Security engineer was the most common title in cybersecurity job listings in 2024, according to security and IT workforce management platform provider CyberSN. Its report “U.S. Cybersecurity Job Posting Data” was created by pulling together job postings from 30 major job boards and Fortune 500 companies’ job boards between January 2022 and December 2024. The report shows which roles are growing, which are decreasing in demand, and other hiring trends.
Security engineer and security analyst job-seekers have a lot of options
The top 10 most in-demand roles posted in 2024 were:
- Security engineer (64,300 posted jobs)
- Security analyst (45,496 posted jobs)
- DevSecOps (36,020 posted jobs)
- Cybersecurity/Privacy Attorney (22,456 posted jobs)
- Security Architect (22,246 posted jobs)
- Cybersecurity Manager (17,975 posted jobs)
- Identity and Access Management Engineer (12,223 posted jobs)
- Cybersecurity Specialist (8,221 posted jobs)
- Cyber Risk Analyst (8,187 posted jobs)
- Incident Responder (7,639 posted jobs)
Organizations are increasing their job postings for cyber lawyers and red team personnel
If you have both legal and cybersecurity experience, you’re in luck: Demand for cybersecurity/privacy attorneys grew more than any other role in 2024, with the largest year-over-year growth, increasing 40% from 2023 to 2024 and 19% increase 2022 to 2024.
Other roles that saw notable increases year-over-year were red teamer, cybersecurity sales engineer, cyber threat intelligence analyst, and cybersecurity specialist. For a longer-term look, the following roles grew the most between 2022 and 2024:
- Reverse engineer/malware analyst
- Cybersecurity/privacy attorney
- Cybersecurity technical writer
- Cybersecurity specialist
- Chief information security officer
Software engineering and identity and access management jobs slowed in 2024
Conversely, roles for cloud security engineer and cybersecurity lead have significantly decreased since 2022. The titles that saw the largest decrease in number of job listings between 2023 and 2024 were:
- Cybersecurity software engineer
- Identity and access management engineer
- Cybersecurity lead
- Cloud security engineer
- Security analyst
While product security engineers and DevSecOps positions decline overall from 2022 to 2024, a modest rebound from 2023 to 2024 could signal a return to growth.
Regulatory pressure has shaped cybersecurity in the last three years
Dom Glavach, chief security and technology officer at CyberSN, attributed job trends in 2022 to 2024 to “regulatory pressures on CEOs and Boards of Directors,” a trend that seems likely to change in the United States.
Meanwhile, AI appears to be influencing hiring trends.
“Decreases in Security Engineer, Security Analyst, and DevSecOps job postings are signaling an industry-wide shift toward AI-powered security automation and internal security operations optimizations,” Glavach said.
Job postings for security engineers, security analysts, and DevSecOps have decreased over the last three years, but this has not stopped them from remaining in the list of the top five most sought-after roles.
“Our Cyber Workforce Risk Management Practice is seeing organizations prioritize talent retention, development, and the need to address workforce gaps,” said Deidre Diamond, founder and chief executive officer of CyberSN.
