If you’re exploring cybersecurity as a career—or benchmarking pay for hiring—the first question to settle is simple: what’s the “typical” salary, not the best case or the absolute top of the range? In 2025, the most reliable national midpoint for this family of roles in the U.S. comes from federal labor statistics. Under the role group “Information Security Analysts” (the category that most cybersecurity engineer postings map to), the 2024 median pay is $124,910 per year. That’s the latest published national median—and a solid anchor when you see wildly different numbers on job boards.
But titles differ (“security engineer,” “information security engineer,” “cybersecurity engineer”), and private compensation datasets include different mixes of base pay and bonuses. That’s why you’ll see higher “typical” pay on crowd-sourced sites for cybersecurity engineer specifically—often in the $125,000–$160,000 range for base or “average” pay—as of late summer 2025. Think of the BLS figure as the official middle of the whole occupation, and the higher numbers from salary aggregators as the midpoint for more specialized or senior-leaning engineer roles inside that occupation.
Below, you’ll find a clear, no-fluff walkthrough of how the median is defined, how “engineer” comps differ from “analyst,” what really moves your number up, and what to expect by location, industry, and experience level. Use it to calibrate your job search or set realistic hiring bands.
Direct Answer: The Median, Explained in Two Lines
U.S. national median for the role family: $124,910 (BLS “Information Security Analysts,” May 2024). This is the best apples-to-apples midpoint across markets and industries.
Title-specific midpoints shown by private datasets: $125,000–$160,000 for “Cybersecurity Engineer” and closely related titles, reflecting a more engineer-heavy sample and (often) higher total compensation.
How ‘Median’ Differs from ‘Average’ (And Why You Should Care)
A median is the middle value—half the salaries are above it, half are below. An average (mean) can be pulled upward by a smaller set of high earners (FAANG-like packages, security architects at hedge funds) or pulled down by a large pool of entry-level roles. When you’re planning your life or setting a hiring budget, the median is the safer baseline because it resists those extremes. It’s also the figure most often used by government labor agencies.
What Counts as a “Cybersecurity Engineer”? (Titles You’ll See)
Many companies post “Information Security Engineer,” “Security Engineer,” “Cybersecurity Engineer,” or even “Security Software Engineer.” All of these typically sit within BLS’s information-security occupation. The hands-on scope varies—blue-team detection engineering, identity and access engineering, application security, cloud security, and platform security—but comp bands overlap heavily. When matching salary numbers to your case, compare scope (IC vs lead), impact (platform vs business unit), and on-call expectations.
Salary Snapshots from Trustworthy Sources
To help you triangulate your own “middle,” here are representative 2025 snapshots:
- BLS (role family, national median): $124,910 for information security analysts (May 2024). The BLS page also shows industry medians—information ($136,390), management of companies ($127,840), finance ($126,970), computer systems design ($126,690)—which helps explain why some sectors beat the national midpoint.
- Glassdoor (title-specific averages): ~$157,000 for “Cyber Security Engineer”; ~$160,000 for “Cybersecurity Engineer”; ~$165,000 for “Information Security Engineer” in the U.S. (Aug 2025). These are crowd-sourced means that often hew close to a mid-to-senior engineer profile, not an entry apprentice.
- Indeed (title-specific average): ~$126,700 for “Cybersecurity Engineer” (Aug 2025), a figure that aligns well with the BLS median when you’re looking at broader U.S. markets.
- PayScale (title-specific average): ~$104,000 for “Cyber Security Engineer,” reflecting a dataset with more early-career entries and smaller markets. Use PayScale to gauge how experience shifts pay over time.
When you reconcile these sources, a practical statement emerges: the “typical” U.S. cybersecurity engineer in 2025 can expect something near $120k–$130k base as a national median, with many specialized engineer roles clustering around the mid-$140ks to low-$160ks in tech-heavy markets.
Experience Tiers: Entry, Mid, Senior
Entry-Level (0–2 Years)
Early career engineers who’ve just pivoted from IT/help desk, completed a bootcamp, or come from SOC analyst roles typically land in the $75,000–$95,000 base-pay band in many U.S. markets, with some metros stretching higher. Crowdsourced datasets show the lower end when titles are “junior” or “associate,” and the upper end when the role is a true engineer seat with mentorship and light on-call.
Mid-Level (3–5 Years)
You’re operating independently across one or two domains—say, cloud security posture, IAM automations, or detection engineering. Mid-level engineer bands tend to bracket the national median and run $100,000–$125,000 in most markets, crossing into the $130,000s with either hot metros or in-demand stacks (Kubernetes, multi-cloud, zero trust, Terraform-at-scale).
Senior/Lead (6–10+ Years)
Senior and staff-level engineers who own strategy for a domain (identity, endpoint, appsec, cloud) or lead incident programs routinely clear $140,000–$160,000+ in base, with total compensation higher when equity and bonuses are included. Private datasets for “security engineer” consistently show means in the $160ks, which is consistent with senior-leaning samples.
Location, Location, Location (U.S. Hotspots and Remote Reality)
- High-pay metros: San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, greater Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia (federal integrators), Seattle, Boston, Austin. Expect medians to float 10–35% above national.
- Remote: Post-2020, many companies use national bands with cost-of-labor adjustments. Remote engineer roles commonly clear $110k+ base with experienced hires often packaged near or above the national “engineer” averages from private data.
- Industry matters: Information, finance, and management/consulting show higher medians than the overall occupation—mirroring the BLS breakdown for top-paying industries.
Global Perspective: Medians and Averages Outside the U.S.
Salaries vary widely by region and cost of living. As directional anchors in 2025:
- United Kingdom: A “Cyber Security Engineer” averages about £49,000–£60,000, with London often toward the top end or above.
- Canada: Benchmarks cluster near CA$100,000–CA$120,000, with Toronto and Vancouver typically higher than national figures.
- India: Senior engineer roles around ₹15–18 LPA are common midpoints in metros; entry roles come in materially lower, and elite product companies pay well above the median.
Use these as starting points and adjust for city, employer type (product vs services), and whether total compensation includes large bonuses or equity.
Engineer vs Analyst: Why the Engineer Title Pays Differently
“Analyst” roles often emphasize monitoring, triage, and investigations, while “engineer” roles build and maintain the systems that make security scalable: IAM and SSO pipelines, policy-as-code, endpoint hardening orchestration, data loss prevention, and cloud guardrails. The higher leverage of an engineer’s work (and the scarcer mix of software + security skills) explains why engineer-specific datasets show a higher midpoint than the occupation’s overall median.
What Moves Your Number Up (and Down)
High-Value Skill Domains
- Cloud security (AWS/Azure/GCP) with IaC, least-privilege at scale, service control policies, and org-level guardrails.
- Identity engineering (SSO/OIDC, federation, lifecycle automation).
- Detection engineering with SIEM/XDR pipelines, log normalization, and quality gates for detection rules.
- Application security embedded in CI/CD—SAST/DAST orchestration, SBOMs, and secure delivery patterns.
- Data protection (tokenization, masking, KMS/HSM, key rotation).
- Risk and compliance engineering (automated evidence collection, policy-as-code).
Certifications and Demonstrable Impact
Role-relevant certifications can lift offers—especially in enterprises and regulated industries. Market studies and certification bodies consistently report higher pay for CISSP/CCSP/CISM holders, with North American averages for CISSP well above six figures. Treat them as signaling credentials layered on top of real, portfolio-visible work.
Industry and Clearance
Defense contractors, financial services, and organizations requiring security clearances often pay above median due to scarcity and risk tolerance.
Total Compensation: Don’t Forget the Second Number
Base pay is only part of your package. Equity, annual bonuses, on-call stipends, 401(k) matches, and continuing-education budgets regularly add 10–30% on top. Enterprise tech orgs may offer higher base with small or no equity; high-growth product companies may offer meaningful equity with more volatility. Always evaluate total compensation and risk profile, not just base.
Market Outlook: Why the Median Stays Elevated
The job market remains strong. Federal projections show 33% growth for the occupation over 2023–2033—an exceptional clip compared with the 4% overall job growth outlook. A steady cadence of breaches, cloud expansion, tighter regulations, and AI-driven attack surfaces all sustain demand for engineers who can automate security at scale.
Salary by Experience: Practical Bands You Can Use
| Experience Level | Typical U.S. Base Pay (2025) | Notes |
| Entry (0–2 yrs) | $75,000–$95,000 | Bootcamp grads, SOC to engineering pivots, junior IC seats |
| Mid (3–5 yrs) | $100,000–$125,000 | Owns a domain slice, ships automations, light on-call |
| Senior/Lead (6–10+ yrs) | $140,000–$160,000+ | Domain owner, designs guardrails, influences architecture |
These are “base-only” directional bands. Private datasets show means in the $150ks for senior security engineers, especially in hub metros and product companies.
Salary by Setting: Industry and Company Size
- SaaS/Product Tech: Often the most competitive on total compensation; equity is a lever.
- Finance/Fintech: Strong base + bonus; regulated controls raise the value of experienced engineers.
- Government/Defense: Premiums for clearance; strong job security; ranges vary by contractor vs direct agency.
- Consulting/Integrators: Exposure to many stacks; pay varies with billable rate and utilization.
- SMB/Nonprofit: Lower ceilings, but broad ownership and leadership opportunities can accelerate your trajectory.
How to Push Above the Median (Without Burning Out)
- Build a portfolio of automations that remove toil: IAM lifecycle scripts, AWS guardrails, Kubernetes baseline policies.
- Make incidents measurably shorter: mean time to detect/respond dashboards, runbooks, chaos-day exercises.
- Prove impact with before/after metrics: blocked classes of misconfigurations, reduced attack surface, less break-glass access.
- Specialize in a scarce intersection: cloud + identity, appsec + platform, data security + analytics pipeline.
- Pair certification study with visible outcomes at work; the credential opens doors, the impact wins offers.
Negotiation: Benchmark, Package, and Protect Your Time
- Calibrate with the BLS median plus one or two private datasets matched to your title and metro. Bring three sources to a compensation talk—one public (BLS) and two private (e.g., Glassdoor + Indeed).
- Ask for a written breakdown of base vs bonus vs equity and the vesting schedule.
- Clarify on-call: frequency, hours, and stipend.
- If you’re weighing multiple options, organize them in a side-by-side comparison—much like reading a “SaaS vs SaaS” breakdown. As a mental model, think of how consumer tech reviews compare options such as Saily vs. Truly—you want the same clarity on benefits, growth, and risk.
Regional Deep Dive (Quick Benchmarks)
- United Kingdom: Cybersecurity engineer roles cluster around £49k–£60k, with London frequently higher; senior roles can exceed £70k–£80k.
- Canada: Expect CA$100k–CA$120k+ in major metros for engineer titles; Toronto benchmarks near CA$119k.
- India: Senior engineer midpoints around ₹15–18 LPA are common in top firms, with wide variance by company tier.
These are directional; always cross-check with local postings and talk to recruiters in your city.
Sample Career Paths (And the Pay Moves Along the Way)
- SOC Analyst → Detection Engineer → Senior Detection Engineer → Staff Security Engineer
- Systems Engineer → Identity Engineer → Senior IAM Engineer → Security Architect
- Dev/QA → Application Security Engineer → Senior AppSec → Product Security Lead
- Cloud/Platform → Cloud Security Engineer → Senior Cloud Sec → Principal, Cloud/Platform Security
Each jump adds ownership (and on-call gravity). Demonstrable automation and cross-team influence accelerate both title and pay.
Tactics to Level Up Your Earning Power in 6–12 Months
- Pick one high-leverage domain (identity, cloud guardrails, detection rules) and own it end-to-end.
- Replace manual tickets with policy-as-code and pipelines—show the hours saved and incidents prevented.
- Write design docs and post-incident reports that quantify risk reduced.
- Earn a certification that aligns with your target role, then immediately apply it in a visible project (e.g., mapping CIS benchmarks to Terraform).
- Track your metrics—time to remediate misconfigurations, coverage of controls, and drift reduction—and bring them to comp conversations.
Hiring? How to Set a Fair Median for Your Band
- Use $124,910 as your national benchmark median for the occupation, then adjust for engineer scope and your market.
- For engineer titles, peg midpoints closer to private dataset means in your metro; expect higher medians in information, finance, and consulting.
- Publish ranges with a clear progression matrix (IC2 → IC6) and differentiate base vs bonus vs equity. This reduces churn and speeds hiring.
Bottom Line
If you need a single, defensible answer to “What is the median salary of a cybersecurity engineer?”, treat $124,910 as the national median reference (via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the broader information-security occupation) and expect engineer-specific roles to land above that—commonly between $125,000 and $160,000 in 2025 U.S. markets, depending on industry, metro, and scope. Use the BLS figure to anchor expectations, then fine-tune with private datasets that match your title and location.
Cybersecurity remains a high-demand, high-impact field with excellent pay velocity as you specialize, automate, and demonstrate measurable risk reduction. Whether you’re an aspiring engineer or an employer setting bands, calibrate on the median—and then let skills, scope, and outcomes pull you upward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do Glassdoor/Indeed/PayScale numbers disagree?
Methodology and sample. Glassdoor and Indeed aggregate self-reported salaries and job postings (often for engineer roles), pushing midpoints higher. PayScale leans more toward self-reported individual profiles across markets and tenure, often capturing more early-career entries.
What certifications move the needle the most?
CISSP, CCSP, and CISM routinely correlate with higher compensation, especially for senior and cloud-focused roles. Multiple market snapshots and certification bodies document this premium year after year.
How fast is this field growing?
Very fast. The 10-year projection shows 33% growth from 2023–2033—much faster than average—driven by cloud adoption, regulations, and a steady incident cadence.
Is total compensation much higher than base?
Often, yes. Bonuses, equity, and on-call stipends add 10–30% or more, especially in product companies or finance. Always ask for a full breakdown.
