Defense analyst vs senior security consultant

The differences between defense analysts and senior security consultants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 4-6 years to become both a defense analyst and a senior security consultant. Additionally, a senior security consultant has an average salary of $120,769, which is higher than the $86,453 average annual salary of a defense analyst.

The top three skills for a defense analyst include incident response, DOD and windows. The most important skills for a senior security consultant are cloud security, infrastructure, and governance.

Defense analyst vs senior security consultant overview

	Defense Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Yearly salary	$86,453	$120,769
Hourly rate	$41.56	$58.06
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	24,879	66,226
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does a defense analyst do?

A defense analyst specializes in developing programs and policies about national security and safety. They usually work for the military, government agencies, private firms, and even the Department of Defense. Their responsibilities focus on conducting extensive research, analyzing military procedures and operations, assessing threats, identifying potential risks, and studying the current laws and policies, recommending solutions to optimize processes, solve issues, or prevent problems. Moreover, through their research, a defense analyst develops conclusions that will help offices in making decisions.

What does a senior security consultant do?

A senior security consultant is an information technology (IT) expert specializing in establishing security protocols and systems to protect a company's data and network. Their responsibilities revolve around performing internal research and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of current IT security systems, recommending solutions to problem areas, and suggesting new tools and techniques to improve data security. Furthermore, as a senior security consultant, it is essential to monitor the company's systems and networks and promptly respond to any breaches, conducting corrective and preventive measures to prevent it from ever happening again.

Defense analyst vs senior security consultant salary

Defense analysts and senior security consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Defense Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Average salary	$86,453	$120,769
Salary range	Between $65,000 And $114,000	Between $91,000 And $159,000
Highest paying City	-	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	-	Nevada
Best paying company	-	Amazon
Best paying industry	-	Technology

Differences between defense analyst and senior security consultant education

There are a few differences between a defense analyst and a senior security consultant in terms of educational background:

	Defense Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 62%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Defense analyst vs senior security consultant demographics

Here are the differences between defense analysts' and senior security consultants' demographics:

	Defense Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 76.2% Female, 23.8%	Male, 86.1% Female, 13.9%
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 defense analyst and senior security consultant duties and responsibilities

Defense analyst example responsibilities.

Program and troubleshoot system micro controllers, card readers, alarm inputs/outputs, and manage device IP communication.
Utilize Wireshark to perform in depth intrusion analysis from packet capture (PCAP) files.
Conduct INFOCON assessments and collaborate with clients to provide recommendations regarding network security operations on DoD systems.
Review SourceFire events and perform analysis on events.
Use Wireshark, a network protocol analyzer to conduct deep TCP and UDP packet analysis of all network events.
Conduct firewall research and intrusion detection and determine false positives.

Senior security consultant example responsibilities.

Manage GLBA security awareness and training program and annual information security awareness activities.
Work alongside the QA department to ensure all documents are concise and well written in order to meet ISO's standards.
Monitor company s internal logs and traffic via Splunk to proactively investigate suspicious traffic and determine if the anomalies are malicious.
Perform email and file encryption transition for global financial/insurance company.
Assist organizations with creation of their management systems and registration to international (ISO) security and service management standards.
Provide technical leadership, task management, and engineering support to customers in the development of cryptography and key management solutions.

Defense analyst vs senior security consultant skills

Common defense analyst skills

Incident Response, 14%
DOD, 9%
Windows, 6%
Tcp Ip, 5%
Network Security, 5%
Network Traffic, 4%

Common senior security consultant skills

Cloud Security, 9%
Infrastructure, 7%
Governance, 5%
Java, 5%
Risk Management, 5%
Access Management, 4%

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Defense Analyst vs Senior Security Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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