# Security salary: $180,000–$258,000 a year

Every number below comes from 585 tracked live security postings. No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=271 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median security posting offers $180,000–$258,000 a year (n=271, USD).
- 47.4% of the 585 live security postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $223,900–$316,350 a year — the median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Level 4 security roles (building AI systems) list $320,000–$392,500, vs $175,875–$254,500 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 | 32 | $140,500–$235,000 |
| Senior | 148 | $172,730–$245,150 |
| Lead | 58 | $208,000–$287,775 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 132 | $180,000–$255,250 |
| On-site / hybrid | 139 | $180,000–$260,000 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Level 4 — Build AI systems | 4 | $320,000–$392,500 |
| Level 1 — Work around AI | 184 | $175,875–$254,500 |

## Companies hiring security roles

- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (32)
- [Anthropic](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anthropic) (26)
- [Salesforce](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/salesforce) (22)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (19)
- [Palantir](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/palantir) (16)
- [Zscaler](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/zscaler) (12)
- [Stripe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/stripe) (11)
- [Adobe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/adobe) (9)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 271 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: security postings at tech companies tracked by Level (585 live postings in this category on the measured date). Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.

All amounts are USD per year. Every median and quartile above excludes hourly-rate postings (a listed maximum under $1,000, almost always an hourly rate, not a salary) and mid-range postings that are neither clearly hourly nor clearly annual (maximum between $1,000 and $10,000) — mixing either into an annual median would understate the real number. The middle 50% of postings top out between $223,900–$316,350 (25th–75th percentile).

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

## Security salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median security salary?**

Across 271 live US postings for security roles with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $180,000–$258,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

47.4% of the 271 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

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

In this sample, 17 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 443 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/security