# Security salary: $159,300–$215,000 a year

Every number below comes from 3,082 tracked live security postings. No surveys, no self-reports. Listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured November 2026 · n=984 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median security posting offers $159,300–$215,000 a year (n=984, USD).
- 19.4% of the 3,082 live security postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $184,000–$260,663 a year. The median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Builds AI (AI Level 4) security roles list $207,000–$300,000, vs $150,000–$208,900 at Little AI (AI Level 1).

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 3 | $103,275–$103,275 |
| Junior | 12 | $110,650–$167,605 |
| Mid-level | 232 | $136,000–$187,500 |
| Senior | 512 | $160,000–$226,700 |
| Lead | 135 | $184,900–$250,200 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 237 | $176,000–$250,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 747 | $152,000–$208,200 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Builds AI (AI Level 4) | 29 | $207,000–$300,000 |
| Little AI (AI Level 1) | 776 | $150,000–$208,900 |

## Companies hiring security roles

- [Amazon](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/amazon) (424)
- [Target](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/target) (376)
- [PwC](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/pwc) (136)
- [SpaceX](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/spacex) (92)
- [Thales](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/thales) (60)
- [Airbus](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/airbus) (53)
- [Orange](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/orange) (50)
- [Hewlett Packard Enterprise](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/hewlett-packard-enterprise) (49)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 984 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 (3,082 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 Do not cite as a national average.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 $184,000–$260,663 (25th–75th percentile).

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured November 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 984 live US postings for security roles with a listed USD salary, measured November 2026, the median offer is $159,300–$215,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

19.4% of the 984 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured November 2026.

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

In this sample, 66 postings build AI and 2,654 involve little AI. See the level breakdown below for the median at each level. Measured November 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/security

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/security. Measured November 2026.

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