Side-by-side distribution
CISO
$267,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.4%
- Live roles
- 148
Security Engineer
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.3%
- Live roles
- 3,819
Highest-paying jobs
Head of National Security Sales (DoW/IC)
Chief Information Security Officer
Vice President of Cybersecurity & Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
Chief Information Security Officer
Member of Technical Staff, Head of Security
Advisory CISO
Head of Security
VP, Global Head of Product Security and Risk
Head of Security
Head of Security & Trust
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer, Cybersecurity RL (Reinforcement Learning)
Staff Security Engineer
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Staff Security Reliability Engineer
Staff + Software Security Engineer, Labs
Staff+ Application Security Engineer
Staff+ Software Engineer, Cybersecurity Products
Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&A
Staff+ Software Security Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Mimecast
|
$196,000 | 2 |
|
Anthropic
|
$625,000 | 1 |
| DP DLA Piper | $600,000 | 1 |
| CI Circle | $341,250 | 1 |
|
Profound
|
$337,500 | 1 |
|
Harvey
|
$323,000 | 1 |
|
AeroVironment
|
$319,250 | 1 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$317,000 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 62 |
SpaceX
|
$147,500 | 47 |
CACI
|
$153,625 | 42 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 31 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 30 |
| SE Sezzle | $87,000 | 27 |
Mozilla
|
$85,799 | 19 |
Samsara
|
$198,088 | 18 |
CISO salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | $341,250 | 3 |
| Boston | $311,250 | 4 |
| New York | $284,375 | 18 |
| San Francisco | $277,500 | 8 |
Security Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $230,775 | 238 |
| New York | $204,000 | 226 |
| Seattle | $203,125 | 112 |
| Boston | $185,250 | 56 |
| Singapore | $182,500 | 3 |
| London | $180,000 | 23 |
| Los Angeles | $180,000 | 42 |
| Austin | $179,000 | 48 |
| Denver | $177,000 | 54 |
| Atlanta | $167,500 | 27 |
CISO vs Security Engineer: which pays more?
The median for CISO is $267,500 per year (typically $207,500–$295,000), versus $170,000 for Security Engineer ($135,000–$210,000). That puts CISO about 57% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so CISO and Security Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.