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Example Career: Security Managers

Career Description

Direct an organization's security functions, including physical security and safety of employees, facilities, and assets.

What Job Titles Security Managers Might Have

  • Corporate Security Manager
  • Manager
  • Security and Safety
  • Security Director
  • Security Manager

What Security Managers Do

  • Create or implement security standards, policies, and procedures.
  • Identify, investigate, or resolve security breaches.
  • Respond to medical emergencies, bomb threats, fire alarms, or intrusion alarms, following emergency response procedures.
  • Monitor and ensure a sound, ethical environment.
  • Plan, direct, or coordinate security activities to safeguard company assets, employees, guests, or others on company property.
  • Develop, implement, manage, or evaluate policies and methods to protect personnel against harassment, threats, or violence.
  • Develop, conduct, support, or assist in governmental reviews, internal corporate evaluations, or assessments of the overall effectiveness of facility and personnel security processes.
  • Train subordinate security professionals or other organization members in security rules and procedures.
  • Assess risks to mitigate potential consequences of incidents and develop a plan to respond to incidents.
  • Communicate security status, updates, and actual or potential problems, using established protocols.
  • Direct or participate in emergency management and contingency planning.
  • Conduct threat or vulnerability analyses to determine probable frequency, criticality, consequence, or severity of natural or man-made disasters or criminal activity on the organization's profitability or delivery of products or services.
  • Supervise or provide leadership to subordinate security professionals, performing activities, such as hiring, background investigation, training, assigning work, evaluating performance, or disciplining.
  • Develop budgets for security operations.
  • Write or review security-related documents, such as incident reports, proposals, and tactical or strategic initiatives.
  • Analyze and evaluate security operations to identify risks or opportunities for improvement through auditing, review, or assessment.
  • Develop or manage integrated security controls to ensure confidentiality, accountability, recoverability, or audit ability of sensitive information, proprietary information, or information technology resources.
  • Monitor security policies, programs or procedures to ensure compliance with internal security policies, licensing requirements, or applicable government security requirements, policies, and directives.
  • Conduct physical examinations of property to ensure compliance with security policies and regulations.
  • Collect and analyze security data to determine security needs, security program goals, or program accomplishments.
  • Coordinate security operations or activities with public law enforcement, fire and other agencies.
  • Review financial reports to ensure efficiency and quality of security operations.
  • Purchase security-related supplies, equipment, or technology.
  • Develop or manage investigation programs, including collection and preservation of video and notes of surveillance processes or investigative interviews.
  • Develop, arrange for, perform, or assess executive protection activities to reduce security risks.
  • Plan security for special and high-risk events.
  • Support efforts to reduce substance abuse or other illegal activities in the workplace.
  • Develop, recommend, or manage security procedures for operations or processes, such as security call centers, system acquisition, development, and maintenance, access control, program models, or reporting tools.
  • Prepare reports or make presentations on internal investigations, losses, or violations of regulations, policies and procedures.

What Security Managers Should Be Good At

  • Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Security Managers Need to Learn

  • Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
  • Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
  • Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
  • Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
  • Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Median Salary: $99,030

This page includes information from O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license.