# Security engineer salary: $185,000–$260,000 a year

Every number below comes from 381 tracked live postings whose title matches "security engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=189 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median security engineer posting offers $185,000–$260,000 a year (n=189).
- 49.9% of the 381 live postings matching "security engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 security engineers (building AI systems) list $195,900–$278,850, vs $184,800–$260,000 at Level 1.

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 0 | not enough data |
| Junior | 1 | $133,000–$183,000 |
| Mid-level | 19 | $140,000–$258,000 |
| Senior | 112 | $173,250–$243,838 |
| Lead | 37 | $220,000–$303,900 |

## Remote vs on-site (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 98 | $185,000–$260,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 91 | $184,000–$261,450 |

## Companies hiring security engineers

- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (15)
- [Anthropic](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anthropic) (14)
- [Palantir](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/palantir) (14)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (10)
- [Stripe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/stripe) (10)
- [Airwallex](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/airwallex) (8)
- [CoreWeave](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/coreweave) (8)
- [GitLab](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/gitlab) (7)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "security engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 189 such postings clear the 50-posting floor Level requires before publishing a dedicated salary page — below that, the median moves too much between ingestion cycles to be a citable number.

Sample: postings at tech companies tracked by Level. Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.

## Security engineer salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median security engineer salary?**

Across 189 live US postings for security engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $185,000–$260,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many security engineers jobs are remote?**

49.9% of the 189 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

**Does the AI level of the job change the pay?**

In this sample, 9 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 285 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/security-engineer