Data Scientist vs Security Engineer

Put two roles head to head — any role, in any location or worldwide-remote.

Side A

Side B

Both sides have the same median salary.

Side-by-side distribution

Data Scientist Security Engineer
$190k
$190k
$100.3k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $284.5k

Data Scientist

$190,000

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -0.8%
$191,625 $190,000
$150k 25th
$190k Median
$229.9k 75th
$113.5k
$271.8k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5.7k – $999k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
42.4%
Live roles
1,661

Security Engineer

$190,000

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▲ +5.6%
$180,000 $190,000
$153.1k 25th
$190k Median
$233.1k 75th
$113.1k
$267.3k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5k – $999k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
47.5%
Live roles
1,984

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Launch Potato $187,500 24
GR GRVTY $170,000 17
Lyft $158,400 17
Pinterest $213,757 12
OpenAI $308,250 10
Roblox $267,885 10
Reddit $260,450 10
Roku $254,875 9

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Aurora Innovation $222,000 28
Anduril Industries $202,000 20
Accenture Federal Services $151,800 18
SpaceX $142,500 16
Mozilla $86,043 16
Palantir $170,000 14
OpenAI $339,000 13
Anthropic $362,500 12

Data Scientist salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $211,819 161
New York $190,000 138
Seattle $188,750 46
Austin $187,500 9
Denver $187,500 6
Los Angeles $183,750 16
Boston $181,250 30
London $160,895 21
Toronto $153,600 28
Chicago $153,300 21

Security Engineer salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $232,000 216
Seattle $216,000 81
New York $210,000 170
Sydney $205,000 5
Austin $188,000 22
Toronto $186,500 30
Boston $183,850 32
Denver $177,000 19
Atlanta $174,500 11
London $162,929 19

Data Scientist vs Security Engineer: which pays more?

The median for Data Scientist is $190,000 per year (typically $150,000–$229,900), versus $190,000 for Security Engineer ($153,138–$233,100).

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Data Scientist 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.

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