Security Engineer salary: $215K median
From 346 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$215Kmedian advertised salary
$185K – $255Kmiddle half of roles
$226Kaverage advertised salary
346roles counted
Security Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $250K, 25% more than senior roles ($200K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $200K | $186K–$218K | 113 |
| Lead and above | $250K | $225K–$282K | 108 |
| No level in title | $200K | $158K–$250K | 125 |
Security Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $229K | 143 |
| 🇺🇸California | $218K | 181 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $218K | 50 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $214K | 334 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $212K | 67 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $211K | 22 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $150K | 15 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $362K | 14 |
| OpenAI | $356K | 9 |
| Roblox | $344K | 5 |
| Lambda | $330K | 5 |
| Suno | $303K | 3 |
| Replit | $291K | 4 |
| Harvey | $280K | 8 |
| Ripple | $262K | 6 |
| Okta | $256K | 3 |
| Block | $256K | 4 |
| Crusoe | $252K | 4 |
| Figure | $238K | 4 |
| Zoox | $234K | 4 |
| Notion | $232K | 3 |
| Whoop | $232K | 3 |
| Samsara | $230K | 8 |
| Chainguard | $218K | 5 |
| Dropbox | $217K | 3 |
| Plaid | $216K | 5 |
| Airwallex | $214K | 4 |
| Databricks | $212K | 4 |
| True Anomaly | $210K | 7 |
| Muon Space | $206K | 4 |
| CoreWeave | $204K | 11 |
| Sui / Mysten Labs | $195K | 4 |
Highest-paying open Security Engineer roles
All security engineer jobs- Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure SecurityOpenAI · 🇺🇸US - Remote$401K - $510KRemoteLeadAzureCI/CDKubernetes
- Staff+ Application Security EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Francisco, CA | S…$320K - $485KRemoteLeadRustGoPython
- Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&AAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Francisco, CA | S…$320K - $485KRemoteLeadRustGoPython
- Principal Security EngineerBlock · 🇺🇸Bay Area, CA, United States of America$319K - $479KLead
- Staff Security ArchitectLambda · Bellevue Office$314K - $465KLeadGoPythonTerraform
- Security Engineer, Application SecurityOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$266K - $445KPythonJavaC++
- Director of Product SecurityHarvey · 🇺🇸New York$272K - $408KLead
- Director of Product SecurityHarvey · 🇺🇸San Francisco$272K - $408KLead
- Member of Technical Staff (Offensive Security Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $405KGoPythonGCP
- Senior Software Engineer, Application SecurityDecagon · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KSeniorGCPCI/CD
- Security EngineerLambda · 🇺🇸San Francisco Office (Fremont St)$230K - $395KGoPythonMachine Learning
- Security EngineerSierra · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$230K - $390KLLMCI/CD
- Engineering Manager, Security (Cloud, Infrastructure & Application Security)Replit · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$250K - $387KGoPythonTypeScript
- Principal Network Security EngineerRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$326K - $385KLeadGoC++
- Principal Security Software Engineer, Application SecurityRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$326K - $385KLeadGoPythonC#
- Security EngineerFigma · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • United States$153K - $376K
- Staff/Senior Staff Software Engineer - Product SecurityZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$292K - $375KLeadAWS
- Senior / Staff Infrastructure Security EngineerSuno · 🇺🇸NYC$277K - $364KLeadGCPAzureKubernetes
- Security Engineer - Incident ResponseReplit · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$230K - $360KGoPythonGCP
- Security Engineer, Application SecurityFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$150K - $350KRustGoPython
Questions about Security Engineer pay
- What is the average Security Engineer salary?
- $226K a year on average and $215K at the median, across 346 open Security Engineer postings at tech 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 $185K to $255K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Security Engineer pay?
- Anthropic ($362K), OpenAI ($356K), Roblox ($344K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- 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 Security Engineer roles at tech companies is $215K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $185K to $255K. Counted from 346 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/security-engineer/
Free to use with the link.