Senior security analyst vs senior security consultant

The differences between senior security 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 senior security analyst and a senior security consultant. Additionally, a senior security consultant has an average salary of $120,769, which is higher than the $103,571 average annual salary of a senior security analyst.

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

Senior security analyst vs senior security consultant overview

	Senior Security Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Yearly salary	$103,571	$120,769
Hourly rate	$49.79	$58.06
Growth rate	32%	32%
Number of jobs	61,108	66,226
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Average age	42	42
Years of experience	6	6

What does a senior security analyst do?

A senior security analyst is a digital professional who creates and implements firewalls and software systems to protect data and prevent attacks on private data. Senior security analysts aim to identify weaknesses in a network's security system and prevent breaches from occurring. Within larger organizations, senior security analysts are required to work with professionals who specialize in networking, information technology (IT), and computer system. They must also design security protocols and systems to better protect their customers and user data.

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.

Senior security analyst vs senior security consultant salary

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

	Senior Security Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Average salary	$103,571	$120,769
Salary range	Between $79,000 And $135,000	Between $91,000 And $159,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Sacramento, CA
Highest paying state	California	Nevada
Best paying company	Coinbase	Amazon
Best paying industry	Government	Technology

Differences between senior security analyst and senior security consultant education

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

	Senior Security Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 65%	Bachelor's Degree, 67%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Senior security analyst vs senior security consultant demographics

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

	Senior Security Analyst	Senior Security Consultant
Average age	42	42
Gender ratio	Male, 76.5% Female, 23.5%	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 senior security analyst and senior security consultant duties and responsibilities

Senior security analyst example responsibilities.

Supervise and manage information security assets associate with DISA STIGS and HBSS.
Utilize Unix utilities and management packages to analyze and manage traffic flow in the corporate backbone.
Manage GLBA security awareness and training program and annual information security awareness activities.
Introduce dashboards to identify preemptive attacks on corporate perimeter using intrusion detection and web application firewall technologies.
Evaluate DoD security tools; determine compatibility issues with existing network configuration/infrastructure, and present conclusions to management.
Contribute in defining time tables and SIEM project plans.

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.

Senior security analyst vs senior security consultant skills

Common senior security analyst skills

NIST, 7%
Incident Response, 5%
Cloud Security, 4%
Encryption, 4%
Firewall, 4%
Switches, 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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Senior Security Analyst vs Senior Security Consultant

Updated January 8, 2025

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