Information Security Engineers
Develop and oversee the implementation of information security procedures and policies. Build, maintain and upgrade security technology, such as firewalls, for the safe use of computer networks and the transmission and retrieval of information. Design and implement appropriate security controls to identify vulnerabilities and protect digital files and electronic infrastructures. Monitor and respond to computer security breaches, viruses, and intrusions, and perform forensic investigation. May oversee the assessment of information security systems.
- US jobs
- 435,370 (SOC 15-1299 group, "Computer Occupations, All Other")
- Median wage
- $116,580 a year
- Job family
- Security
Can agents do the work of information security engineers?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Security:
- Task levelPartialMixed. Capture-the-flag and vulnerability-reproduction tasks are near their ceiling: Anthropic reports 100% on its 35-task Cybench subset, and the top CyberGym entry reproduces 98.5% of vulnerabilities (Level 1). Exploitation of real web applications is not shown: the last published CVE-Bench result is 12.5% (GPT-4o, 2025), and we found no newer frontier result.
- Project levelUnexploredNo benchmark in our collection tests security work at project scale, such as a full penetration test, a security review of a whole system, or a compliance audit.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in security, not always this occupation's tasks.
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Identify security system weaknesses, using penetration tests.
- Coordinate monitoring of networks or systems for security breaches or intrusions.
- Assess the quality of security controls, using performance indicators.
- Train staff on, and oversee the use of, information security standards, policies, and best practices.
- Scan networks, using vulnerability assessment tools to identify vulnerabilities.
- Develop response and recovery strategies for security breaches.
- Conduct investigations of information security breaches to identify vulnerabilities and evaluate the damage.
- Develop or install software, such as firewalls and data encryption programs, to protect sensitive information.
- Oversee development of plans to safeguard computer files against accidental or unauthorized modification, destruction, or disclosure or to meet emergency data processing needs.
- Identify or implement solutions to information security problems.
- Develop information security standards and best practices.
- Recommend information security enhancements to management.
Other job titles for this occupation (48)
BISO (Business Information Security Officer) · Cloud Engineer · Engineer · Information Security Auditor · Information Security System Engineer · Infrastructure Security Engineer · Security Analyst · Security Data Scientist · Security Engineer · Systems Engineer · AI Security Specialist (Artificial Intelligence Security Specialist) · Application Security Administrator (Application Security Admin) · Application Security Engineer · Automotive Security Engineer · Cloud Security Architect · Cloud Security Engineer · Communications Security Manager (COMSEC Manager) · Cyber Defense Incident Responder · Cyber Defense Infrastructure Support Specialist · Cybersecurity Architect · Cybersecurity Engineer · Cybersecurity Hardware Engineer · Cybersecurity Software Developer · Cybersecurity Software Engineer · Cybersecurity Systems Engineer · Cybersecurity Threat Engineer · Identity and Access Management Manager (IAM Manager) · Information Assurance Engineer · Information Security Administrator (Information Security Admin) · Information Security Architect · Information Security Consultant · Information Security Engineer · Information Security Loss Prevention Engineer · Information Security Management Engineer · IS Security Developer (Information Systems Security Developer) · IS Security Engineer (Information Systems Security Engineer) · IS Security Scientist (Information Systems Security Scientist) · IT Administrator (Information Technology Administrator) · IT Architect (Information Technology Architect) · IT Security Engineer (Information Technology Security Engineer) · Mobile Security Engineer · Network Engineer · Network Security Engineer · Product Security Engineer · Security Administrator (Security Admin) · Security Architect · System Security Analyst · Systems Security Engineer