Cybersecurity is definitely one of the higher paying technology fields, according to ziprecruiter in the united states the average cybersecurity salary is anywhere from $82,936 – $125,664 depending on which state you are in. This is around 2-2.5 times the national average and in addition to high pay cybersecurity also offers some of the most diverse ways of making money. You can make good money as a standard employee, freelancer, entrepreneur or as an investor. Here, I’m going to go over some of them most common cybersecurity positions and how much they typically pay:
Source @ elearnsecurity.com
SOC Analyst
SOC analyst is typically one of the entry levels positions people get in cybersecurity. SOC stands for security operations center and they essential manage all of the security alerts and incidents that a company has. As a SOC analyst you would be one of many people that deal with these alerts as they come in, decide which ones are false positives versus true incidents and then investigation those that are potential security incidents. The average SOC analyst earns about $111,000 per year in the United States.
Cybersecurity Analyst
Cybersecurity analyst is an entry level to mid-level position in most companies and their job responsibilities can vary greatly. Essentially, they look for weaknesses in information systems and develop solutions to fix those issues. The average cybersecurity analyst earns about $94,000 per year.
Ethical Hacker
These are professionals that hack into company’s computer systems legally in an attempt to find weaknesses and help the company fix them before they can be used to cause a data breach. In addition to regular employment many hackers work freelance by participating in something called bug bounties, which are essentially freelance hacking projects where you are paid out according to how many security bugs you find. The average ethical hacker earns about $119,000 per year in the united states.
Cybersecurity Manager
Cybersecurity manager is a middle management position where they oversee a cybersecurity team. In that sense this position is similar to almost any other middle management position. The average cybersecurity manger in the united states makes $134,000 per year in the united states.
Cybersecurity Director
In this section where referring to someone who is at the director level of a company, think director of security operations, director of vulnerability management or director of threat intelligence as some examples. Here they will be overseeing multiple managers and therefore multiple teams within the company. The average information security director’s salary is around $190,000 per year.
CISO
This stands for chief information security officer and it’s typically the highest-level security position in a company, reporting only to the CEO in most instances. They are responsible for a company’s entire security program and usually receive compensation in money as well as stock options, which many times can make up more of the compensation then their actual salary. In terms of median salary most CISOs make around $300,000 with signing bonuses of around $427,000 on average.