Security
Cybersecurity
Protect systems and data: find weaknesses before attackers do, and respond when something goes wrong.
What you'd actually do
- Triage alerts and decide fast which ones are real.
- Review access, cloud configuration, and code for exposure.
- Support an incident from detection through the written post-mortem.
- Help engineering teams fix the root cause instead of the symptom.
Common job titles
Entry level
- Security Analyst
- SOC Analyst
- GRC Analyst
Mid-level
- Security Engineer
- Detection Engineer
- Incident Responder
Senior
- Senior Security Engineer
- Security Architect
- Security Manager
Broad U.S. compensation context
Entry level
$80K–$115K
Mid-career
$125K–$170K
Senior
$185K+
Varies by level, location, company, and date; use as directional context.
Common employers
VantaCloudflareCrowdStrikeCoinbaseMandiantAtlassianShopifySpotify
Core skills
Networking fundamentalsOperating system internalsLog analysis and SIEMCloud security basicsScriptingRisk and compliance frameworksClear incident writing
Common backgrounds
- IT support, systems administration, or network engineering
- Computer science or information systems degrees
- Military or government security roles
- Audit and compliance roles moving technical
What success looks like
- They stay calm and methodical while an incident is still unfolding.
- They write findings engineers can actually act on.
- They reduce whole classes of risk, not single tickets.
Career path
- Security Analyst
- Security Engineer
- Senior Engineer
- Architect / Manager
- CISO track
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