Skip to content

Research report ยท Live data

What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs

From 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026, people made 729 searches of CyberJobs.cc's security roles, 16.7% of them for one specialty; against its openings, Penetration Testing & Red Team was searched for most (3.04x the average specialty) and Security Architecture & Consulting least (0.2x), and searchers who set a pay floor asked a median of $240k/yr.

Data window
11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026
4 days, UTC
Computed
15 Nov 2026, 16:28 UTC
Recomputed every day
Source
The searches made on CyberJobs.cc that its search answered, by the specialty and pay floor it read from them, and the security roles open during the window.
Method
Version 1. Definitions
CC BY 4.0, how to cite

Every figure on this page as CSV and JSON, sent to your work email.

Key findings

  1. 1

    Against its openings, Penetration Testing & Red Team was searched for most: 18.0% of searches for a specialty with 5.9% of open-role time (3.04x the average specialty). Security Architecture & Consulting was searched for least: 2.5% of those searches with 12.3% of open-role time (0.2x).

    Figure 1
  2. 2

    The searches that set a pay floor asked for a median of $240k/yr; 45.4% of the open security roles that publish pay reach it at the top of their range.

    Figure 2

Figure 1

What people search for, per open role, by specialty

Which security specialties do people search this board for most, against how many openings each has?

SpecialtySearches per role a weekIndex
Penetration Testing & Red Team
0.30
3.04x
Threat Intelligence & Security Research
0.27
2.78x
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)
0.13
1.36x
Security Operations & Incident Response
0.12
1.20x
Cloud Security
0.11
1.12x
Security Leadership
0.08
0.78x
Security Engineering
0.08
0.77x
Application & Product Security
0.06
0.57x
Identity & Access Management
0.03
0.35x
Security Architecture & Consulting
0.02
0.20x

Sample. 729 searches of the board from 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026, 122 of them (16.7%) for one security specialty.

A search counts for the specialty the board's search read from it (what was typed, a described background, a LinkedIn profile or a saved profile); the words themselves are never kept. Searches for no particular specialty count in the total only.

Searches per role a week = searches for the specialty / (days its roles were open / 7). Index: that rate divided by the rate of every search that named a specialty, so 2.00x means twice the search interest per opening of the average specialty. Search share and open-time share are the specialty's share of those searches and of the open role-days.

Median pay floor asked: the middle of the yearly pay floors the specialty's searches set, shown with at least 3 of them.

Rows with fewer than 162.9 open role-days (23.3 role-weeks) are marked as a small sample and not ranked: below that the pooled rate of the specialties weighs more than a row's own clicks (the weight fitted on their own clicks).

Source. CyberJobs.cc Research, What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs, live data.

Figure 2

The pay floors searchers set, against what roles advertise

How much do people searching for security jobs ask to be paid, and how many open roles reach it?

Yearly paySearches with this floorOpen roles topping out hereOpen roles that reach it
Under $75k a year
0.0%
1.9%100.0%
$75k to $100k
0.0%
0.8%98.1%
$100k to $125k
0.0%
3.8%97.3%
$125k to $150k
7.1%
3.9%93.5%
$150k to $175k
0.0%
9.8%89.6%
$175k to $200k
14.3%
13.0%79.8%
$200k to $250k
78.6%
27.4%66.8%
$250k to $300k
0.0%
20.4%39.4%
$300k a year or more
0.0%
19.0%19.0%

Sample. 14 searches that set a yearly pay floor from 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026, and the 1,237 security roles open on 14 Nov 2026 that publish a range or a figure.

A floor is compared with the top of a role's advertised range, as the board's own pay filter compares it: a role reaches a floor when it can pay that much.

Open roles that reach it: the share of roles publishing pay whose top is at least the band's lower edge.

Source. CyberJobs.cc Research, What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs, live data.

Figure 3

How people search

Do people search by typing, by describing their background, or by handing over a profile?

The search began withSearchesShare
Used their saved profile
427
58.6%
Typed a search
298
40.9%
Described their background
4
0.5%

Sample. 729 searches of the board from 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026.

Source. CyberJobs.cc Research, What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs, live data.

For employers, recruiters and researchers

Buy the data behind this report

The figures above are a summary. Behind them are records we collect ourselves, every day:

  • 3,462 roles tracked, each with its history

    Every role on 696 job boards, read since 11 Nov 2026 (every hour since 11 Nov 2026): its pay and place, and the first and last day it was open.

  • 3,347 apply clicks in 4 days

    Which security roles people actually apply to, by specialty, pay and where the role is open. It happens on this site, so nobody else can count it.

  • fit checks of members against open roles

    How the people looking for security jobs here measure up against real postings, and what they lack when they fall short: years, a tool, a certification, a clearance.

What you can buy

  • The records

    The rows behind any figure, with their history, not only the totals.

  • A regular feed

    The same figures every week or month, as files.

  • A custom cut or benchmark

    Your countries, specialties or certifications, or your own company against the market.

Hiring for security and want to reach the people behind this data? (you make the hire).

Method and definitions

The searches made on CyberJobs.cc that its search answered, by the specialty and pay floor it read from them, and the security roles open during the window. Every figure is computed by one database query over the window shown, the same query for the live report and for every edition. Each figure states its sample beneath it.

Search
A search of CyberJobs.cc's roles that its search answered, counted for the security specialty it read from what was typed, a described background or a profile, with the yearly pay floor it read when one was set. The words themselves are not kept. Made by a person: automated traffic is set aside as it is recorded.
Open role-days
For every role, the days of the window it was listed, summed. A role open the whole of a 28-day window adds 28.
Searches per open role a week
A specialty's searches divided by its open role-days, times 7.
Search index
A specialty's searches per open role a week divided by the same rate across every search that named a specialty. Above 1, the specialty is searched for more than its share of openings.
Pay floor
The lowest yearly pay a search asked for. A role reaches it when the top of its advertised range is at least that much, as the board's own pay filter compares it.
Specialty
Each role is classified from its title and description into one of the 10 security specialties this site tracks (Security Operations & Incident Response, Security Engineering, Cloud Security, Application & Product Security, Identity & Access Management, Penetration Testing & Red Team, Threat Intelligence & Security Research, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), Security Architecture & Consulting, Security Leadership). Every specialty links to its own page.
Window
Live: the last 28 complete days, in UTC. Edition: one calendar month, in UTC.

What this data cannot tell you

  • A search shows what was looked for, not who looked: one person can search several times, and a search for no particular specialty counts in the total only.
  • The searches are those of people on CyberJobs.cc, not of every job seeker; the specialty is what the board's search read from the search.

How the job feeds are read and roles are classified: site methodology. How fresh, complete and consistent the data is, checked every day: data quality and coverage.

Editions

The live report covers the last 28 complete days and changes every day. Each complete month is also published as an edition, frozen two days after the month ends, so a figure you cite from an edition never moves.

  • Live data (this page)Last 28 complete days, recomputed daily

Cite and reuse

Free to quote, chart and republish under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) with a link to this page. Live figures change daily: cite a monthly edition for numbers that will read the same later, or keep the access date.

Citation

CyberJobs.cc (2026). What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs (live data, 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026). https://cyberjobs.cc/research/what-people-search-for-in-cybersecurity-jobs (accessed 15 Nov 2026)

BibTeX

@misc{cyberjobscc_what_people_search_for_in_cybersecurity_jobs_live,
  author = {{CyberJobs.cc}},
  title = {What People Search For in Cybersecurity Jobs (live data, 11 Nov 2026 to 14 Nov 2026)},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://cyberjobs.cc/research/what-people-search-for-in-cybersecurity-jobs}},
  note = {Accessed 15 Nov 2026},
}
Data: every figure as CSV (one line per value) and JSON, sent to your work email.Pay and open-roles data

More research

All 50 research reports