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Quick Answer: Best entry level cybersecurity jobs in US: The best entry level cybersecurity jobs in the US are SOC analyst tier one, IT security analyst, security awareness or GRC analyst, junior IAM analyst, and security operations centre support. Security+ or equivalent is the most commonly named filter, and a documented lab project is what separates a candidate who gets read from one who does not.
Entry Level Cybersecurity Jobs by Volume and Accessibility
The entry level cybersecurity market has grown substantially, but it has grown unevenly, and most of the growth is in roles adjacent to security rather than in security engineering. That distinction is worth being clear about before deciding where to aim, because it changes what you need to learn and how long it takes.
There are far more entry level security jobs than there were five years ago, and also far more applicants. In 2020 a candidate with a security operations background and a Security+ had genuine scarcity. Today that combination is common, and the roles that remain genuinely competitive are the ones requiring a technical specialisation.
| Role | Volume | Typical requirement | Pay range | Time to enter |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOC analyst tier one | Very high | Security+, log analysis, SIEM familiarity | $55k-$80k | 4-9 months |
| IT security analyst | High | Security+, endpoint and network awareness | $60k-$90k | 5-10 months |
| GRC / compliance analyst | High | Security+ or CISA path, frameworks | $55k-$85k | 3-8 months |
| Security awareness / GRC support | Medium-high | Security+ preferred, policy and training | $50k-$75k | 3-6 months |
| Junior IAM analyst | Medium-high | Identity fundamentals, directory services | $65k-$95k | 6-12 months |
| Security operations support / triage | Medium | SIEM experience, scripting | $60k-$85k | 5-10 months |
| Junior cloud security analyst | Medium | Cloud platform plus Security+ | $80k-$115k | 9-15 months |
| Junior penetration tester | Low | Practical exam plus lab record | $75k-$110k | 12-24 months |
Volume and accessibility are not the same thing. The bottom two rows pay more and are harder to reach, and the reason is that they require a specialisation rather than a generalist baseline.
Best Entry Level Cybersecurity Jobs in US 2026: Where the Openings Are
The single largest source of entry level security hiring is the managed security service provider – the firms that run SOCs for organisations that cannot run their own. There are hundreds of them, they hire continuously, and they hire people with an entry background because the business model is training people in a structured environment. If you want one destination to target, this is it.
The second is in-house, and it is usually attached to a compliance requirement rather than to a security team. Organisations in healthcare, finance, education and government have to staff roles they are legally obliged to staff, which creates a steadier flow of openings than any discretionary hiring. A company with a SOC 2 obligation will hire a security analyst even in a flat budget year.
The third is the identity and access management side, which is more technical than the popular image of security suggests. Junior IAM analysts work with directories, provisioning, access reviews and identity lifecycle problems – real systems, real data and real deadlines. For candidates who find pure SOC work repetitive, this is often the better first role.
And the fourth is the one candidates ignore: security awareness, policy and GRC support. These roles are less glamorous, pay at the lower end, and are frequently the easiest to get, because they need the least technical depth. For a career changer with an office, legal, finance or education background, this is a genuinely direct route.
What Actually Gets a Security Candidate Read
Evidence of having looked at something real. Every hiring manager in security has read a hundred resumes listing Security+ and a few listing a lab. The ones that get read describe a specific detection rule, a specific finding and what was done about it, or a specific control they tested and the evidence they requested.
A second signal is writing. Security produces incident records, assessment reports and policy exceptions, and teams want people who can produce a clear document. A candidate who shows a one-page write-up – even of a deliberately vulnerable system they tested themselves – demonstrates the skill before the interview.
And a third, which surprises candidates: awareness of the hiring environment. How long interviews take, what a SOC tier one shift actually involves, whether you want to work nights. Candidates who have thought about the reality of the job ask better questions, and interviewers notice that they are not going to leave in four months.
How to Move From Tier One to Tier Two
The tier one to tier two step is where most security careers are won or stalled, and the deciding factor is rarely the certification – it is whether your tier one work produced anything you could point at. A tier one analyst who only closes tickets has two years of experience and nothing to show for it. A tier one analyst who wrote a detection rule, tuned a noisy alert or produced a weekly analysis has something.
So the practical advice for your first year in a SOC is to contribute beyond the queue. Volunteer for detection tuning. Write the weekly summary that nobody asked for. Learn one script language and automate a repetitive part of your own work. Document what you did while you are doing it, because the difference between your resume and a colleague’s is often just that one wrote it down.
Then target tier two deliberately rather than waiting. Tier two roles are usually filled internally, so the conversation with your manager matters more than applications. Tell them what you want to be doing, show what you have built toward it, and ask what would make you ready in six months. Companies that do not promote from within are telling you something useful as well.
How to Judge Whether a Security Role Is a Good First One
The single most useful question is whether you will be exposed to real alerts, real tickets and real systems. A role that is mostly ticket triage with a scripted runbook teaches you very little in the first year. A role that gives you a queue and expects you to investigate teaches you the job. Ask what percentage of the role is genuine investigation.
Then ask about mentorship. Entry level security roles vary enormously in whether someone will actually teach you. A team where a senior analyst reviews your investigations occasionally is worth a lot more than a larger team where you are the only person watching the queue, and the difference in what you learn over two years is substantial.
And check the shift pattern deliberately. Follow-the-sun arrangements mean night or early shifts, and those are fine if you know you want them – some people thrive on the quieter hours – but they are disruptive if you did not choose them. Finding out at offer stage is much worse than finding out at interview stage.
How to Build Security Credibility Before You Have a Job
Document your own investigations in public. Setting up a small lab environment, writing detection rules, and publishing a post describing what you found and what you would change is exactly the artefact that hiring managers say they cannot find enough of. Most candidates have a certificate; very few have published analysis.
Then engage with other people’s work. Reviewing a detection rule in a public repository, commenting on a technical blog post with something useful, or answering a beginner question in a community are all ways of appearing in a hiring manager’s search. This is not networking in the awkward sense – it is simply being findable and visibly competent.
And consider a community or volunteer role. A local non-profit that needs a security review, a small business whose owner will not pay but will write you a reference, a school that needs its systems checked. The reference is the part that matters, because it is a named human vouching for your judgement, which is precisely what an employer is trying to establish.
A Candidate With Security+ and Nothing Else
A candidate with a year in general IT support passed Security+ and applied to around ninety entry level security roles. He received three interviews and no offer, and the feedback from one recruiter was the most useful thing he got: the certificate had gotten him read, and the interviews had shown that reading it was all it did.
He built a small home lab – a deliberately vulnerable application on a free tier, a logging pipeline and a set of detection rules he wrote himself – and produced a two-page write-up of an investigation he ran through it. He also wrote a short script to parse the logs and summarise a day of alerts.
He applied to sixty roles with those artefacts at the top of his resume. He got fourteen screens and four offers, three of them above what he had been earning. The credential was still what got him through the filter, but the lab was what made him employable.
Why This Matters Outside the United States
Security operations and GRC roles are hired globally more often than any other security family, making this the practical entry point for international candidates.
Security operations and GRC hiring is heavily distributed – SOC teams are staffed around the clock, which means remote and hybrid work is normal in this field in a way it is not for engineering. That makes it one of the better US-targeted routes for candidates in other countries, though the shift pattern and the compensation band are both usually set locally rather than at US rates.
How to Read These Numbers
The role list is ordered by hiring volume rather than by pay, because for an entry level candidate the number of openings determines the probability of an offer far more than the difference between bands. Managed security providers and compliance-driven in-house hiring account for a large share of entry level security roles.
Pay ranges reflect US entry level bands with zero to two years of relevant experience. Shift-based work and roles requiring on-call typically sit at the upper end, and the most accessible roles generally sit at the lower end.
Key Terms Used Above
| Term | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| MSSP | Managed security service provider – a firm that runs security operations for other organisations. |
| SOC analyst | The role of monitoring and triaging security alerts, graded tier one to three. |
| False positive | An alert that fires without a real issue, and the main source of SOC noise. |
| Detection engineering | Writing and tuning what the security team sees. |
| IAM analyst | The role focused on identity, access and provisioning. |
| Identity lifecycle | Joiner, mover and leaver processes – the core of IAM work. |
Do not wait for a job to build evidence. A home lab with written detection rules and a one-page investigation is the artefact most entry level security resumes are missing.
Related Reading
If you want the wider context, start with our cybersecurity roadmap, then the full guide, then the full guide. Each of these covers a different part of the same decision.
Training Resources
For a structured path rather than scattered free material, the SkilBrill training programme covers the practical side of this topic with the same framing employers use. For a broader foundation, the related SkilBrill course covers the surrounding concepts so you are not learning this topic in isolation.
FAQ
What are the best entry-level cybersecurity jobs in the US?
SOC analyst Tier 1, IT security analyst, GRC analyst, security operations centre support, and identity and access administrator. They differ in pace, not in whether they can lead to the field.
Do entry-level security jobs require a security clearance?
Only the government and defence contractor paths do, and those are separate hiring processes with their own eligibility rules. Commercial employers do not ask for clearance.
How much do entry-level cybersecurity jobs pay in the US?
SOC analyst roles start around $60,000-$75,000, security analyst roles around $75,000-$95,000, and GRC analyst roles around $70,000-$90,000 depending on industry and location.
What is the fastest way into an entry-level security job?
Get a baseline certification, build a small home lab, and apply to roles that name SOC or GRC analyst – those titles recruit far more entry-level people than security engineer does.
