The 5 most in-demand cybersecurity roles in the age of GDPR

Cybersecurity job openings continue to grow as more businesses fall victim to massive cyberattacks, according to Indeed.

More companies are seeking cybersecurity professionals in efforts to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and avoid falling victim to one of the growing number of cyberthreats plaguing their business, according to a Thursday report from Indeed.

Companies looking to avoid GDPR non-compliance penalties—which can result in a fine of 4% of annual global turnover, or €20 million, whichever is greater—are increasingly looking to hire professionals to help them protect their information. As GDPR set in, Indeed found a 261% increase in job postings per million for data protection officers on its job search engine in the past year alone.

Supply and demand for cybersecurity professionals in general continues to grow: Between March 2017 and March 2018, postings of cybersecurity roles increase by 3.5%, Indeed found. Meanwhile, job searches for cybersecurity roles increased by 5.7%.

"As more and more devices connect to the internet and each other, we can expect that securing information will remain a top priority for individuals and companies alike," the report stated. "This is good news for those in the cybersecurity space, as demand for their products and services will likely continue to increase and lead to more jobs."

To determine the most in-demand cybersecurity roles, Indeed calculated the percentage increase of job postings and job searches for these positions in the US per million from March 2017 to March 2018. Here are the top five most in-demand cyber jobs:

1. IT security specialist

2. Information security analyst

3. Network security engineer

4. Security engineer

5. Application security engineer

The top five are not surprising, the report noted. The massive Target breach of 2013 occured because attackers gained access to the retailer's network, hence the increased interest in network security engineers. And the explosion of apps led to the application security engineer position reaching the top five this year: Mobile consumer app downloads exceeded 175 million in 2017, and that number doesn't even include the increasing number of business web applications in use, the report noted.

In terms of location, no one geographic region dominates when it comes to open cybersecurity jobs, the report found. The top five metro areas with the most jobs available were Washington, DC, New York, NY, Dallas-Fort Worth, TX, Baltimore, MD, and Chicago, IL.

While cyber pros with the right skills are in high demand and can command a high salary, it's important to adjust for cost of living. Indeed calculated average salaries for information security specialists, and adjusted them based on the Bureau of Economic Analysis' Price Parity

Index, which accounts for price differences in goods, rents, and transportation.

For cybersecurity pros, the five top-paying metro areas and their average adjusted salaries were as follows:

1. Charlotte, NC ($125,173)

2. Chicago, IL ($119,887)

3. San Francisco, CA ($116,073)

4. Austin, TX ($113,126)

5. Denver, CO ($112,206)

The big takeaways for tech leaders:

·         The most in-demand cybersecurity roles are IT security specialist, information security analyst, and network security engineer. — Indeed, 2018

·         The cities with the highest salaries for cybersecurity professionals adjusted by cost of living are Charlotte, NC, Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA. — Indeed, 2018

Note: All these cities are in the US.