber security analyst demographics

Here are the differences between cyber security engineers' and cyber security analysts' demographics:

	Cyber Security Engineer	Cyber Security Analyst
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 83.8% Female, 16.2%	Male, 78.5% Female, 21.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 6.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.0% Asian, 9.6% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%
LGBT Percentage	9%	9%

Differences between cyber security engineer and cyber security analyst duties and responsibilities

Cyber security engineer example responsibilities.

Facilitate and manage weekly meetings between CyberCom, DISA and all OSD components.
Manage security patching life cycle and approve change control requests, firewall rules and DLP policies.
Manage, configure, and maintain all servers within the environments, including Cisco network routers, switches, and firewalls.
Lead security authorization efforts to obtain and maintain an authorization to operate (ATO) for customers' core financial system.
Manage efforts to consolidate customer VPN infrastructure.
Lead numerous DLP upgrades and process improvements and successfully implement application security program.

Cyber security analyst example responsibilities.

Ensure all requirements are met to successfully achieve an ATO before release.
Leverage this same site-to-site VPN technology to automate and secure transactions between FMC and its business partners.
Lead technical implementation through multiple projects to reduce the cardholder data environment and ultimately reduce the scope of PCI relate environments.
Log analysis & managing the accuracy of DLP identification to lowering/avoiding false positives and negatives.
Review and manage the security and information assurance capabilities of database applications, database structure and architecture.
Implement a manage endpoint encryption solution utilizing TrendMicro MobileArmor to secure university workstations against sensitive data loss.

Cyber security engineer vs cyber security analyst skills

Common cyber security engineer skills

Cyber Security, 17%
Python, 5%
Linux, 4%
Architecture, 4%
NIST, 4%
Incident Response, 4%

Common cyber security analyst skills

Incident Response, 8%
Windows, 6%
SIEM, 5%
DOD, 5%
Linux, 4%
Security Events, 4%

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Cyber Security Engineer vs Cyber Security Analyst

Updated January 8, 2025

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