AI security hiring focuses on red-teaming, SOC orchestration and governance

Dive Brief:

Businesses are seeking hundreds of AI security specialists to protect their models, agents and other applications, according to new data from the SANS Institute.
The security training company’s new tracker lists open roles ranging from AI governance to AI orchestration in security operations centers (SOCs), reflecting the wide range of challenges and opportunities emerging from AI adoption.
SANS’ new report about its tracker also shows paths from traditional cybersecurity careers into AI security specialties.

Dive Insight:

SANS’ tracker, based on an analysis of public job postings in mid-September 2026, tallies the number of open roles and the median advertised salary for each one.

There are more than 850 open jobs for AI and machine learning security engineers, with a median salary of $140,000, according to the tracker. These roles are critically important, SANS said, given the data showing an increasing tide of cyberattacks targeting AI applications and an increasing share of employees using AI, including in unapproved ways. Amazon, Mastercard, PepsiCo and SpaceX were among the employers seeking AI and ML security workers.

Nearly 100 postings sought AI red-team specialists, reflecting the recent growth in reports of vulnerabilities in AI tools, including prompt-injection flaws that can bypass the tools’ guardrails. Internet infrastructure firm Cloudflare and electric-vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors were among the companies advertising for red-team roles, which promised a median salary of $124,000. AI red-teamer job postings rose 13% in mid-September from the prior week.

In addition to frontline security workers, companies are also looking for governance specialists who can oversee the deployment and protection of AI tools. SANS found roughly 430 job postings for AI governance risk and compliance leads (median salary $146,000). The training firm highlighted data showing that most organizations don’t have comprehensive AI policies, including access controls on their models, even as many firms know their employees are widely using the technology. Companies seeking compliance specialists included JPMorgan Chase, defense contractor Leidos and food-services vendor Aramark.

“Nearly every large enterprise is deploying AI, and most are doing it without dedicated AI security staff,” SANS said in its report. “The result: shadow AI spreading through personal accounts, governance frameworks still being written, and adversaries who now hand off access in seconds and finish exfiltration in hours.”

The SANS tracker lists other roles as growing in maturity, including AI security specialists (48 postings), AI supply chain security engineers (93) and AI SOC orchestrators (36). The latter role could become especially important as SOC analysts face growing burnout amid alert fatigue.

Still other roles are described as being on the horizon, meaning there is little active hiring for them at the moment. That includes post-quantum cryptography migration specialists and AI identity deepfake defense specialists.

The tracker also covers non-AI roles. SANS identified more than 450 postings for IT/security compliance analysts (up 20% in mid-September from the prior week) and 180 postings for identity and access management analysts (up 51%).