What are you worth? The Exabeam Security Professionals’ Salary, Job Satisfaction, and Technology Outlook Report

The Exabeam 2018 Cybersecurity Professionals Salary and Job Report is based on a global survey of 481 security professionals done in March 2018. The purpose was to gain insights on the trends in the salaries of security professionals, their education levels, job satisfaction, and attitudes towards innovative and emerging technologies such as artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

In this sample of cybersecurity professionals, we found:

• 90% are male
• 71% have at least a bachelor’s degree
• Their median salary range is $75,000 – $100,000 per year, with 34% earning more than $100,000 per year.
• Median salaries by job title include

Key salary and demographic insights

• Cybersecurity salaries are highest in North America and are 50 – 100% higher than reported salaries in Europe or Asia Pacific, and are 100% greater than salaries reported in Latin America.
• While salaries do not continue to increase reliably with increased levels of education, participants with advanced degrees consistently earned more than those with only bachelor’s degrees.
• Participants reporting higher salaries also reported lower job security.
• Salaries at small companies are the lowest.
• Participants who graduated from high school, but did not go to college, reported the lowest satisfaction with their current salary.
• Only 35% of survey participants reported being satisfied with their current pay, while nearly 40% reported being unsatisfied with their pay.
• System and security admins, chief security inspectors, and security engineers are the most satisfied with their current salaries.

Certifications

Security analysts hold a wide variety of certifications. Respondents listed more than 150 different types of certifications. Here is a summary:

Job satisfaction

Cybersecurity professionals seem to be very happy with their career choices. Overall, 83% are satisfied with their jobs.

Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in cybersecurity

Nearly half, 46.4% of respondents reported that they are not currently using artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning in their jobs, but they are planning to utilize them in the future. Approximately 32% of respondents reported currently utilizing AI and machine learning, while 21% of respondents reported not having any plans to use machine learning or AI in the future.