There are a million unfilled cybersecurity engineering jobs around the world, with that number expected to grow to 1.5 million by 2019. But where are the jobs, and what kinds of jobs are they? Job search firm Indeed.com dug into its database to figure that out.
In a report based on data from 10 countries, covering the third quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of 2016, Indeed concluded that the biggest mismatch between job openings and job hunters is in Israel, with the United Kingdom just behind. Software engineers looking for cybersecurity jobs in the United States and Canada face a slightly more crowded field, but the gap is still significant; there are only 66.7 and 68.1 job seekers, respectively, for every 100 open positions in those countries.
Indeed credits the huge demand in Israel to the country’s position as a tech hub as well as its general emphasis on security, noting that Israel is a leading exporter of cybersecurity goods and services.
Generally, employers are most interested in hiring network security specialists, particularly in Israel, Ireland, the UK, the U.S. and Germany. In the United States, the specialty that’s second most in demand is application security. In Germany, that second-place spot goes to identity and access management. And around the world, cloud security experts can pretty much write their own tickets, because there are enough of them to fill only 8.5 percent of positions in the U.K., 20.6 percent in Ireland, and 36.5 percent in the United States.
Bad news, however, for software engineers looking to work as ethical hackers. Job seekers exceed job openings for ethical hackers in some regions, particularly in the U.S. and U.K.
With all these openings, cybersecurity professionals looking for a job can pick and choose—so Indeed offers a little guidance. The company looked at companies that had at least 20 openings for cybersecurity professionals during the fourth quarter of 2016, and then ranked them according to general ratings from employees at those companies. Apple came in number one on that list. Rounding out the top ten were the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Patient First, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Capital One, Cisco, Intel, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing.