Security Skills in Demand

Security teams protect systems and data, from detecting and responding to incidents to reviewing designs and meeting compliance standards. Certifications carry more weight here than in most engineering families.

We analyzed 74 U.S. job descriptions from 22 employers for Security roles. The most requested skills were Python (39%), Incident response (27%) and AWS (24%).

345open U.S. roles tracked
5 yearstypical experience asked for
$262,500median advertised pay, from 165 roles that state it

Languages

  • Python39%
  • Go14%
  • Java9%
  • C++9%

Security

  • Incident response27%
  • Threat modeling20%
  • CISSP15%
  • Identity and access14%
  • SIEM11%
  • NIST9%
  • Penetration testing8%

Cloud & infrastructure

  • AWS24%
  • Azure20%
  • Google Cloud19%
  • Kubernetes19%
  • CI/CD16%
  • Linux11%
  • Distributed systems8%

AI & machine learning

  • LLMs16%

Finance & legal

  • Regulatory compliance9%

Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since September 25, 2026. Shares show how many of the sampled descriptions mention a skill, so a low share can still be a firm requirement in the roles that list it. We sample a limited number of descriptions per employer so that no single company dominates, and we only report figures backed by several employers. Advertised pay comes from a different group of roles than H1B filings, so the two are not directly comparable.

All job families