The Security Engineer role today
This guide draws on 633 Security Engineer postings from 397 companies, published from March to September 2026.
In 6% of Security Engineer postings, building or applying AI is the job itself.
AI Risk Assessment appears in 13% of Security Engineer postings, and AI Red Teaming in 11%.
Automation exposure averages 41 out of 100 across these postings, which is moderate: parts of the routine work can be automated, which makes AI skills more valuable in the role.
Senior positions make up 48% of postings, mid-level 20%. The most common way of working is hybrid, in 49% of postings.
Common skill gaps
The AI skills our analysis of Security Engineer job descriptions most often flags as a gap, with the share of postings where each one comes up.
- AI Red Teaming34%
- AI Governance Frameworks31%
- Prompt Injection Defense19%
- AI Threat Modeling17%
- AI Supply Chain Security15%
- AI Incident Response15%
Security Engineer salary
Pay comes only from postings that quote it: 25 of the 633 Security Engineer postings. Each country uses the pay period its employers quote most.
Netherlands
based on 25 postings quoting pay per month€5,400
median per month
The middle half of advertised salaries, with the line at the median.
Essential Security Engineer skills
The skills employers ask for in Security Engineer job descriptions, from the most requested down.
Core skills
- Cloud Security
- AI Risk Assessment
- AI Red Teaming
Also valued
- LLM Security Awareness
- Security Automation
- AI Security Fundamentals
- AI Assisted Security Automation
- Incident Response
- AI Governance Fundamentals
- AI Threat Modeling
AI skills to learn next
The AI skills employers most often want to add to this role, beyond the ones above.
- LLM Security
- AI Assisted Threat Detection
How the Security Engineer role is evolving
The directions employers are taking this role as they adopt AI, with the skills and responsibilities each one adds.
Most common direction
Toward AI security
Typical focus
AI systems
Skills to add
- Adversarial ML
- AI Governance
New responsibilities
- Develop and enforce AI security policies and governance frameworks
- Conduct adversarial testing and red-teaming of AI systems
- Monitor and respond to AI-specific security incidents
- Design and implement security controls for AI/ML pipelines and model deployments
Other directions
Toward AI transformation
Typical focus
AI-enhanced
Skills to add
- AI Risk Management
- AI Change Management
- AI Tool Evaluation
- AI Compliance
- AI Ops
New responsibilities
- Collaborate with data science teams to embed security in AI development lifecycle
- Collaborate with data science teams to ensure secure deployment of AI models
- Develop and deliver AI security training programs for engineering and data science teams
- Advise clients on AI governance and ethical considerations in security systems
Toward AI governance
Typical focus
AI governance & compliance
Skills to add
- AI Ethics
- AI Policy Development
New responsibilities
- Develop and enforce AI security policies and governance frameworks
- Conduct AI risk assessments and ensure compliance with emerging AI regulations
- Develop and maintain AI governance policies and procedures
- Conduct AI risk assessments and audits
Toward AI engineering
Typical focus
AI-enhanced and AI automation
Skills to add
- LLM Ops
- AI Assisted Coding
- Machine Learning for Security
- MLOps
- Prompt Engineering
- Python for AI
New responsibilities
- Design and implement AI-driven automation for vulnerability detection and remediation
- Apply machine learning to analyze security data and predict attack patterns
- Architect and maintain scalable infrastructure for training and deploying ML models for malware analysis
- Assess and integrate AI-based security products into the existing tech stack
Security Engineer FAQ
Will AI replace Security Engineer jobs?
Automation exposure averages 41 out of 100 across these postings, which is moderate: parts of the routine work can be automated, which makes AI skills more valuable in the role. Employers are mostly reshaping the role toward AI security, adding skills such as AI Red Teaming and LLM Security.
What skills do Security Engineer roles require?
The skills employers ask for most are Cloud Security, AI Risk Assessment, AI Red Teaming, LLM Security Awareness and Security Automation.
Which AI skills should Security Engineer candidates learn next?
AI Red Teaming, LLM Security and AI Security Fundamentals are the AI skills employers most often want to add. The most common skill gaps are AI Red Teaming and AI Governance Frameworks.
How is the Security Engineer role changing?
The most common direction is AI security. Other directions include AI transformation, AI governance and AI engineering.
How much do Security Engineer roles pay in the Netherlands?
Advertised salaries typically range from €4,800 to €6,300 per month, with the median around €5,400, based on 25 postings that quote pay per month.
Find your next Security Engineer role
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This guide is built from public job descriptions for Security Engineer roles classified as Core AI or AI-enabled. Skills, automation exposure and career directions are extracted from each job description and compared across the market. Postings are deduplicated, so a job listed on several boards or by several agencies counts once. Salaries are advertised ranges from the Netherlands, taken only from the 25 postings that quote pay. How we collect and deduplicate postings.