---
title: "Security Manager"
description: "Direct an organization's security functions, including physical security and safety of employees and facilities."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-manager"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Security Manager

**Category:** Management · **SOC code:** 11-3013 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 11-3013.01

Direct an organization's security functions, including physical security and safety of employees and facilities.

Also advertised as: Corporate Physical Security Supervisor; Corporate Security Manager; Judicial Office Security Director; Physical Security Manager; Physical Security Systems Manager; Regional Security Manager; Security and Surveillance Manager; Security Director.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $106,660 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $51.28/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $64,480 to $176,120, with the middle half between $82,020 and $138,870
- **Total US employment:** 156,180
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 13,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 51/100 — 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 156,180 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $64,480 |
| 25th | $82,020 |
| 50th (median) | $106,660 |
| 75th | $138,870 |
| 90th | $176,120 |
| Mean (average) | $116,890 |

### 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 | $139,990 | $130,816 | 2,790 |
| NY | $131,350 | $121,709 | 9,580 |
| DE | $129,260 | $129,509 | 240 |
| NJ | $124,110 | $114,066 | 5,690 |
| MA | $124,100 | $117,344 | 6,070 |
| CO | $122,510 | $118,882 | 2,150 |
| AL | $121,010 | $136,237 | 940 |
| CA | $118,620 | $107,135 | 20,550 |
| KS | $117,270 | $130,202 | 1,080 |
| VA | $116,540 | $115,267 | 2,950 |
| DC | $115,770 | $105,340 | 930 |
| GA | $114,360 | $118,763 | 2,670 |
| AK | $113,510 | $110,894 | 870 |
| CT | $110,990 | $107,123 | 2,650 |
| OR | $110,710 | $107,110 | 1,830 |

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

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 151,400 in the 2024–2034 base year to 157,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,700 jobs, or +3.8%. About as fast as average: 3.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 13,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## 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:** Less than 5 years.
- **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 | 70.0% |
| Master's Degree | 15.0% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 10.0% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 5.0% |

## What the work involves

- Develop budgets for security operations.
- Identify, investigate, or resolve security breaches.
- Plan, direct, or coordinate security activities to safeguard company employees, guests, or others on company property.
- Direct or participate in emergency management and contingency planning.
- Respond to medical emergencies, bomb threats, fire alarms, or intrusion alarms, following emergency response procedures.
- Analyze and evaluate security operations to identify risks or opportunities for improvement through auditing, review, or assessment.
- Create or implement security standards, policies, and procedures.
- Assess risks to mitigate potential consequences of incidents and develop a plan to respond to incidents.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- 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
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 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 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Financial Resources — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Personnel and Human Resources — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written 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
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 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 Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 5.63 |
| C — Conventional | 5.43 |
| I — Investigative | 3.69 |
| R — Realistic | 3.39 |
| S — Social | 2.75 |
| A — Artistic | 1.30 |

### 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) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 87.0 |
| ISTJ | 78.5 |
| ESFJ | 69.6 |
| ENTJ | 67.6 |
| ISFJ | 64.8 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Security Management Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-management-specialist) — median $83,050
- [First-Line Supervisor of Security Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-security-workers) — median $55,940
- [Compliance Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/compliance-manager) — median $141,900
- [Security Guard](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-guard) — median $38,020
- [Emergency Management Director](https://nuecareer.com/careers/emergency-management-director) — median $93,330
- [Management Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/management-analyst) — median $101,860
- [Business Continuity Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/business-continuity-planner) — median $83,050
- [Health and Safety Engineer, Except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors](https://nuecareer.com/careers/health-and-safety-engineer) — median $115,160
- [Facilities Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/facilities-manager) — median $106,660
- [Occupational Health and Safety Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/occupational-health-and-safety-specialist) — median $90,150

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **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 30.3 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-manager