Information assurance engineer vs senior security consultant

The differences between information assurance engineers 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 an information assurance engineer and a senior security consultant. Additionally, a senior security consultant has an average salary of $120,769, which is higher than the $89,291 average annual salary of an information assurance engineer.

The top three skills for an information assurance engineer include RMF, DOD and IAM. The most important skills for a senior security consultant are cloud security, infrastructure, and governance.

Information assurance engineer vs senior security consultant overview

	Information Assurance Engineer	Senior Security Consultant
Yearly salary	$89,291	$120,769
Hourly rate	$42.93	$58.06
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	104,421	66,226
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does an information assurance engineer do?

Information assurance engineers are responsible for protecting an organization's data. They act as a team of security specialists that use their skill in securely operating and keeping data to protect the organization's most essential asset. Their main role is to guarantee the quality, security, and retrievability of the organization's information. Also, they outline security systems that make certain the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of data. Additionally, they secure IT infrastructure, maintain hardware and software updated, establish security standards, and monitor threats like breaches.

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.

Information assurance engineer vs senior security consultant salary

Information assurance engineers and senior security consultants have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Information Assurance Engineer	Senior Security Consultant
Average salary	$89,291	$120,769
Salary range	Between $67,000 And $117,000	Between $91,000 And $159,000
Highest paying City	Santa Clara, CA	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	Oregon	Nevada
Best paying company	Parsons	Amazon
Best paying industry	Professional	Technology

Differences between information assurance engineer and senior security consultant education

There are a few differences between an information assurance engineer and a senior security consultant in terms of educational background:

	Information Assurance Engineer	Senior Security Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Information Technology	Business
Most common college	-	Stanford University

Information assurance engineer vs senior security consultant demographics

Here are the differences between information assurance engineers' and senior security consultants' demographics:

	Information Assurance Engineer	Senior Security Consultant
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 78.6% Female, 21.4%	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 information assurance engineer and senior security consultant duties and responsibilities

Information assurance engineer example responsibilities.

Install, configure, and managing ACAS deployments to assess the current vulnerabilities and security posture for classify networks.
Implement a manage endpoint encryption solution utilizing TrendMicro MobileArmor to secure university workstations against sensitive data loss.
Review system security plans, risk assessments, and compliance with NIST minimal security controls.
Assess network against NIST SP 800-53 rev3 security controls.
Review of PowerBroker root user logs on SOX UNIX systems.
Automate regression scenarios and update existing regression suite (QTP).

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.

Information assurance engineer vs senior security consultant skills

Common information assurance engineer skills

RMF, 9%
DOD, 9%
IAM, 5%
Windows, 5%
ACAS, 5%
Assurance Support, 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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Information Assurance Engineer vs Senior Security Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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