Counted October 17, 2026 · from employers’ own postings
Protective service: 1,658 open roles, 159 entry level.
Keeping people and places safe — security, safety, emergency response and investigation.
1,508 of these postings state no level; the entry-level count is over the ones that do, plus any that ask for a year or less and are not titled senior. Pay is the median of posted bands, in USD, only where eight or more roles posted one. Only open roles are counted.
The roles, as the postings name them
Open roles and posted pay by role.
| Role | Open roles | Median posted band |
|---|---|---|
| Security Officer | 243 | $48K |
| Transportation Security Officer | 196 | $51K |
| Target Security Specialist | 182 | $51K |
| Police Officer | 153 | $68K |
| Security Guard | 85 | $55K |
| Security Specialist | 59 | $89K |
| Security Associate | 43 | $38K |
| Firefighter | 41 | $57K |
| Supervisory Border Patrol Agent | 39 | $126K |
| Personnel Security Specialist | 27 | $100K |
| Border Patrol Agent | 23 | $106K |
| Industrial Security Specialist | 17 | $91K |
What each pays, on its own page: Security Officer, Police Officer, Security Guard, Security Specialist, Security Associate, Personnel Security Specialist.
A role is the posting’s own title with its level, shift and schedule set aside, so “Registered Nurse – ICU (Nights)” and “Senior Registered Nurse” are one role. The twelve most posted; pay is the median of posted bands, where eight or more roles posted one.
The skills, as the postings name them
What the postings ask for.
| Skill | Postings | At entry |
|---|---|---|
| Law Enforcement | 669 | 42% |
| Security Operations | 390 | 26% |
| Customer Service | 321 | 48% |
| CPR and Basic Life Support | 299 | 67% |
| Investigation | 285 | 19% |
| Emergency Response | 266 | 45% |
| Case Management | 181 | 0% |
| Report Writing | 170 | 19% |
| RF Scanning | 158 | 0% |
| Crisis Intervention | 148 | 11% |
| Risk Management | 90 | 8% |
| Data Entry | 87 | 45% |
A count of open postings naming each skill, the twelve most named; “at entry” is the share of the 159 entry-level postings that name it. Never a trend, never a score of you. Which of these you already have, and what you would learn first, is on your CareerVersion.
The ladder, by level
What each rung pays.
| Level | Open roles | Median posted band | Middle half |
|---|---|---|---|
| JUNIOR | 63 | $41K | $38K–$58K |
| MID | 17 | $63K | $57K–$76K |
| SENIOR | 25 | $61K | $61K–$108K |
| STAFF | 8 | — (5 of 8 bands) | — |
| PRINCIPAL | 4 | — (0 of 8 bands) | — |
| MANAGEMENT | 33 | $142K | $103K–$170K |
Levels as the postings name them. A rung shows a median only where eight or more postings at that level carried a band; the middle half is the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentile of those bands.
Who is hiring
The employers with the most open.
| Employer | Open roles | Entry level |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation Security Administration | 228 | — |
| Target | 185 | — |
| Customs and Border Protection | 69 | — |
| Carvana | 48 | 44 |
| U.S. Marine Corps | 45 | — |
| Air National Guard Units | 38 | — |
| Commander, Navy Installations Command | 36 | — |
| Asmglobal | 35 | 6 |
| Boyd Gaming | 31 | 11 |
| Ochsner Health (Ochsner) | 28 | 27 |
Counted from employers’ own job boards. The twelve with the most open roles in this career tonight; “entry level” is how many of those ask for no prior experience.
Where the work is
0% of open protective service roles are remote.
- Remote0%6 roles
- Hybrid0%1 roles
- On site83%1,374 roles
- Not stated17%277 roles
As the boards state it. Nothing in the postings supports a city-level figure, so none is given.
How this was counted
Every figure here is counted from 1,658 open postings read from 288 employers’ own job boards on October 17, 2026, and recounted every night. Pay is the band the employer posted — never an estimate, never a model: a level shows a median only where eight or more postings carried one, and 956 of these postings did. Titles are grouped by the words the postings use, with levels, shifts and schedules removed, so one role is one row. The same counts as Markdown are at facts.md.
Make protective service your path — free.
A CareerVersion remembers your record and shows you three real protective service roles and the three skills the market asks for, on your first screen.
Counted October 17, 2026 from 1,658 open postings; refreshed nightly. Facts as Markdown: facts.md.