How to hire a senior security architect

How to hire a senior security architect, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior security architect hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a senior security architect job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior security architect
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior security architect do?

Post a senior security architect job for free, promote it for a fee

Post free

1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the senior security architect you need to hire. Certain senior security architect roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect senior security architect also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   This list presents senior security architect salaries for various positions.

   Type of Senior Security Architect	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Security Architect	Information security analysts plan and carry out security measures to protect an organization’s computer networks and systems. Their responsibilities are continually expanding as the number of cyberattacks increases.	$46-83
   Information Assurance Engineer	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... Show more	$32-56
   Securities Consultant	A securities consultant is responsible for maintaining the safety and security of the company's premises, including enforcing protection for all the employees and company assets. Securities consultants also handle the confidentiality and stability of data network systems to prevent potential breaches and unauthorized access to information... Show more	$34-55

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Cloud Security
   • Cloud
   • Risk Assessments
   • Encryption
   • Firewall
   • Windows
   • Security Architecture
   • Security Tools
   • Security Policies
   • Infrastructure
   • Switches
   • Java
   • Security Program
   • NIST

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Achieve full compliance for industry specification standards (UL, NEMA, NIST).
   • Manage logistics of moving necessary equipment for test across country to newly designed/built NSA certify test facility.
   • Provide governance and direction for proper use of data.
   • Implement logging, Nessus, write policies and develop encryption from framework for PCI/SOX compliance.
   • Ensure encryption solutions are in compliance with company policies, regulatory directives, and best practices.
   • Develop enterprise security policy, standards, controls and guidelines base on PCI, SOX, HIPPA, and NIST standards.

   More senior security architect duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior security architect job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior security architect salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a senior security architect in Georgia may be lower than in Washington, and an entry-level senior security architect usually earns less than a senior-level senior security architect. Additionally, a senior security architect with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average senior security architect salary

   $129,456yearly

   $62.24 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level senior security architect salary

   $96,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average senior security architect salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$157,238	$76
   2	California	$150,944	$73
   3	New York	$150,087	$72
   4	Utah	$141,313	$68
   5	Pennsylvania	$133,800	$64
   6	Massachusetts	$133,257	$64
   7	North Carolina	$131,405	$63
   8	New Jersey	$130,534	$63
   9	Rhode Island	$129,314	$62
   10	District of Columbia	$128,374	$62
   11	Nevada	$128,248	$62
   12	Arizona	$122,487	$59
   13	Illinois	$121,324	$58
   14	Texas	$120,813	$58
   15	Colorado	$117,055	$56
   16	Minnesota	$116,411	$56
   17	Virginia	$115,243	$55
   18	Georgia	$113,404	$55
   19	Florida	$107,532	$52

   Average senior security architect salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$165,514	$79.57	94
   2	The Walt Disney Company	$160,795	$77.31	36
   3	Putnam Investments	$155,451	$74.74
   4	Bloomberg	$153,073	$73.59	14
   5	Snowflake Computing	$152,421	$73.28	3
   6	McKinsey & Company Inc	$151,427	$72.80	15
   7	Atlassian	$151,121	$72.65	8
   8	CDW	$150,382	$72.30	11
   9	Amazon	$147,855	$71.08	430
   10	Lowe's Companies	$147,192	$70.77	10
   11	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	$147,054	$70.70
   12	Southern California Edison	$146,513	$70.44	3
   13	Microsoft	$145,601	$70.00	163
   14	NVIDIA	$145,217	$69.82	184
   15	J.P. Morgan	$143,894	$69.18
   16	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$143,445	$68.96	198
   17	Dun & Bradstreet	$142,931	$68.72
   18	Citi	$142,399	$68.46	15
   19	BNY Mellon	$142,127	$68.33	11
   20	Laredo Petroleum	$141,908	$68.22

4. Writing a senior security architect job description

   A job description for a senior security architect role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a senior security architect job description:

   Senior security architect job description example

   Team Charter
   
   With offices in San Jose, Munich, Shanghai, and Beijing, the Product Security Department at NIO consists of several cybersecurity-related teams, together providing technical solutions for securing NIO's products and protecting user privacy. Our security and privacy solutions cover vehicle operating systems, digital architectures, assisted/autonomous driving systems, intelligent cockpit and mobile systems, V2X, etc.
   Responsibilities:Towards NIO's next-generation intelligent vehicles, design and develop system/ OS level safety & security solutions to support autonomous driving systems, intelligent cockpit, smart body/motion control, including but not limited to (one or more) Micro-kernel-based secure OS architectures, mechanisms, policies TrustZone-based secure OS architectures, mechanisms, policies, in both secure world and normal world of ARM A/M/R cores Secure automotive hypervisor providing spatial and temporal isolations Safety & security mechanisms leveraging hardware security engines, such as HSM, SE, TrustZone, SecOC, etc. Secure communication middleware for on-vehicle (automotive) networks
   Qualifications:Minimum of 10 years experience as technical, hands-on architect with Research and Development experiences, driving innovative solutions from prototype into commercialization Masters or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related fields of study Rich and proven domain expert with micro-kernel-based OS security architecture development and research, capable of designing UNIX-like security solutions (isolation, identity and access management, crypto, DAC/MAC, etc.) on top of micro-kernel-based OS, for example, se L4 or other L4 Micro-kernel Deep understanding of the following technical areas (one or more) In-depth understanding of hardware security features from ARMv8 A/M/R cores, and HSM, SE, TrustZone, etc.In-depth understanding of automotive OS/hypervisor, including but not limited to se L4 (OS/hypervisor), QNX (OS/hypervisor), FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS, Linux, etc.In-depth understanding of cryptography, PKI, authentication, signature, etc.In-depth understanding of network security and protocol security for SOME/IP, DDS, etc.Excellent team player with effective communication skills.
   Preferred Qualifications:Board-level development experiences Large scale software product development experiences OS/ hypervisor certification experiences
   About NIO
   NIO Inc. is a pioneer in China's premium smart electric vehicle market. Founded in November 2014, NIO's mission is to shape a joyful lifestyle. NIO aims to build a community starting with smart electric vehicles to share joy and grow together with users. NIO designs, jointly manufactures, and sells smart premium electric vehicles, driving innovations in next-generation technologies in connectivity, autonomous driving, and artificial intelligence. Redefining the user experience, NIO provides users with comprehensive and convenient power solutions, innovative Battery as a Service (BaaS) program, and other user-centric services. NIO began deliveries of the ES8, a 7-seater flagship premium electric SUV, in China in June 2018, and its variant, the 6-seater ES8, in March 2019. NIO officially launched the ES6, a 5-seater high-performance premium electric SUV, in December 2018 and began deliveries of the ES6 in June 2019. NIO officially launched the EC6, a 5-seater premium electric coupe SUV, in December 2019 and began deliveries of the EC6 in September 2020.
   
   Equal Employment Opportunity
   NIO is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity. We recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, age, sex, ancestry, marital status, religion, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, present or past history of mental disability, genetic information or any other classification protected by state or federal law.
   
   NIO US is an E-Verify employer.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior security architect for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior security architects they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior security architects who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your senior security architect job on Zippia to find and recruit senior security architect candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit senior security architects, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   If your interviews with senior security architect applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new senior security architect

   Once you've found the senior security architect candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also good etiquette to follow up with applicants who don't get the job by sending them an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior security architect. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

   Sign up to download full list

   Sign up

How much does it cost to hire a senior security architect?