Privacy Officer vs Security Engineer

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

Side A

Side B

Privacy Officer pays about 23% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

Privacy Officer Security Engineer
$233.1k
$190k
$100.2k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $294.7k

Privacy Officer

$233,079

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▲ +40.8%
$165,500 $233,079
$202.6k 25th
$233.1k Median
$252.5k 75th
$185k
$281.2k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $154.1k – $331k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
40.8%
Live roles
49

Security Engineer

$190,000

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▲ +5.6%
$180,000 $190,000
$153.6k 25th
$190k Median
$235k 75th
$113.6k
$268k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5k – $1,718.2k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
47.4%
Live roles
1,974

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
SA Scale AI $297,900 1
Okta $285,000 1
Recursion $280,830 1
Solutuslegal $270,000 1
Neuralink $253,000 1
Nova Credit $252,350 1
Verkada $245,000 1
Nextdoor $240,000 1

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

Privacy Officer salary by location

Location Median Roles
New York $252,350 5
San Francisco $233,650 9

Security Engineer salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $232,000 216
Seattle $216,000 80
New York $210,000 169
Sydney $205,000 5
Austin $188,000 23
Toronto $186,500 30
Boston $185,500 30
Atlanta $174,500 11
Denver $173,500 20
London $162,929 19

Privacy Officer vs Security Engineer: which pays more?

The median for Privacy Officer is $233,079 per year (typically $202,565–$252,513), versus $190,000 for Security Engineer ($153,550–$235,000). That puts Privacy Officer about 23% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Privacy Officer 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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