What does a Security Consultant do?

Security consultants analyze and assess security systems and measures in place. They study and outline possible breaches and will suggest applicable solutions where necessary and appropriate. They work one on one with clients to evaluate their unique needs to tailor-make a plan that works specifically for a client’s business or their personal life.

Security consultants work on security in the home, a business, online or a computer, or with self-defense training. They use their subject matter skills and expertise to advise clients on how to secure and protect their physical, monetary, and information capital. They can specialize in building security, computer security, or disaster security. They advise on installation for physical protection including video surveillance or hiring security personnel and on other security measures including background checks for new employees and conduct training on improvement of the security of property or information. They assess existing systems to stress test them for weaknesses and develop security plans and solutions. Security consultants need a minimum bachelor's degree and some employers prefer certification.

What responsibilities are common for Security Consultant jobs?
  • Deliver team support, including identifying process improvements and training.
  • Support the management of client satisfaction at all phases of the client relationship.
  • Deliver both technical and management debriefs, up to executive level.
  • Consistently obtain status updates with customers to ensure alignment with project scope scheduling, and documentation.
  • Work with a team to maintain and update the cloud services page for customers.
  • Become a deep technical resource that earns the trust of customer executive stakeholders.
  • Meet deliverable timelines based on pre-scheduled activities and events, such as customer, team, and executive updates.
  • Maintain disciplined and regular communications within accounts while build credibility through timely action and responsiveness during the account escalation.
  • Deliver guidance, lead proof-of-concept projects, and conduct customer workshops.
  • Develop strong partnerships internally with sales, services, support and engineering.
  • View problems and solutions holistically, from multiple viewpoints, and create a plan of action to best satisfy the needs of all stakeholders.
  • Strong fundamental understanding of technical security solutions and how they address customer risk exposure and solve key use cases.
  • Initiate project scope and lead the scope development and project delivery of all assignments.
  • Be called on to perform technical testing against a variety of targets.
  • Efficiently manage territory resources to maximize daily production and customer relationships.
  • Support monitoring of systems, servers, infrastructure, and software, to include firewalls, proxy servers, and intrusion detection systems.
  • Track and report metrics and details surrounding changes, incidents, outages, and root cause analysis as they affect customer experience.
What are the typical qualifications for Security Consultant jobs?
  • Bachelor's or Graduate's Degree in computer science, engineering, information systems or information technology, or equivalent experience.
  • Experience with C, IaaS, SIEM, CISA, and Linux software and systems.
  • Experience with HAHA, UNIX, C#, Python, and SAAS software and systems.
  • Experience with GLBA, SAP, ISO, and endpoint security programs and processes.
  • A problem solver and leader.
  • Prior experience as a consultant.
  • Comfortable running frameworks and incident response.
  • Fluent in scripting.
Education--
Work/Life Balance
3.8 ★
Salary Range--
Career Opportunity
3.9 ★
Avg. Experience8+ years

Security Consultant Salaries

Average Base Pay

$88,946 /yr
Same as national average
Not including cash compensation
See More Insights
$63K
Median: $89K
$126K
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Glassdoor Estimated Salary

Security Consultant Career Path

Learn how to become a Security Consultant, what skills and education you need to succeed, and what level of pay to expect at each step on your career path.

Security Consultant

Years of Experience Distribution

0 - 1
7%
2 - 4
35%
5 - 7
22%
8+
36%
Not including years spent in education and/or training

Security Consultant Insights

Read what Security Consultant professionals have to say about their job experiences and view top companies for this career.
NetSPINetSPI
Associate Security Consultant
Aug 9, 2022

“He was very discouraging and I really hope he gets a downfall for preying on a new grad.”

SingtelSingtel
Senior Security Consultant
Jul 28, 2021

“Be able to handle work stress and pressure but based on my experience still manageable.”

SecurEyesSecurEyes
Information Security Consultant
Aug 4, 2021

“Superb team to work with.. and to grow your career in security domain.”

CENSUSCENSUS
Information Security Consultant
Mar 5, 2021

“Average pay (as absolute value) however compared to Greek standards it is above average.”

Numen Cyber TechnologyNumen Cyber Technology
Cyber Security Consultant
Jan 26, 2023

“Higher than market salary Close to MRT OT can claim if your boss is nice.”

CotivitiCotiviti
Incident Manager
Jun 19, 2022

“Good work life balance and overall better place”

AccentureAccenture
Cyber Security Consultant
Jan 16, 2021

“Good on the résumé and a great learning opportunity”

Archetype SCArchetype SC
Senior Security Consultant
Apr 12, 2021

“The pay was fair and working remote is nice.”

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Security Consultant Interviews

Frequently asked questions about the role and responsibilities of a Security Consultant

The most similar professions to Security Consultant are:
  • Security Manager
  • Information Security Engineer
  • Information Security Analyst
  • Information Security Specialist

Related Careers

Security Manager
$81,121
No skills overlap
Information Security Engineer
$99,604
No skills overlap
Information Security Analyst
$73,849
No skills overlap
Information Security Specialist
$84,486
No skills overlap

Security Consultant jobs