US Cyber Job Postings Fall to Four-Year Low
A newly published jobs report indicates an overall contraction in the US cybersecurity employment market, contrasted by exceptional growth in specialized artificial intelligence roles.
Radwan AbdulhadiEditor and technology writer
Overall US Cybersecurity Job Market Declines
The United States cybersecurity job market has experienced an overall contraction, hitting a new four-year low according to data compiled by CyberSN. Between January and September 2026, total cyber job postings fell to 235,786, representing a 26.4% decline compared to the 320,210 postings recorded during the exact same period in 2025. Detailed insights can be found within the published jobs report. Further details are available from SecurityWeek in the original source material.
Rather than relying strictly on recruiting companies' raw job titles, which the report describes as 'noisy,' the data is aggregated from JobSpikr with duplicates removed. Every posting is evaluated through CyberSN's taxonomy of 45 cybersecurity functional roles across ten categories. This approach ensures that employment demand is measured by the actual skills and work being requested rather than varying corporate titles.
Surge in Artificial Intelligence and Data Roles
Despite the broad market downturn, specific sub-sectors centered around artificial intelligence and data science have experienced dramatic expansion. Demand for AI Security Engineers skyrocketed by 268.3% over the previous year, while Cyber Data Scientist positions grew by 203.5%. These shifts highlight a rapidly evolving operational landscape where specialized AI skills are heavily sought after.
Overall, just under 15% of all cybersecurity job postings referenced artificial intelligence, a figure comparable to the 15.1% recorded during the same months in 2025. However, momentum increased noticeably as the year progressed, peaking at 20.0% in September 2026. Functional categories with the highest demand for AI understanding included Research at 32.7%, Offense at 23.3%, Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) at 19.8%, and Plan functions at 18.9%.
Remote Work and Functional Areas of Interest
Remote work availability remains an important variable across various functional specializations within the cybersecurity sector. According to the dataset, remote opportunities are most prevalent in specific categories. Sales leads remote listings at 32.8%, closely followed by GRC at 31.2%, Offense at 24.7%, Product Security at 22.9%, Educate roles at 22.8%, Research at 21.9%, and Defense positions at 21.3%.
Sharpest Declines Across Traditional Cyber Roles
While artificial intelligence specialists and certain data functions represent clear growth areas, a wide range of traditional cybersecurity roles suffered significant drops in listing volume. Leading the contraction were Cyber Insider Threat Analysts, which dropped 55.6% down to 1,088 postings, and Cyber Risk Analysts, which fell by 51.5% to 4,031 postings.
Additional roles seeing notable declines included Penetration Testers down 45.9% to 3,063 postings, Cybersecurity Leads down 41.0% to 4,688 postings, Threat Hunters down 40.0% to 1,013 postings, and Cybersecurity Project Managers down 39.4% to 783 postings. Chief Information Security Officer listings, which encompass CSO, BSO, and ISO titles, fell by 38.9% to 2,832 postings.
Analysts note that the drop in CISO postings largely reflects a comparison against an unusually strong 2025 market. The 2026 figure of 2,832 listings is nearly identical to the 2,808 postings recorded during the same period in 2024, and CISO listings actually rebounded by 19.5% between the second and third quarters of 2026.
Sources
- SecurityWeekUS Cybersecurity Job Postings Fall 26% as AI Security Engineer Demand Soars
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