Key findings
- 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).
- 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 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?
| Specialty | Searches per role a week | Index |
|---|---|---|
| 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 pay | Searches with this floor | Open roles topping out here | Open 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 with | Searches | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 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
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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.
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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.
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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},
}More research
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