Cybersecurity roles are not often one-dimensional. In reality, a majority of pros juggle duties throughout a number of domains. In line with the “2025 Cybersecurity Employees Compensation Benchmark Abstract Report” by IANS and Artico Search, 61% of safety professionals routinely carry out a number of features — no matter their job title. The findings are based mostly on a survey of 528 cyber professionals within the US and Canada carried out between June and December 2024.
Take professionals in safety operations (SecOps) for instance: 22% additionally carry out duties in software safety, 27% in structure and engineering, 33% in id and entry administration, 41% in governance, threat, and compliance (GRC), and 49% in product safety. This mixing of duties is typical throughout the sector, suggesting job titles don’t typically mirror the total scope of a cyber professional’s contributions.
Nonetheless, job titles are sometimes robust indicators of compensation expectations. In line with IANS and Artico Search, the next roles prime the chart for the best paid in cybersecurity as we speak.
Safety architect
Safety architects lead throughout each compensation class: They earn the best common base wage ($179,000), obtain the best common annual money compensation ($206,000), and have the best charge of annual fairness grants (34%).
Greater than half of safety architects report their IT background was important in reaching their present function. Frequent foundational roles embrace system administrator and community administrator, whereas extra security-focused feeder positions embrace safety analyst, safety marketing consultant, and safety administrator.
As a result of nature of the function, professionals in cybersecurity structure and engineering — together with safety architects — tackle various duties. About 23% have duties that embrace id and entry administration, 26% contribute to software safety efforts, and 48% are concerned in product safety. These areas are a part of their wider mandate, which facilities on designing and sustaining safe enterprise architectures throughout networks, techniques, and purposes.
Probably the most revered certifications for aspiring safety architects is the Licensed Info Techniques Safety Skilled (CISSP) by ISC2. It covers eight key domains, together with safety structure and engineering, safety and threat administration, communication and community safety, id and entry administration, and software program growth safety. CISSP particularly lists safety architects as a part of its target market and can assist place professionals for development into roles resembling safety supervisor, director of safety, and even CISO.
For these specializing in cloud environments, certifications such because the AWS Licensed Safety — Specialty or the vendor-neutral Licensed Cloud Safety Skilled (CCSP) by ISC2 are extremely really useful.
Related certs
- See “High 12 cloud safety certifications”
- See “CISSP certification: Necessities, coaching, examination, and price”
- See “CCSP certification: Examination, value, necessities, coaching, wage”
Safety engineer
After safety architects, safety engineers obtain the second-highest annual money compensation ($191,000), with a base wage of $168,000. Practically a 3rd (31%) of safety engineers surveyed additionally obtained annual fairness grants.
Like their architect counterparts, safety engineers strongly worth their IT foundations — 70% cite prior expertise in techniques administration, community or infrastructure engineering, or common IT as important to their present roles. Others come from security-specific paths, typically starting as safety analysts or in SecOps.
Safety engineers are liable for constructing, implementing, and sustaining the technical defenses that shield a company’s IT techniques. Their work consists of figuring out vulnerabilities, testing and deploying safety instruments, responding to incidents, and managing protections resembling firewalls and intrusion prevention techniques. They play a central function in each day-to-day protection and long-term cybersecurity technique.
As a result of safety engineering is a broad area, certifications fluctuate relying on focus. CompTIA Safety+ is good for entry-level professionals. Engineers with a networking focus could pursue the Cisco Licensed Community Skilled (CCNP) Safety, whereas these working in offensive safety typically pursue the Licensed Moral Hacker (C|EH) to develop penetration testing experience.
Profession development for safety engineers could contain deeper specialization — resembling in software or community safety — or getting into management roles resembling a safety engineering supervisor or director of safety engineering.
Related certs
- See “Safety engineer job necessities, certifications, and wage“
- See “CompTIA Safety+: Conditions, targets, and price“
- See “Licensed Moral Hacker (C|EH): Certification value, coaching, and worth“
Threat / GRC specialist
Threat/GRC specialists command a powerful compensation bundle, with a median base wage of $146,000 and whole annual money compensation reaching $173,000. Moreover, 26% obtain annual fairness distributions.
This specialization provides a clearly outlined path for profession progress, typically starting with entry-level roles resembling threat analyst. In line with a 2024 ISC2 survey of IT safety managers, 27% of hiring managers establish threat evaluation, evaluation, and administration as among the many most in-demand expertise within the area.
Probably the most useful certifications for aspiring threat analysts is the Licensed in Threat and Info Techniques Management (CRISC) from ISACA. CRISC offers coaching throughout 4 key domains of threat administration: company IT governance, IT threat evaluation, threat response and reporting, and IT safety. Greater than 30,000 professionals maintain the CRISC certification, with a median annual wage of $151,000 — according to common base wage knowledge from IANS and Artico Search.
After gaining foundational expertise as a threat analyst, professionals can advance to broader GRC roles. These positions are extremely valued: 24% of hiring managers report that GRC expertise are in demand as a result of wide-ranging duties these professionals tackle. GRC specialists continuously lead the event of enterprise IT insurance policies — resembling incident response protocols — whereas managing threat, adapting to rising applied sciences resembling AI, and making certain compliance with region- or industry-specific regulatory frameworks.
A extremely regarded certification for GRC professionals is the Licensed in Governance, Threat and Compliance (CGRC) from ISC2. The CGRC is designed for GRC analysts, managers, architects, and administrators, and covers important areas resembling safety and privateness governance, threat administration, compliance packages, implementation and evaluation of controls, and ongoing compliance upkeep.
GRC specialists typically prolong their duties past the core GRC mandate. In line with the report, 16% are concerned in software safety, 18% contribute to safety structure and engineering, 34% handle id and entry administration, and 40% play a task in product safety.
Related certs
Safety analyst
Safety analysts earn a median annual base wage of $124,000, with whole annual money compensation averaging $133,000. Solely 20% obtain annual fairness grants.
Whereas there may be some useful overlap with safety engineers, the safety analyst function is mostly extra tactical than strategic, with a powerful deal with risk detection and evaluation. A typical subset of this function is the SOC analyst — a cybersecurity skilled who works as a part of a crew in a safety operations heart to observe threats, assess techniques for weaknesses, and advocate enhancements.
This tactical focus contributes to the almost 35% distinction in common base wage between safety analysts and safety engineers, who earn $168,000 on common.
Among the best certifications for aspiring safety analysts is the CompTIA CySA+, which covers core expertise resembling safety operations, vulnerability administration, incident response, and reporting. The certification aligns immediately with roles resembling cybersecurity analyst, vulnerability analyst, software safety analyst, and risk intelligence analyst.
With expertise, safety analysts can advance into safety engineer and finally safety architect roles, providing a transparent and profitable path for long-term profession progress in cybersecurity.
Related certs
