Skip to Main Content

Cyber Security Engineer Must-Have Resume Skills and Keywords

Are you interested in improving your job outlook and increasing your salary? How can you demonstrate that you are the most qualified candidate for a Cyber Security Engineer position? Of course continuing to gain experience working as a Cyber Security Engineer may be your best qualification, but there are other ways you can also develop your skills, like continuing education or volunteer opportunities. More immediately, however, you can be ready for your next opportunity or promotion by educating yourself about the duties, responsibilities, and required skills of a Cyber Security Engineer and making sure your resume reflects your experience properly.

In order to do so, you’ll want to know that both employers hiring for a Cyber Security Engineer and those who list the position of Cyber Security Engineer on their resumes predominantly feature Cybersecurity and Technical as the most common and important terms, respectively. But the list quickly begins to diverge with resumes showing Vulnerability Assessment, Linux and Firewalls at positions three, four and five, while job listings show a different pattern. Do you know what you would list?

We designed the ZipRecruiter Career Keyword Mapper to help you solve this problem and hopefully improve your resume. Using machine learning tools paired with industry research, our Marketplace Research Team helped analyze millions of job postings and resumes to identify the most important keywords related to Cyber Security Engineer jobs. Our goal is to help you discover opportunities to improve your resume or to help you understand what skills and qualifications you need to be a Cyber Security Engineer or to advance your career into beyond this role.

Top Skills Mentioned in Job Descriptions

Top
10
Job Skills
Employers require a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Cyber Security Engineer positions. The top three keywords make up 46.7% of the total set of top terms. Look to the Resume Checklist below to see how Cybersecurity, Technical, and Cyber shares stack up against the share from resumes. Vulnerability Assessment, Innovation and Collaboration represent an additionally healthy share of the employer Cyber Security Engineer job postings with their combined total of 25.76%. At 27.54%, Analysis, Information Security, Security Clearance, and Computer Science appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Cyber Security Engineer skills and requirements according to employers.

Top Skills Mentioned in Resumes

Top
10
Job Skills
Job seeker resumes showcase a broad range of skills and qualifications in their descriptions of Cyber Security Engineer positions. The top three keywords represent 36.84% of the total set of top resume listed keywords. Look to the Resume Checklist below to investigate how Cybersecurity, Technical, and Vulnerability Assessment match up to employer job descriptions. Linux, Firewalls, and Analysis represent a very decent share of skills found on resumes for Cyber Security Engineer with 29.13% of the total. At 34.04%, Information Security, Troubleshooting, Active Directory, and Cyber appear far less frequently, but are still a significant portion of the 10 top Cyber Security Engineer skills and qualifications found on resumes.

Most Important Skills Required to Be a Cyber Security Engineer as Listed by Employers and Employees

Here is a simple table of the top 10 skills and qualifications as listed by employers in Cyber Security Engineer job postings since January of 2018, followed by the top 10 skills and qualifications most commonly listed by people who held the title of Cyber Security Engineer on their resumes.
Top Cyber Security Engineer Skills
Skills Required by Employers Share
Cybersecurity 22.63%
Technical 13.20%
Cyber 10.87%
Vulnerability Assessment 10.11%
Innovation 8.06%
Collaboration 7.59%
Analysis 7.45%
Information Security 7.43%
Security Clearance 6.57%
Computer Science 6.09%
Skills Listed by Employees Share
Cybersecurity 15.38%
Technical 10.96%
Vulnerability Assessment 10.50%
Linux 10.12%
Firewalls 9.53%
Analysis 9.48%
Information Security 8.92%
Troubleshooting 8.64%
Active Directory 8.25%
Cyber 8.23%

Cyber Security Engineer Resume Checklist

Our Resume Keyword Checklist is based upon an analysis of the most commonly found terms within both job descriptions and resumes for Cyber Security Engineer positions. Our algorithm helps isolate phrases and patterns to identify the most frequently recurring and reused keywords from each data source, while correcting for uncommon and outlier results. Various heuristic methodologies are then applied to ultimately create two top 20 lists of the most important and significant skills, certificates and requirements found within Cyber Security Engineer job postings and resumes. We then merge the two lists together and use a combination of statistics and rules-based scenarios to create a list that is audited by the Marketplace Research team, and finally turned into the checklist you see below. Our hope is that knowing this information can help you make your best impression with your next potential employer.
Uncommon Keywords on Cyber Security Engineer Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Innovation
Security Clearance
Communication Skills
Computer Science
Collaboration
Cybersecurity
Top Secret Clearance
Cyber
Technical
Employer job listings often list Innovation, Security Clearance, Communication Skills, Computer Science, Collaboration, Cybersecurity, Top Secret Clearance, Cyber or Technical as requirements in Cyber Security Engineer job descriptions; however, candidates mention them far less frequently on their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Cyber Security Engineer position may help you stand out more to hiring managers.
Common Keywords on Cyber Security Engineer Resumes
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Scripting
Vulnerability Assessment
Risk Management
Mitigation
Information Security
Analysis
Information Technology
Documentation
Compliance
SIEM
NIST
Remediation Assessment
Linux
Network Security
Firewalls
Hardware
Troubleshooting
Splunk
Both employer job listings and resumes from people who’ve held the position of Cyber Security Engineer tend to always include skills and requirements found in this list. Whether you’ve only got Scripting, Vulnerability Assessment, Risk Management, Mitigation, Information Security, Analysis, Information Technology, Documentation, Compliance, SIEM, NIST, Remediation Assessment, Linux, Network Security, Firewalls, Hardware, Troubleshooting or Splunk in your background and experience, make sure to highlight the term prominently on your resume. As a candidate you’ll be competing with many others who are bound to have as many as you (or more!) of these common resume keywords highlighted in their application for a job as a Cyber Security Engineer.
Uncommon Keywords on Cyber Security Engineer Job Descriptions
Job Descriptions
Resumes
25%
50%
75%
100%
Comptia
Active Directory
Employer job listings seldom list Comptia or Active Directory as important skills or qualifications in Cyber Security Engineer job descriptions. Nevertheless, candidates mention them much more commonly in their resumes. If you possess any or all of these experiences, including these keywords prominently on your resume when applying for a Cyber Security Engineer position may go unnoticed or even discounted by hiring managers.

FAQs about Cyber Security Engineer Skills and Resume Keywords

What are the most important Cyber Security Engineer job skills to have on my resume?

The most common important skills required by employers are Scripting, Vulnerability Assessment, Risk Management, Mitigation, Information Security, Analysis and Information Technology. These skills and requirements are just as likely to be mentioned by employers as well as on resumes of people that held a position as a Cyber Security Engineer, suggesting that having these keywords on a resume are important for success as a Cyber Security Engineer. Additionally, employer Cyber Security Engineer job descriptions list Innovation as a desirable experience, even though Innovation appears 7.7 times less on resumes, suggesting that it's worth considering including this term if you possess the experience.

What are the least important Cyber Security Engineer job skills to have on my resume?

Although you'd probably love to load up your resume with every possible keyword you can, employers tend to look for the things they specify in the job description. Our analysis suggests that highlighting too prominently terms like Comptia and Active Directory may be something to reconsider. These two terms appear 0.31 and 0.27 times less often than in job descriptions for a Cyber Security Engineer role. This implies that highlighting either of these keywords on your resume may not be a great way to stand out to a potential employer.

How do I make sure my resume has all of the right keywords for a Cyber Security Engineer position?

Unless your resume has a good density of the following skills and experience listed, you may not be considered for the role of Cyber Security Engineer. Make sure to include a strong showing for the following keywords on your resume:
  • Scripting
  • Vulnerability Assessment
  • Risk Management
  • Mitigation
  • Information Security
  • Analysis
  • Information Technology
  • Documentation
  • Compliance
  • SIEM
  • NIST
  • Remediation Assessment
  • Linux
  • Network Security
  • Firewalls
Additionally employers frequently list the following as desirable qualities in a Cyber Security Engineer candidate, but they are far less common on most resumes:
  • Innovation
  • Security Clearance
  • Communication Skills
  • Computer Science
  • Collaboration
  • Cybersecurity
  • Top Secret Clearance
  • Cyber
  • Technical
Finally people who held the position of a Cyber Security Engineer and list it on their resume are adding these terms that are less likely to be noticed by employers. You may want to consider downplaying these terms on your Cyber Security Engineer application:
  • Comptia
  • Active Directory

Before applying for a Cyber Security Engineer job

At ZipRecruiter, we understand better than anyone the importance of using the right keywords to describe your experience — it’s crucial to attracting the right employers! We built our business on the ability to effectively match job seekers with employers using AI-technology that understands your resume and how likely you are to be noticed by a potential future employer. Having a ZipRecruiter profile that showcases your most relevant skills and abilities can help you get recruited into a new role as a Cyber Security Engineer. Get started on your journey with a new ZipRecruiter Profile today!