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Cybersecurity Job Openings Boom, Pool of U.S. Job Seekers Shrinks

Companies looking for cybersecurity engineers might do better in Australia, France, Israel, the Netherlands, and the U.K., instead of the U.S.

1 min read

Photograph of a woman in front of a computer
Photo: iStockphoto

Recruitment site Indeed has good news for cybersecurity professionals: Demand is booming around the world. After a relatively flat period between 2016 and 2017, 2018 saw job postings up 7 percent in the United States, 18 percent in Ireland, and 39 percent in India, recently ranked as one of the least cybersecure countries in the world. Job seeker interest, as measured by the number of clicks on cybersecurity job listings, did not keep pace, except in Israel (one of the few countries to see a dip in job listings), England, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. In the United States, job seeker interest actually dipped 1.3 percent compared with the previous year (see chart, below).

Indeed chart illustrating changes in job postings and job seeker interest, 2017-2018.Image: Indeed

Indeed also looked at the highest paying cybersecurity jobs in the United States. Application security engineer came out on top, at US $128,128, ahead of director of information security, at $127,855. Penetration testers, a.k.a. ethical hackers, are earning an average of $114,431 annually.

RankJob TitleAverage Salary
1Application security engineer$128,128
2Director of information security$127,855
3Senior security consultant$126,628
4Cloud engineer$126,365
5Software architect$117,633
6Penetration tester$114,431
7Risk manager$108,465
8Chief information officer$103,690
9Security engineer$101,808
10Information manager$99,930
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