Technology plays an ever-important role in our daily lives. Between text messages, televisions, internet access and social media, it’s safe to say our society depends on the technology we use every day.
For all of its many benefits, technology often presents a challenge: make life easier for the user, without compromising security. This is often more difficult than it sounds, particularly when technology like online banking and website login credentials use so much of our personal information.
7 Cybersecurity Careers that Instantly Improve Your Earning Power
Behind the protection of technology is one field: cybersecurity. Cybersecurity protects users against the unauthorized, often criminal use of personal information stored inside of the technology we use. The field of cybersecurity also includes the protective measures that cybersecurity employees take to keep data safe across all technology.
Which cybersecurity career is right for me?
Depending on your preferences and your existing skillset, certain cybersecurity careers might be better suited for you than others. If you enjoy speaking with others and working alongside team members, you might enjoy a cybersecurity role that services a company’s clients.
By contrast, you might enjoy an IT team role if you prefer a more concentrated cybersecurity position, one that prioritizes the protection of sensitive data over any dialogue with customers.
1. Cybersecurity Architect
As a cybersecurity architect, you’ll play a heavy role in designing, testing and implementing the protective cybersecurity protocols that organizations often install to secure data. After your cybersecurity strategy is active, you’ll also work to maintain any existing firewalls, and optimize protocols as cybersecurity best practices change.
Like the name implies, cybersecurity architects generally build cybersecurity strategies from the ground up. You’ll first work with your organization to determine the type of protective cybersecurity structure that works best for your needs. Then, you’ll help to build those measures, often working with coding languages or inside cloud infrastructures.
Average Salary: $140,820 per year
2. Penetration Tester
Penetration testers are primarily concerned with penetration testing — simulated cyberattacks on cybersecurity measures, in order to determine their level of security and identify any weaknesses to fortify.
As a penetration tester, you’ll help organizations identify weaknesses in their cybersecurity protocols before cybercriminals do. By performing a series of exercises on a computer system or an entire network, you’ll work to discover vulnerabilities that could lead to the loss of sensitive information.
Sometimes known as ethical hacking, the penetration testing process is critically important for any organization looking to keep data secure. Penetration testers give their companies a chance to get ahead of any potential cybercriminal activity, by running live, simulated attacks against networks and their cyber defenses.
Average Salary: $119,231 per year
3. Information Security Analyst
Information security analysts design and install firewalls that keep individual computer systems, and entire computer networks, safe from vulnerabilities. These analysts, and the systems they create, often serve as the first line of defense against cybercriminals.
In addition to firewall installation, information security analysts often work to segment inter-network files and computers from one another, in ways that make it more difficult for cybercriminals to access an entire network through a single breach.
Unlike the role of a cybersecurity architect, your role as an information security analyst is more broad. You’ll protect against virtually any type of computer-related offense, which includes data breaches but could also include issues like phishing or intellectual property theft.
Average Salary: $102,600 per year
4. Network Security Engineer
Network security engineers work to protect the integrity of one or more networks from cybercriminals. As a network security engineer, it’s your job to keep a specific network safe from vulnerabilities, to keep the data inside safe and readily accessible for all organizational employees.
Network security is vitally important to virtually any organization, particularly companies with well-established networks. Network security engineers keep all information inside that network safe, and patch weaknesses before bugs or hackers can compromise systems.
At times, it might be necessary for a network security engineer to optimize an existing network. In other cases, you might need to entirely recreate a network, or build new networks that are fully compatible with, and connected to, existing networks.
Average Salary: $103,057 per year
5. Chief Information Officer
The leader in your organization’s IT space, the chief information officer is responsible for designing and implementing high-level strategies that protect all technology and the data inside. Often recognized as the CIO, a chief information officer is the go-to administrator who maintains executive authority over a company’s computers, tech systems and digital data.
Chief information officers often hold a responsibility to both organizational leaders, and stakeholders, in reporting any relevant IT activity. If a data breach occurs, the chief information officer develops a strategy to handle fallout. When new security protocols are implemented, chief information officers direct IT team members in the instruction of an organization's employees, to minimize any tech usage interruptions.
Ultimately, the chief information officer works hard to align a company’s technology protection strategies with other overall goals.
Average Salary: $170,265 per year
6. IT Director
IT directors maintain close control over an organization’s information technology strategies. You’ll typically work in tandem with an IT team — team members depending on you for direction — to collectively secure a company’s networks, computer systems and other technology from vulnerabilities.
Much of an IT director’s role is proactive. You’ll work to constantly assess the current state of your organization’s computer systems, to continually identify and patch vulnerabilities before they materialize. IT directors set both short and long-term goals for entire IT teams, to keep systems secure and update networks in accordance with emerging industry best practices.
Average Salary: $187,830 per year
7. Cybersecurity Engineer
As a cybersecurity engineer, it’s your job to protect an organization’s data from harm. You’ll accomplish this goal by constantly analyzing threats across the information technology space — including any new hacking techniques, cybercriminal tendencies and phishing techniques — and optimizing network security accordingly.
Cybersecurity engineers also install specific intrusion detection systems, which help organizations respond faster after a data breach, or an attempted data breach, has taken place. These systems can save hours, sometimes days, in a company’s response to even a single attempted hack.
Average Salary: $100,196 per year
The first step in your pursuit of a six-figure cybersecurity career is a simple one: you’ll need to learn the foundational cybersecurity strategies that today’s employers are looking for.
That’s exactly why we created our Cybersecurity Bootcamp — to equip aspiring cybersecurity professionals with the tools, skills and experience they need to qualify for a wide variety of available cybersecurity positions.
Launch your career in cybersecurity at your own pace, through hands-on courses taught by mentors already employed at the world’s leading cyber organizations. In 24 weeks or less, you’ll elevate your skillset and earn an industry-recognized certification that sets you apart from other potential cyber applicants.
Speak to our Admissions team today to reserve your seat in our next career-altering Cybersecurity Bootcamp.