If you’re interested in becoming a cyber security manager, read on as this guide will teach you everything you need to know about the job description, requirements, and salaries.
Table of Contents
How to become a cyber security manager in 5 easy steps!…Click below to find out more!
What Is a Cyber Security Manager?
What Does a Cyber Security Manager Do?
Salary for Cyber Security Manager
Is It Hard to Get a Cyber Security Job?
Who Does a Cyber Security Manager Report To?
Cyber Security Manager Qualifications
Do Security Managers Need a College Degree?
Do You Need Security Certifications?
Skills Required for Cyber Security Manager
How to Become a Cyber Security Manager?
What Is a Cyber Security Manager?
While the role of cyber security manager is company specific; in general, security managers are responsible for maintaining the cyber defenses of the organization in order to protect the company’s network infrastructure and ensure compliance with industry security standards.
What Does a Cyber Security Manager Do?
While you’ll still maintain a vital role in the daily security operations of the company; as manager, you’re also responsible for implementing, or even developing, the organizations security policies and procedures. This will require you to act as the liaison between upper management and IT by coordinating with other departments that have a stake in protecting the network infrastructure.
Security managers will supervise a team of cybersecurity analysts, engineers, and team leads who, together, ensure that a company’s network infrastructure remain secure against cyber-attacks.; and as leader of your team, you’ll direct security tasks resulting from those coordination activities.
Since your role is now partially administrative in nature, you can expect to be involved in more administrative meetings, in addition to any technical meetings, and be expected to work collaboratively with other stakeholders to create and monitor processes that reduce overall business risks, including the evaluation of new security policies.
Salary for Cyber Security Manager
How much does a cyber security manager make? The average annual salary of a cyber security manager comes to around $128k depending upon your location, experience, and seniority.
That figure is based on the salary ranges of $81k to $154k as obtained from Payscale and $113k to $167k from Salary.com.
Is It Hard to Get a Cyber Security Job?
You’ll have to be prepared for a lot of competition because it takes time to get hired as a cybersecurity manager, even if you already have the experience.
Roughly 20% of all cybersecurity jobs are managerial; therefore, just like any other job, you’ll need to work hard and find ways to stand out.
Who Does a Cyber Security Manager Report To?
A cyber security manager reports to either a senior-level cybersecurity manager, program manager, or cybersecurity director depending on the hierarchy of the organization.
This is the person who manages multiple cyber security projects within a single program or across the different departments and locations.
Cyber Security Manager Qualifications
It can take about five years to become a cyber security manager, with the actual amount of time varying by person and role. If you already have cyber experience, then you have an advantage.
It’s also worth noting the amount of time spent on learning and applying new cybersecurity skills is also an important factor. Some people are just naturally better at learning quickly than others; so, if this applies to you then this might help speed up your process too!
Do Security Managers Need a College Degree?
No, a college degree is not required to become a cyber security manager; however, it can help you get into the field and advance your career in the long run.
Although debatable, many employers prefer college graduates because they feel that candidates with degrees have more knowledge of the industry and are more likely to be successful in their jobs than those without one.
It will give you an edge when applying for jobs at companies where hiring managers may favor applicants with degrees rather than those without them (which does happen).
Read here if you’d like to learn more about whether a cyber security degree is worth it!
In either case, it’s important to stay up to date on security trends and technologies and be ready to learn new skills and adapt as the technology evolves.
Do You Need Security Certifications?
This can be one of the most difficult parts for some people, but it’s also one of the most important; so, the answer to this last question is “Yes”!
Regardless of whether you have a degree, consider getting a security certification. Certifications require less time and money to complete than a degree and is a good investment if you’re looking to pursue this career path.
Even if it’s a company preference, it can be helpful if you want your skills to be taken seriously. The Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) is a good certification to have; otherwise, a Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP) with a Project Management Professional (PMP) is also good combination of certifications to possess.
Skills Required for Cyber Security Manager
The cyber security manager is the individual who oversees protecting aspects of the company’s information and systems. This person must have an understanding of technology and be able to work with other people in a professional manner. If you want to become a successful cyber security manager, you’ll need a wide range of skills.
Technical Expertise: It’s important to understand how the technologies and tools you use daily actually work, as well as how they interact with each other and the infrastructure. This helps you to provide additional meaning to the reports the tools produce and allows you to speak intelligently about them with leadership teams. While you may not be the person using the technology directly, it’s still important for cyber security managers to stay knowledgeable about how they function.
Leadership Skills: Since you’re responsible for overseeing your team and making sure that projects are completed on time, leadership skills are key. You need to be able to motivate people, lead a group through tough times, and make good decisions about how to allocate resources (money, personnel). To become good at leadership, it’s important that you develop certain qualities such as empathy, confidence, decisiveness, and assertiveness (i.e., knowing when something needs looking into). Having these skills will make it much easier to work together as a team!
Project Management Skills: Good PM skills help to ensure that all parts of a project come together at their most efficient point in time so nothing gets delayed or forgotten along the way. It also involves planning ahead so that there aren’t any surprises during execution (like when one person needs another’s input before they can finish their part). Understanding project goals, scope, budget, deliverables, and timelines are critical to the manager’s success. In addition, you’ll need to effectively manage stakeholder expectations, vendor relationships, as well as your own staff members on the project team.
How to Become Cyber Security Manager?
Step 1: If you want to become a cyber security manager, it’s important that you have at least 5-years of experience in information security as an analyst, engineer, or other related role.
Step 2: It’s important that you’re at least familiar with the various other domains outside your area of expertise, but this doesn’t mean you need to be skilled in all aspects of cyber. While it can be intimidating to get into, you should learn to look at systems holistically, instead of just the individual parts. This is a good reason to get your security certifications!
Step 3: Experience aside, because everyone is trying to make their way to the top, being a manager is not for those looking for a 9-to-5 job. You’ll be expected to put in the extra hours, sometimes weekends, and help when the boss needs you. This will be your opportunity to test out your leadership skills, and trust that your supervisor is taking note.
Step 4: As you move up the ladder, it’s best to find an opportunity where you have access to mentors who can teach you about cyber security and help you learn from your mistakes. You’ll want to build a network of people in the field who can help you grow. The more advanced your knowledge becomes, the better the chance you have of getting hired as a cyber security manager.
Step 5: Once a leadership position becomes available, all that’s left to do is apply and get the recommendation of your peers.
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by Amit Doshi
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