---
title: "Security Management Specialist"
description: "Conduct security assessments for organizations, and design security systems and processes. May specialize in areas such as physical security or the…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-management-specialist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Security Management Specialist

**Category:** Business and Financial Operations · **SOC code:** 13-1199 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 13-1199.07

Conduct security assessments for organizations, and design security systems and processes. May specialize in areas such as physical security or the safety of employees and facilities.

Also advertised as: Physical Security Engineer; Physical Security Specialist; Security Advisor; Security Analyst; Security and Workplace Violence Consultant; Security Consultant; Security Management Consultant; Security Specialist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $83,050 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $39.93/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $47,880 to $150,010, with the middle half between $62,640 and $114,010
- **Total US employment:** 1,087,090
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 98,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — 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 1,087,090 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $47,880 |
| 25th | $62,640 |
| 50th (median) | $83,050 |
| 75th | $114,010 |
| 90th | $150,010 |
| Mean (average) | $93,970 |

### 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 | $108,160 | $98,416 | 37,790 |
| MD | $101,500 | $96,704 | 39,820 |
| WA | $100,360 | $93,783 | 51,650 |
| AL | $100,240 | $112,854 | 6,990 |
| DE | $95,040 | $95,223 | 1,600 |
| AK | $94,740 | $92,557 | 2,020 |
| OK | $93,640 | $106,599 | 5,700 |
| MA | $93,270 | $88,193 | 17,910 |
| HI | $92,620 | $84,238 | 4,030 |
| CO | $92,520 | $89,780 | 45,670 |
| NJ | $91,060 | $83,691 | 34,210 |
| GU | $88,610 | No BEA price parity | 470 |
| RI | $88,130 | $86,165 | 2,240 |
| CA | $87,570 | $79,091 | 155,000 |
| CT | $85,530 | $82,550 | 5,630 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 1,157,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 1,202,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 44,700 jobs, or +3.9%. About as fast as average: 3.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 98,700 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.

### 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 | 65.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 10.0% |
| Some College Courses | 10.0% |
| Master's Degree | 10.0% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Assess the nature and level of physical security threats so that the scope of the problem can be determined.
- Recommend improvements in security systems or procedures.
- Perform risk analyses so that appropriate countermeasures can be developed.
- Inspect physical security design features, installations, or programs to ensure compliance with applicable standards or regulations.
- Conduct security audits to identify potential vulnerabilities related to physical security or staff safety.
- Design security policies, programs, or practices to ensure adequate security relating to alarm response, access card use, and other security needs.
- Test security measures for final acceptance and implement or provide procedures for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the measures.
- Prepare, maintain, or update security procedures, security system drawings, or related documentation.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — 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.

- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 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

## 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 Conventional (C), Investigative (I), Realistic (R).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.68 |
| I — Investigative | 5.09 |
| R — Realistic | 3.86 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.73 |
| S — Social | 1.96 |
| A — Artistic | 1.68 |

### 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 | 91.7 |
| ESTJ | 79.5 |
| INTJ | 76.7 |
| ISTP | 71.1 |
| ISFJ | 67.3 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Security Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-manager) — median $106,660
- [Digital Forensics Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/digital-forensics-analyst) — median $116,580
- [Compliance Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-manager) — median $141,900
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860
- [Retail Loss Prevention Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-loss-prevention-specialist) — median $42,540
- [Health and Safety Engineer, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-and-safety-engineer) — median $115,160
- [Emergency Management Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-management-director) — median $93,330
- [Security and Fire Alarm Systems Installer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-and-fire-alarm-systems-installer) — median $60,070
- [Gambling Surveillance Officer and Gambling Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/gambling-surveillance-officer-and-gambling-investigator) — median $43,370
- [Fire-Prevention and Protection Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fire-prevention-and-protection-engineer) — median $115,160

## 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/security-management-specialist