Detection Engineer salary: $210K median
The median advertised Detection Engineer salary is $210K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $172K to $256K: counted from 87 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $101 an hour or $17,500 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $328K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll detection engineer jobs
$210Kmedian advertised salary
$172K – $256Kmiddle half of roles
$222Kaverage advertised salary
87roles counted
Detection Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $244K, 23% more than senior roles ($198K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $198K | $175K–$220K | 29 |
| Lead and above | $244K | $225K–$288K | 21 |
| No level in the title | $186K | $156K–$258K | 37 |
Detection Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $238K | 32 |
| 🇺🇸California | $230K | 36 |
| 🇺🇸New York, NY | $218K | 16 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $212K | 80 |
Skills that pay more for Detection Engineer roles
| Skill | Median with it | Above the median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agile | $228K | +$18K | 8 |
| SOAR | $218K | +$8K | 8 |
| Threat intelligence | $214K | +$4K | 40 |
| Kubernetes | $214K | +$4K | 24 |
Top-paying companies
Highest-paying open Detection Engineer roles
All detection engineer jobs- Incident Commander, Detection & Response - USOpenAI · 🇺🇸US - Remote$347K - $510KRemoteIncident response
- Threat Detection and Response Engineering ManagerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$401K - $510KKubernetesOpenAI APIIncident response
- Senior Manager, Detection and ResponseLambda · Bellevue Office$324K - $480KHybridSeniorMachine LearningLLMIncident response
- Security Data EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly (Travel Required) | San Francisco, CA$320K - $405KRemoteSQLAI agentsData quality
- Security Engineer, Detection & ResponseAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA; Wash…$300K - $405KPythonSQLLLM
- Senior Security Engineer - Detection & ResponseLambda · 🇺🇸San Francisco Office (Fremont St)$266K - $395KHybridSeniorRustGoPython
- Director of Detection and ResponseHarvey · 🇺🇸San Francisco$280K - $385KHybridLead and aboveIncident responseThreat intelligenceDigital forensics
- Director of Detection and ResponseHarvey · 🇺🇸New York$280K - $385KHybridLead and aboveIncident responseThreat intelligenceDigital forensics
- Senior Director of Product Management, Endpoint Security & XDRElastic · 🇺🇸United States$200K - $379KLead and aboveLinuxElasticsearchAI agents
- Staff Security Software Engineer, Detection & ResponsePinterest · 🇺🇸Seattle, WA, US; Remote, US$177K - $365KRemoteLead and aboveGoPythonRuby
- Staff Software Engineer, Detection & ResponseSuno · 🇺🇸Boston$277K - $364KLead and aboveAWSIncident response
- Security Automation LeadPoint72 · 🇺🇸New York, NY$250K - $350KLead and abovePythonTerraformCI/CD
- Director Product Manager - Okta Identity Threat Detection and Response ProductsOkta · 🇺🇸🇨🇦Bellevue, Washington; Chicago, Illinois; New York, New Yo…$226K - $349KLead and aboveMachine LearningAgileIAM
- Senior Security Engineer, Detection & ResponseBlock · 🇺🇸Bay Area, CA, United States of America$185K - $327KSeniorPythonSQLIncident response
- Security Engineer, Detection and ResponseServal · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $325K
- Security Engineer, Detection & ResponseBrainco · 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area$190K - $325KHybridKubernetes
- Security Software Engineer, Detection & ResponseVercel · 🇺🇸Hybrid - San Francisco, New York City, London$208K - $312KHybridRustGoPython
- Senior Manager, Security Operations - Detection Engineering & Incident ResponsePure Storage · 🇺🇸Santa Clara, California$253K - $309KSeniorAzureCI/CDAWS
- Security Engineer, Detection and ResponseFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$150K - $300KRustGoPython
- Staff Software Engineer - Detection and Response PlatformVerkada · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA United States$200K - $300KLead and aboveGoPythonAWS
Questions about Detection Engineer pay
- What is the average Detection Engineer salary?
- $222K a year on average and $210K at the median, across 87 open Detection Engineer postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $172K to $256K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Detection Engineer pay?
- Anthropic ($352K), Huntress ($228K), CoreWeave ($204K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is a detection engineer a high-paying job?
- The median Detection Engineer posting advertises $210K a year, more than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 21% above the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as a detection engineer?
- A tenth of the postings offer $328K a year or more; the highest open Detection Engineer role advertises up to $510K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the Detection Engineer salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $210K a year is about $101 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $17,500 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $83 to $123 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for Detection Engineer roles?
- Postings that ask for Agile (+$18K, 8 postings), SOAR (+$8K, 8 postings), Threat intelligence (+$4K, 40 postings) advertise more than the $210K median of all Detection Engineer postings with pay.
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Detection Engineer roles at companies is $210K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $172K to $256K. Counted from 87 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/detection-engineer/
Free to use with the link.