Security Automation Engineer
Part of the Cybersecurity Career Guide — This article is one deep-dive in our complete guide series.
By HADESS Team | February 28, 2026 | Updated: February 28, 2026 | 5 min read
You build the automation that makes security operations teams faster and more effective. Instead of analysts manually triaging thousands of alerts, you write the code, integrations, and playbooks that handle repetitive work automatically. Your automation frees up human analysts to focus on the cases that actually require human judgment.
What You Will Do
Security automation engineering sits at the intersection of software development and security operations. You need to understand both the SOC workflow and how to write reliable, maintainable code.
Your daily work includes:
- Building SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) playbooks — Palo Alto XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Tines, Shuffle
- Writing integrations between security tools — SIEM, EDR, ticketing, threat intel platforms
- Automating alert enrichment — pulling context from multiple data sources to speed up triage
- Building automated response actions — isolating hosts, blocking IPs, disabling accounts
- Developing custom scripts for threat hunting and data analysis
- Integrating threat intelligence feeds into detection and response workflows
- Building dashboards and reporting automation for security metrics
- Creating ChatOps integrations — Slack/Teams bots for security alerts and response actions
- Automating user access reviews and compliance checks
- Building CI/CD pipelines for security tool deployment and configuration management
- Developing APIs for internal security services
- Testing and maintaining automation reliability — error handling, retry logic, logging
You measure success by the number of manual tasks you eliminate and the time you shave off mean-time-to-respond (MTTR). Every hour of analyst time you save through automation is an hour they can spend on harder problems.
Skills You Need
Security automation engineers need strong programming skills combined with security operations knowledge.
Key capabilities:
- Python programming — the primary language for security automation
- API integration — REST APIs, webhooks, authentication methods for tool integration
- SOAR platforms — XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Tines, or Shuffle playbook development
- SIEM administration — understanding data flows, queries, and alert pipelines
- Security operations workflows — knowing what analysts do so you can automate it
- DevOps practices — CI/CD, version control, infrastructure as code
- Scripting languages — Bash, PowerShell for system-level automation
- Data engineering basics — ETL, data normalization, log parsing
Build these in the skills library and explore how automation fits into security careers via the career path explorer.
Certifications
Security automation does not have a dedicated certification track, but relevant ones include:
- Cloud platform certifications (AWS, Azure) for infrastructure automation
- GCDA — GIAC Cloud Digital Forensics and Automation
- Python or DevOps certifications for programming credibility
- SOAR vendor-specific certifications (Palo Alto XSOAR, Splunk SOAR)
Plan your certification strategy with the certification roadmap planner.
Salary Range
Security automation engineers earn between $70K and $130K. Engineers who can demonstrate measurable impact — reduced MTTR, eliminated manual processes, improved detection coverage — negotiate the strongest offers. This role is growing as organizations recognize that manual security operations cannot scale.
Check current rates with the salary calculator.
How to Get Started
1. Learn Python well — not just scripting, but proper software engineering practices 2. Spend time in a SOC — you need to understand the workflows before you can automate them 3. Take the skills assessment to evaluate your programming and security operations skills 4. Build automation projects in the labs — integrate security tools and automate responses 5. Learn a SOAR platform — many offer free community editions 6. Study REST APIs — most of your integration work involves API calls between tools 7. Build a portfolio of automation projects — scripts, playbooks, integrations 8. Plan your certifications with the certification planner 9. Add automation projects to your resume with measurable outcomes 10. Search for security automation or SOAR engineer roles on the job board
If you are a developer wanting to move into security or a SOC analyst who wants to automate, the career coach can help you plan the transition.
Related Guides in This Series
Take the Next Step
Start your career assessment. Go to the start your career assessment on HADESS.
Explore career paths. Check out the explore career paths.
Get started free — Create your HADESS account and access all career tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
What certifications do I need for this role?
Certification requirements vary by employer and seniority level. Use the certification roadmap planner to build a sequence based on your target role and current qualifications.
What is the salary range for this role?
Salaries vary significantly by location, experience, and employer type. Use the salary calculator for your specific market rate.
How do I transition into this career path?
Take the skills assessment to identify your current strengths and gaps relative to this role. The assessment generates a personalized learning plan to close the gap.
—
HADESS Team consists of cybersecurity practitioners, hiring managers, and career strategists who have collectively spent 50+ years in the field.
