Senior security engineers can be equated with being the electronic superheroes of a particular organization. They focus on designing computer systems that can deal with disruptions such as natural disasters or malicious cyber-attacks. They analyze computer networks, ensure they are running securely, and foresee possible security issues that may arise in the future.
A senior security engineer's duties include, but are not limited to, designing, implementing, maintaining, and operating information system security controls and countermeasures. Secondly, they analyze and recommend security controls and procedures. Moreover, they also are in charge of monitoring information security systems for security incidents and vulnerabilities. Educational requirements include a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity, computer science, or a related field. Furthermore, for a senior position, employers will also look for a master's degree in a similar field along with proven work experience, usually around ten or more years.
Holding a senior position has its perks. Along with being the leader of a team, they earn an average hourly salary of $58.79. That is equivalent to $122,289 annually. The career is projected to grow 32% in the following years.
Senior Security Engineer Overview
Working as a Senior Security Engineer
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a senior security engineer. For example, did you know that they make an average of $58.79 an hour? That's $122,289 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 32% and produce 35,500 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Senior Security Engineer Do
There are certain skills that many senior security engineers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, detail oriented and problem-solving skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a senior security engineer, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.7% of senior security engineers included identity, while 11.0% of resumes included information security, and 5.5% of resumes included incident response. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the senior security engineer job title. But what industry to start with? Most senior security engineers actually find jobs in the technology and finance industries.
How To Become a Senior Security Engineer
If you're interested in becoming a senior security engineer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.8% of senior security engineers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 33.7% of senior security engineers have master's degrees. Even though most senior security engineers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a senior security engineer. When we researched the most common majors for a senior security engineer, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on senior security engineer resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a senior security engineer. In fact, many senior security engineer jobs require experience in a role such as network engineer. Meanwhile, many senior security engineers also have previous career experience in roles such as security engineer or senior network engineer.
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Senior Security Engineer Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of information technology manager you might progress to a role such as information technology operations manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title information technology operations manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Senior Security Engineer
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Management Decisions, Inc. Senior Security Engineer Senior Security Engineer | Management Decisions, Inc. Management Decisions, Inc. | 01/29/2021 01/29/2021 | $150,00001/29/2021 $150,000 |
University of California Senior Security Engineer Senior Security Engineer | University of California University of California | 01/23/2021 01/23/2021 | $75,20401/23/2021 $75,204 |
Agile Senior Security Engineer-IAM Senior Security Engineer-IAM | Agile Agile | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $125,22001/15/2021 $125,220 |
Mayo Clinic SR Info Security Engineer SR Info Security Engineer | Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic | 01/12/2021 01/12/2021 | $225,77201/12/2021 $225,772 |
Wells Fargo DLP Info Security SR. Engineer DLP Info Security SR. Engineer | Wells Fargo Wells Fargo | 01/05/2021 01/05/2021 | $112,00001/05/2021 $112,000 |
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Top Colleges for Senior Security Engineers
1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA • Private
2. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
3. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
4. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
5. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
6. Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA • Public
7. Cornell University
Ithaca, NY • Private
8. Georgetown University
Washington, DC • Private
9. Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH • Private
10. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
Top Skills For a Senior Security Engineer
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.7% of senior security engineers listed identity on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and detail oriented are important as well.
- Identity, 12.7%
- Information Security, 11.0%
- Incident Response, 5.5%
- Linux, 4.6%
- Windows, 4.4%
- Other Skills, 61.8% See All Senior Security Engineer Skills
Best States For a Senior Security Engineer
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a senior security engineer. The best states for people in this position are Delaware, California, Maine, and Washington. Senior security engineers make the most in Delaware with an average salary of $140,023. Whereas in California and Maine, they would average $138,672 and $138,288, respectively. While senior security engineers would only make an average of $136,220 in Washington, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Washington
$136,220
Avg. Salary
2. California
$138,672
Avg. Salary
3. New Hampshire
$121,541
Avg. Salary
How Do Senior Security Engineer Rate Their Jobs?
Top Senior Security Engineer Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ senior security engineers and discovered their number of senior security engineer opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Microsoft was the best, especially with an average salary of $146,739. Walmart follows up with an average salary of $150,727, and then comes Verizon Communications with an average of $106,652. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a senior security engineer. The employers include Oracle, Twitter, and Cargill
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