---
title: "Malware Analyst"
description: "Takes apart malicious software to learn exactly what it does, how to detect it and how to stop it, using disassemblers and sandboxes."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/malware-analyst"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Malware Analyst

**Category:** Computer and Mathematical · **SOC code:** 15-1299 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 15-1299.06

Takes apart malicious software to learn exactly what it does, how to detect it and how to stop it, using disassemblers and sandboxes.

Also advertised as: Malware Reverse Engineer; Reverse Engineer; Malware Researcher; Threat Researcher, Malware.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $116,580 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $56.05/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $55,940 to $188,470, with the middle half between $79,370 and $157,500
- **Total US employment:** 435,370
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.1% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 27,000 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 17/100 — 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 435,370 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $55,940 |
| 25th | $79,370 |
| 50th (median) | $116,580 |
| 75th | $157,500 |
| 90th | $188,470 |
| Mean (average) | $122,230 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $156,590 | $142,483 | 17,200 |
| MD | $144,680 | $137,844 | 19,060 |
| CO | $139,580 | $135,446 | 11,800 |
| VA | $139,030 | $137,512 | 17,000 |
| DE | $137,470 | $137,734 | 860 |
| CA | $134,440 | $121,423 | 80,150 |
| WA | $128,940 | $120,490 | 14,360 |
| CT | $127,720 | $123,270 | 3,100 |
| NM | $127,090 | $137,824 | 1,650 |
| HI | $120,100 | $109,230 | 2,080 |
| NY | $116,990 | $108,403 | 11,460 |
| SC | $112,260 | $119,745 | 4,300 |
| TX | $111,530 | $114,912 | 57,020 |
| VT | $111,530 | $113,855 | 1,320 |
| OH | $109,780 | $118,331 | 6,150 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/malware-analyst/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/malware-analyst.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 471,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 495,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 24,200 jobs, or +5.1%. Faster than average: 5.1% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 27,000 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:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Run malware samples in isolated sandboxes
- Reverse engineer binaries with disassemblers and debuggers
- Decode obfuscation and encryption routines
- Write YARA rules and detection signatures
- Extract indicators of compromise for defenders
- Write technical reports on malware families
- Support incident responders with sample analysis

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Computers and Electronics — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.6 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 | 6.11 |
| C — Conventional | 6.03 |
| R — Realistic | 3.89 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.71 |
| A — Artistic | 1.69 |
| S — Social | 1.65 |

### 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 | 89.1 |
| INTJ | 81.8 |
| ISTP | 74.5 |
| ESTJ | 70.0 |
| ISFJ | 65.6 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Digital Forensics Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/digital-forensics-analyst) — median $116,580
- [Information Security Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-analyst) — median $129,180
- [Information Security Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/information-security-engineer) — median $116,580
- [Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/intelligence-analyst) — median $93,790
- [Penetration Tester](https://nuecareer.com/careers/penetration-tester) — median $116,580
- [Security Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-management-specialist) — median $83,050
- [Security Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-manager) — median $106,660
- [Computer Systems Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/computer-systems-analyst) — median $105,850
- [Forensic Science Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forensic-science-technician) — median $72,060
- [Business Intelligence Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/business-intelligence-analyst) — median $120,230

## 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/malware-analyst