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 278 U.S. job descriptions from 119 employers for Security roles. The most requested skills were Incident response (27%), Python (24%) and CISSP (22%).

2,797open U.S. roles tracked
4 yearstypical experience asked for
$191,500median advertised pay, from 491 roles that state it

Security

  • Incident response27%
  • CISSP22%
  • NIST19%
  • Threat modeling15%
  • Identity and access13%
  • SIEM11%
  • Penetration testing9%

Languages

  • Python24%
  • Java8%
  • Go7%
  • C++6%

Cloud & infrastructure

  • AWS20%
  • Azure14%
  • CI/CD13%
  • Google Cloud13%
  • Linux10%
  • Networking9%
  • Kubernetes8%

Finance & legal

  • Regulatory compliance13%

AI & machine learning

  • LLMs9%
  • Machine learning6%

Product & design

  • Project management7%
  • Agile7%

Business tools

  • Excel7%
  • SAP6%

Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since October 8, 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