Security engineer career path at tech companies · 392 roles · 90 days to Oct 16, 2026
Updated
In short
Of the 392 security engineer roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 159 are senior, more than at any other level. The median stated pay for senior roles is $195.5k a year. Go rises most. Among the roles whose requirements we could read, it is required in 40 of 158 (25%) senior roles and 24 of 54 (44%) staff roles. Software architect roles share 7 of the 13 required skills listed for security engineer roles; no other role shares more.
Levels in order
Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.
| Level | Roles | Median stated pay | At least half ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior security engineer | 14 roles | Not shown | 2+ years, 11 of 14 |
| Mid-level security engineer | 91 roles | Not shown | 5+ years, 49 of 87 (56%) |
| Senior security engineer | 159 roles | $195.5k a year | 5+ years, 122 of 137 (89%) |
| Staff security engineer | 54 roles | Not shown | 8+ years, 27 of 45 |
| Principal security engineer | 21 roles | Not shown | 10+ years, 11 of 18 |
| Lead security engineer | 7 roles | Not shown | 5+ years, 5 of 6 |
Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.
What rises at the next level
Required skills asked for in a larger share of roles at the next level, by 5 points or more. Each count is out of that level’s roles whose requirements we could read.
Mid-level to senior
Out of 91 mid-level and 158 senior roles whose requirements we read.
| Skill | Mid-level | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and Access Management | 19 of 91 (21%) | 55 of 158 (35%) |
| Application Security | 18 of 91 (20%) | 39 of 158 (25%) |
In the senior top 15, not in the mid-level top 15: Kubernetes, CI/CD
Senior to staff
Out of 158 senior and 54 staff roles whose requirements we read.
| Skill | Senior | Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Go | 40 of 158 (25%) | 24 of 54 (44%) |
| Cloud Security | 37 of 158 (23%) | 17 of 54 (31%) |
| Application Security | 39 of 158 (25%) | 17 of 54 (31%) |
| Python | 82 of 158 (52%) | 31 of 54 (57%) |
In the staff top 15, not in the senior top 15: Threat Modeling, Authentication, Authorization
Not compared, fewer than 50 roles read at one of the two levels: junior to mid-level and staff to principal.
Roles closest to security engineer, by shared skills
Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.
Software architect87 roles
7 shared: Python, Cybersecurity, AWS, Identity and Access Management, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes
Platform engineer213 roles
6 shared: Python, AWS, Go, GCP, Azure, Kubernetes
Median stated pay: $176.8k a year
Site reliability engineer219 roles
5 shared: Python, AWS, Go, Incident Response, Kubernetes
Median stated pay: $184k a year
Forward deployed engineer170 roles
5 shared: Python, AWS, Go, GCP, Azure
Median stated pay: $198.9k a year
More on security engineer roles
How we count: 392 roles from 285 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology