How Do Engineering and Non-Engineering Titles Split Across Security Job Openings? Engineer Titles Went From 34% to 58%
Abstract
US security job postings in spring 2024 against postings at US-headquartered companies in 2026, under the same rules in both years: engineer titles went from 34% to 58%. Individual contributor postings moved, and so did manager and executive postings.
*Written entirely by agents in the Research Factory, within guardrails and controls set by our team. Figures as of 1 October 2026.
1Introduction
In US security job postings from spring 2024, 34% of titles named an engineer or developer. In 2026 postings at US-headquartered companies, 58% do, a rise of +24 percentage points, with a range of likely values from +20 to +29. Each figure in this piece comes with a range of likely values. If that range includes zero, we can't tell the change from no change. Non-engineering titles went from 66% to 42% of postings. Both years are counted the same way, as set out under Where the Data Comes From.
The split moved most among individual contributors, the staff who do not manage others. Senior individual contributor postings with an engineer title went from 42% to 67%, and other individual contributor postings from 35% to 58%. Manager postings with an engineer title went from 10% to 26%, though most manager postings stay non-engineering. Executive postings with an engineer title went from 8% to 22%. That is a real rise, too large to be explained by which postings happened to be collected, though it rests on only 39 postings in 2024.
The level mix moved as well, toward senior titles. If the 2026 postings had the same mix of levels as 2024, the 2026 engineer share would be 57% rather than 58%, a difference of about one point.
2The answer at a glance
| Finding | Confidence | Representativeness |
|---|---|---|
| Engineer titles went from 34% to 58% of security postings | High. A clear rise, and every check agrees, including companies that posted in both years (+8 to +32). At the 2024 mix of levels, the 2026 share is 57%. | Medium. 1,038 postings in 2024 and 4,587 in 2026, collected from different places: LinkedIn listings in 2024, company job boards in 2026. |
| Analyst and specialist titles went from 28% to 13%, and other titles (none of the four title words) from 30% to 23% | High for both. Each is a clear fall under every check, except other titles at the same companies, which are a likely but borderline fall (−20 to 0). | Medium. |
| Architect titles went from 8% to 6%, a likely but borderline fall | Medium. Probably a real fall, but only just: the range of likely values reaches almost to no change (−5 to 0). The checks without the largest employer and with each company weighted once say the same. Outside technology companies there is no clear change, and at the same companies it leans the other way, a borderline rise (0 to +7). | Medium. |
| Senior individual contributors went from 42% to 67% engineer titles, other individual contributors from 35% to 58% | High for both. Both are clear rises, and every check agrees. | Medium. 274 senior postings in 2024 and 2,146 in 2026, and 645 and 1,886 other individual contributor postings. |
| Manager postings with an engineer title went from 10% to 26% | Medium. A clear rise (+6 to +25), but the checks at the same companies and outside technology companies show no clear change. | Low. 80 postings in 2024. |
| Executive postings with an engineer title went from 8% to 22% | Medium. A clear rise (+2 to +24). At the same companies and with each company weighted once there is no clear change, and outside technology companies and without the largest employer the rise is borderline. | Low. 39 postings in 2024. |
Engineer or developerAnalyst or specialistArchitectOther
3The split in both years
Each title is sorted into one of four groups by the job word in it, the word that says what the role is. Engineer means the title contains engineer or developer, the same rule as Are Security Specialties Turning Into Engineering Jobs?, which carries the split by specialty. Analyst and specialist covers analyst, specialist, administrator, coordinator, technician and officer. Architect is architect. Other is every title with none of those nouns: security manager, director, consultant, lead, auditor. 39% of the other titles name a management rank in 2024 and 42% in 2026.
| Title noun | 2024 | 2026 | Change, percentage points | Likely range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Engineer or developer | 34% | 58% | +24 | +20 to +29 |
| Analyst or specialist | 28% | 13% | −15 | −19 to −12 |
| Architect | 8% | 6% | −2 | −5 to 0 |
| Other | 30% | 23% | −7 | −11 to −3 |
| All non-engineering | 66% | 42% |
Source: AKA Security analysis. 2024: 1,038 US security postings from a public LinkedIn dataset (5 to 19 April 2024), 679 companies. 2026: 4,587 security postings at US-headquartered companies in AKA's job-board data, 831 companies. One company can list many near-identical roles, so the likely ranges were worked out by redrawing whole companies at random thousands of times and recomputing the shares each time. Each likely range holds the middle 95% of those results. A change in bold is a clear change: too large to be explained by which postings happened to be collected. The architect change is a likely but borderline fall.
Bars show each range of likely values against zero (dashed). Solid: the whole range is above or below zero. Grey: it ends at zero. Hollow: it includes zero.
4By level
A title can carry a level and a noun at once. A security engineering manager counts as a manager with an engineer title. Executive titles name a chief, CISO, VP, head or director. Manager titles name a manager or supervisor. Senior individual contributor titles name senior, staff, principal or lead. Every other title is an individual contributor.
| Level | Postings, 2024 → 2026 | Engineer title, 2024 | Engineer title, 2026 | Change, percentage points | Likely range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive | 39 → 245 | 8% | 22% | +14 | +2 to +24 |
| Manager | 80 → 310 | 10% | 26% | +16 | +6 to +25 |
| Senior individual contributor | 274 → 2,146 | 42% | 67% | +26 | +19 to +33 |
| Individual contributor | 645 → 1,886 | 35% | 58% | +23 | +18 to +28 |
Source: AKA Security analysis, same populations as above. A change in bold is a clear change.
Bars show each range of likely values against zero (dashed). Solid: the whole range is above or below zero. Grey: it ends at zero. Hollow: it includes zero.
The non-engineering titles that fell were mostly at the individual contributor levels. Analyst and specialist titles went from 25% to 9% of senior postings and from 33% to 19% of other individual contributor postings. At the manager level, 86% of titles in 2024 and 72% in 2026 use none of the four job words.
The level mix changed too. Senior individual contributor postings were 26% of the 2024 sample and 47% of 2026, and other individual contributor postings went from 62% to 41%. Managers were 8% in 2024 and 7% in 2026. If 2026 had kept the 2024 mix of levels, the 2026 engineer share would be 57%. So most of the rise happened within each level, not from the move toward senior titles.
5Where the data comes from
The 2024 postings come from the LinkedIn Job Postings dataset (Hugging Face datastax/linkedin_job_listings [2]): postings located in the US and listed between 5 and 19 April 2024. The 2026 postings come from AKA's daily read of company job boards, at companies headquartered in the US. Job aggregators, which repost other employers' openings, are left out in both years, and the 2026 postings are those still open on or after 23 September 2026.
Both years are counted the same way. A posting counts when its title passes the security title rules used across this series and a local model reading the posting judges it a security role. It must also be the only posting with that title at that company, so each company and title is counted once. Physical security, fraud and trust and safety roles are out of scope in both years.
The two years still come from different places, and the same rules cannot fix that. The 2024 postings are LinkedIn listings and the 2026 postings come from company job boards, and the two reach different kinds of employers. So the comparison mixes two things: how titles changed over time, and how the two sources differ. The same-company check helps a little, but even those 74 companies were seen through a different source in each year. No check in this data can fully separate the two.
A title is what a company calls an opening, not the work it describes. A Security Analyst and a Security Engineer may do the same job. Are Security Specialties Turning Into Engineering Jobs? reads the posting text for that. A change in titles does not show why it happened.
6How this answer was stress-tested
| Test | Engineer title, 2024 → 2026 | Change, likely range |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | 34% → 58% | +20 to +29 |
| Same companies. Companies with postings in both years. | 36% → 56% | +8 to +32 |
| Within each company. The 74 companies with postings in both years. | Engineer share rose at 45, fell at 24, held at 5 | Middle company +27 percentage points |
| Company mix. 2026 postings at non-technology companies only. 2024 postings without staffing firms and government contractors. | 33% → 53% | +15 to +26 |
| Each company weighted once, so a company with many postings counts the same as one with a single posting | 33% → 69% | +32 to +40 |
| Largest employer removed, the one company with the most postings (83) | 34% → 59% | +21 to +29 |
| 2026 at the 2024 level mix | 34% → 57% |
Bars show each range of likely values against zero (dashed). Solid: the whole range is above or below zero. Grey: it ends at zero. Hollow: it includes zero.
The same checks for each level and title group, as likely ranges in percentage points:
| Test | Senior individual contributors | Individual contributors | Analyst or specialist titles | Other titles | Architect titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headline | +19 to +33 | +18 to +28 | −19 to −12 | −11 to −3 | −5 to 0 |
| Same companies | +3 to +35 | +4 to +38 | −24 to −3 | −20 to 0 | 0 to +7 |
| Company mix | +13 to +30 | +14 to +27 | −16 to −8 | −12 to −3 | −4 to +1 |
| Each company weighted once | +25 to +39 | +26 to +36 | −23 to −16 | −18 to −11 | −4 to 0 |
| Largest employer removed | +20 to +34 | +18 to +28 | −19 to −12 | −11 to −3 | −5 to −1 |
Source: AKA Security analysis, likely ranges (95%) from redrawing whole companies, in percentage points. Every range in this table is a clear change except other titles at the same companies and the architect column. Other titles at the same companies are a likely but borderline fall. Architect titles are a borderline fall under every check but the company mix, where there is no clear change, and at the same companies the share went from 2% to 6%, the opposite direction.
7What would strengthen this answer
| Test | What it would settle | Why it has not run |
|---|---|---|
| A 2026 LinkedIn sample | Separates real title change from the difference between LinkedIn and company job boards | No public 2026 LinkedIn dataset exists. |
| More companies in both years | Whether the split moved within the same employers by level | Only 74 companies posted in both years. |
Acknowledgements
Question asked by Travis Farral.
References
- [1]AKA Security Research Factory. Security Hiring Research: What Job Postings Say About Security Work. AKA Security, 2026. akasecurity.io/research/security-hiring-research
- [2]DataStax. LinkedIn Job Postings (datastax/linkedin_job_listings). Hugging Face dataset, 2024. huggingface.co/datasets/datastax/linkedin_job_listings
Cite as
@techreport{aka-rz-2026-09,
title = {How Do Engineering and Non-Engineering Titles Split Across Security Job Openings? Engineer Titles Went From 34% to 58%},
author = {{AKA Security Research Factory}},
institution = {AKA Security},
type = {Research report},
number = {AKA-RZ:2610.09v1},
version = {1.0.0},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
url = {https://akasecurity.io/research/security-engineering-titles}
}