Cybersecurity salaries revealed: How much security companies like McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, and Cloudflare pay engineers, analysts, and other roles, with salaries as high as $300,000 (MFE, PANW, OKTA, NET, CRWD, TMICY, FEYE)

palo alto networks

Cybersecurity has faced a shortage of tech talent for years, making its jobs market especially attractive.
Last year, Silicon Valley's Palo Alto Networks was named the highest-paying company, setting a standard for security companies.
Even non-tech roles in cybersecurity, such as marketing, can offer salaries of up to $300,000, data shows.
Here's a sampling of what Palo Alto Networks, Okta, FireEye, Trend Micro, McAfee, Netskope, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare pay new hires, based on disclosure data for permanent and temporary workers filed with the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification in 2019.
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There are 350,000 cybersecurity job listings on LinkedIn, according to a recent study. And in a country with 10% unemployment, the Commerce Department has launched a project not to create cybersecurity jobs, but to fill them.

Simple supply and demand would then suggest that the pay for cybersecurity professionals would be pretty good. And recent statistics from the federal government back that up.

Business Insider analyzed the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification's 2020 disclosure data for permanent and temporary foreign workers to find out what eight major players in cybersecurity — Palo Alto Networks, Okta, FireEye, Trend Micro, McAfee, Netskope, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare — pay tech talent in key roles including engineers, developers and data scientists.

Companies are required to disclose information, such as salary (or, sometimes salary range), when they hire foreign workers under the H1-B visa program, giving insight into what these major companies are willing to shell out for talent.

Palo Alto Networks, a Silicon Valley cybersecurity firm of around 7,000, was named the best-paying company among all industries in a ranking last year, and that sets the standard for cybersecurity.

One interesting thing to note in this sampling of salaries – especially as remote work continues – is the fluctuation in pay for similar roles in different states. An engineer in Georgia could make up to $100,000 less than one in California, according to the data reviewed by Business Insider – a savings companies are increasingly investigating.

All companies named in this story declined to comment, with the exception of CrowdStrike. You can read CrowdStrike’s statement below.

Here's how much these top cybersecurity technology companies paid employees hired in 2020:

Palo Alto Networks hired a VP of Americas field marketing for $300,000.

Named the best-paying company in a Glassdoor ranking last year, Palo Alto Networks specializes in creating security systems for companies and organizations to prevent cyberattacks. Palo Alto Networks earned the top spot in that ranking with a median total salary of $170,929.

The company bills itself as "the world's largest cybersecurity company," with 70,000 customers and revenue in fiscal year 2019 of $2.9 billion. At the time of writing, its market cap is at about $26 billion.

Here are some recent Palo Alto Networks hires based on 120 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Vice president, Americas field marketing (California): $300,000

Director of product marketing (California): $213,200

Principal software engineer: $200,000

Senior software engineer: $180,000

Data scientist (California): $125,000

Technical support engineer (Texas): $87,250

Okta hired a chief security officer with a salary range of $241,696 to $350,000.

Okta, a $26 billion San Francisco identity and access management company, has seen its stock double during the COVID-19 pandemic as the identity-security sector booms during remote work. The company applies its multi-factor authentication tools to help the IT department make sure that the right employees have access to the right applications and data.

Cofounder Frederic Kerrest recently told Business Insider his strategy for hiring during the economic downturn: "Keep your eyes open for strong talent hit by hard circumstances. Anyone who's worked at a company that's gone through COVID-19-related layoffs knows even your hardest-working or smartest employees can't always stay with the business in a tough economic climate."

"While this is unfortunate, it means more talented people are looking for jobs right now and if you're building a team, you can offer them an entrepreneurial opportunity."

Here are some recent Okta hires based on 75 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Chief security officer (California): $241,696-$350,000

Software engineer (California): $196,300-$239,900

Manager, quality assurance: $165,027-$200,100

Salesforce engineer (Georgia): $121,077-$127,900

Software engineer (Washington): $107,100-$130,900

McAfee hired a director of security operations with a salary between $186,493 and $255,500.

McAfee is one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity companies remaining, as big multi-faceted companies like Microsoft and smaller startups begin to dominate the industry. McAfee splits its roughly 7,000 employees mostly between two main locations – one in Silicon Valley, and the other in Texas. Chief People Officer Chatelle Lynch believes the many openings in cybersecurity make it a hot job market even for candidates who lack training, and McAfee currently has 200 job openings.

Here are some recent McAfee hires based on 27 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Director of security operations (Texas): $186,493-$255,500

Manager of software engineering (California): $154,669-$256,000

Manager of marketing communications (California): $126,568-$199,000

Application developer (California): $108,784-$193,500

Software engineer (California): $97,302-$168,500

Netskope hired a software engineer, level IV with a salary between $185,000 and $215,000.

$3 billion Netskope, which helps companies monitor and secure how their employees are using cloud software, joined three publicly traded companies in a "cloud security alliance" in June – in what amounted to a challenge of the biggest firms, including Microsoft. That should give some kind of signal on Netskope's ambitions in the cybersecurity space.

Records show the company is investing in engineering talent, with pay for its top engineering job at around $200,000.

Here are some recent Netskope hires based on 32 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Software engineer IV (California): $185,000-$215,000

Software engineer III (California): $135,000-$170,000

Software engineer II (California): $108,784-$135,000

IT project manager II (California): $98,961-$115,000

Business operations technical analyst II (California): $72,280-$95,000

Cloudflare hired a customer success engineer at a salary range between $100,000 and $110,000.

Cloudflare has boomed during the hybrid work movement, which it met with a coworking project to help struggling businesses. The 1,200-person company, which focuses on security and internet performance, has "been building up those ideas together – performance and security. And now, all of that is coming together," analyst Jonathan Penn told Business Insider earlier this year.

Cloudflare stock has more than doubled this year, giving it a valuation of $12 billion, and the company's success is resulting in growth. The company has around 200 open jobs on its careers site, and doubled its intern class this year.

Here are some recent Cloudflare hires based on 12 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Systems reliability engineer (California): $155,000-$175,000

Systems engineer (Illinois): $130,000-$150,000

Solutions engineer (New York): $120,000-$130,000

Customer success engineer (California): $100,000-$110,000

Market research analyst (California): $90,000-$110,000

CrowdStrike hired a senior software engineer with a salary of $200,000.

CrowdStrike turned a profit for the first time in Q1, and the threat-hunting company – which proactively looks for issues on networks and employees' computers – has seen its stock double this year. The Silicon Valley firm lists more than 200 job openings on its careers site in more than a dozen countries. Records show it has hired mostly engineers.

Asked about the $200,000 salary for an engineer shown in the records, JC Herrera, chief human resources officer at CrowdStrike, said: "Yes, we definitely see pay for engineers in cybersecurity reach that level, especially for more senior roles and especially in the [San Francisco] Bay Area and other tech hot spots. In our experience, good engineers will always see healthy salaries. For us, we've had a record number of accepted offers, and applications have been up during COVID-19. We are continuing to hire."

Here are some recent CrowdStrike hires based on 13 approved visa applications, and how much they're paid:

Senior software engineer (California): $200,000

Engineering manager (Washington): $185,000

Data integration architect (California): $170,000

Director of corporate events (New York): $146,000

FireEye hired a director of engineering at a salary range of between $212,000 and $316,100.

Famous for its investigations of nation-state hacking, Silicon Valley company FireEye has grown quickly since its 2004 founding to around 3,400 employees. FireEye sells cybersecurity products for enterprise networks, email and endpoints, such as laptops and mobile devices. It also provides consulting services and threat intelligence – both of which are labor-intensive.

Here are some recent FireEye hires based on 31 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Director of engineering (California): $212,000-$316,100

Principal engineer (California): $166,700-$271,600

Senior business analyst (California): $140,900-$200,700

Staff systems engineer (Virginia): $129,000-$178,000

Financial planning analyst (California): $92,000-$109,600

Trend Micro hired a business process analyst for a salary range of between $72,000 and $97,324.

Trend Micro has over 6,700 employees in 65 countries, and has expanded its global reach over its 30-year history. It has a broad array of products, from enterprise products for large companies and government organizations to cloud computing security to research of cyberattacks, and consumer products.

That "cross-generational blend of threat-defense techniques," as the company describes its products and services, means a need for lots of tech talent.

Here are some recent Trend Micro hires based on 23 approved visa applications and how much they're paid:

Manager, business development (New York): $150,000

Senior software engineer (Texas): $110,000-$130,000

Customer service manager (Texas): $96,470-$100,000

Customer service engineer (Texas): $79,560-$81,600

Business process analyst (Texas): $72,000-$97,324