---
title: "Cybersecurity Architect"
description: "Designs the overall security structure of an organization's networks, applications and cloud systems, setting the controls other teams build."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/cybersecurity-architect"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Cybersecurity Architect

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1241 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1241.00

Designs the overall security structure of an organization's networks, applications and cloud systems, setting the controls other teams build.

Also advertised as: Security Architect; Enterprise Security Architect; Information Security Architect; Zero Trust Architect.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $134,050 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $64.45/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $79,900 to $202,680, with the middle half between $104,620 and $168,200
- **Total US employment:** 179,740
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 9,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 26/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 179,740 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $79,900 |
| 25th | $104,620 |
| 50th (median) | $134,050 |
| 75th | $168,200 |
| 90th | $202,680 |
| Mean (average) | $139,580 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $168,070 | $157,056 | 4,730 |
| NJ | $162,350 | $149,212 | 5,660 |
| MD | $159,460 | $151,926 | 5,860 |
| CA | $158,870 | $143,488 | 14,870 |
| MA | $155,060 | $146,619 | 6,270 |
| SD | $153,390 | $173,154 | 420 |
| DE | $148,390 | $148,675 | 760 |
| CT | $143,890 | $138,877 | 1,570 |
| VA | $141,340 | $139,797 | 9,380 |
| NY | $140,390 | $130,086 | 9,800 |
| CO | $139,230 | $135,107 | 16,380 |
| NV | $138,060 | $138,089 | 1,010 |
| DC | $137,670 | $125,267 | 1,490 |
| OR | $135,660 | $131,249 | 1,540 |
| SC | $134,990 | $143,991 | 1,950 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/cybersecurity-architect/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/cybersecurity-architect.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 181,800 in the 2025–2035 base year to 195,800 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 14,100 jobs, or +7.7%. Much faster than average: 7.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 9,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** 5 years or more.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 55.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 15.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 15.0% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 5.0% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 5.0% |
| Master's Degree | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Design enterprise security architectures and reference models
- Plan zero trust and network segmentation strategies
- Review new systems and vendor products for security risk
- Write security standards and design patterns
- Select and integrate security tools
- Advise engineering teams on secure designs
- Brief executives on security risk and investment
- Align controls with frameworks such as NIST CSF

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Programming — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Technology Design — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Telecommunications — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Design — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Conventional (C), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 5.50 |
| C — Conventional | 5.16 |
| R — Realistic | 4.04 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.68 |
| A — Artistic | 2.25 |
| S — Social | 2.17 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 88.8 |
| INTJ | 82.0 |
| ISTP | 74.7 |
| ESTJ | 72.4 |
| ENTJ | 62.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Computer Network Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-network-architect) — median $134,050
- [Computer Network Support Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-network-support-specialist) — median $76,220
- [Network and Computer Systems Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/network-and-computer-systems-administrator) — median $99,130
- [Computer Systems Engineers/Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-engineers-architect) — median $116,580
- [Telecommunications Engineering Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telecommunications-engineering-specialist) — median $134,050
- [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850
- [Software Developer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/software-developer) — median $135,980
- [Information Security Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-engineer) — median $116,580
- [Database Administrator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-administrator) — median $104,620
- [Database Architect](https://nuecareer.com/careers/database-architect) — median $139,500

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/cybersecurity-architect