# Security Engineer Posted Median Jumps to $320,000 — On 13 Priced Listings

*September 21, 2026, by Ben Garves*

The posted median for [Security Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/security-engineer) roles across the boards we track sits at **$320,000** over the last 30 days, up from **$232,600** in the 30 days before that. That is a gain of $87,400, or 37.6%.

The caveat comes first, because it matters: these are employer-posted salary ranges annualized to USD (hourly converted at 2,080 hours), not what anyone actually earns, and the pools are small. The last-30 median rests on **13 listings** that published a range. The prior-30 median rests on **34**. At those sizes, a handful of senior or staff-level postings can move the midpoint several tens of thousands of dollars on their own.

![Security Engineer posted median, last 30 days vs prior 30](https://career.thegoodapps.co/posts/visuals/1fe9417e-b281-494c-9e5f-e8fb97d961e6.png)

So the honest reading is narrower than the headline number: employers who priced Security Engineer work in the last month priced it higher than employers who priced it the month before, and there were fewer of them doing it.

## Where that median sits against other priced roles

Security Engineer does not appear in our largest priced-occupation pools, so the comparison is to neighbors rather than peers. Among the ten occupations with the deepest salary coverage on the site:

- [Engineering Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/engineering-manager) — $280,000 median across 237 listings
- [Machine Learning Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/machine-learning-engineer) — $272,800 across 124 listings
- [Product Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/product-manager) — $247,300 across 369 listings
- [Software Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/software-engineer) — $240,000 across 1,294 listings
- [Account Executive](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/account-executive) — $220,000 across 182 listings
- [Mechanical Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/mechanical-engineer) — $185,550 across 123 listings
- [Marketing Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/marketing-manager) — $175,000 across 146 listings
- [Sales Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/sales-manager) — $173,000 across 125 listings
- [Financial Analyst](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/financial-analyst) — $165,000 across 125 listings
- [Sales Representative](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/sales-representative) — $75,914 across 162 listings

At $320,000, the current Security Engineer median prints above every one of those — including Engineering Manager, which carries 237 priced listings to Security Engineer's 13. The prior-30 figure of $232,600 would have landed between Account Executive and Software Engineer. That is the size of the swing in plain terms: one month it reads like a senior individual-contributor band, the next like a management band.

## The broader move set is tilted up

Security Engineer isn't alone. Of the eight occupations with a measurable posted-median move between the last 30 days and the 30 before, five rose and three fell.

![Posted median, last 30 days: occupations with a measurable move](https://career.thegoodapps.co/posts/visuals/0ef2d13e-9cca-44af-9cb6-4dcaef89b899.png)

The risers: Security Engineer ($232,600 to $320,000), [Site Reliability Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/site-reliability-engineer) ($211,000 to $257,200, on 8 listings from 34), [Manufacturing Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/manufacturing-engineer) ($156,000 to $230,000, on 19 from 71), [Analytics Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/analytics-engineer) ($155,000 to $220,000, on 7 from 7) and [Sales Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/sales-manager) ($165,000 to $215,000, on 23 from 102).

The fallers: [Program Manager](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/program-manager) ($225,750 to $170,000), [Aerospace Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/aerospace-engineer) ($200,000 to $153,000) and the generic [Engineer](https://career.thegoodapps.co/occupations/engineer) title ($179,545 to $90,750, on 5 listings from 14).

One pattern runs through all eight: every priced pool shrank except Analytics Engineer, which held at 7 both periods. Fewer postings carrying a published range is the common thread, and it is why the medians are jumpy in both directions.

## Hiring context

Security Engineer did not make this week's top-posting occupations on the boards we track — that list is led by Software Engineer at 63 new postings, ahead of Product Manager at 17. Site-wide, 10,459 roles were posted in the last seven days against 7,163 the week before, with 58,138 listings open from 686 employers.

On the skills side, [Kubernetes](https://career.thegoodapps.co/skills/kubernetes) (26 new postings) and [Terraform](https://career.thegoodapps.co/skills/terraform) (21) both appear in this week's top twelve, alongside [Python](https://career.thegoodapps.co/skills/python) at 84 and [Amazon Web Services (AWS)](https://career.thegoodapps.co/skills/amazon-web-services-aws) at 33.

If you're negotiating a security offer right now, the $320,000 figure is a data point worth knowing and a weak one to lean on. Thirteen listings is thirteen listings. You can see what's currently live on [Job search](https://career.thegoodapps.co/jobs) and track the day-by-day picture on [US hiring trends, day by day](https://career.thegoodapps.co/trends).

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