Expected Salary

t93cobra

What would an expected salary be for an Information Security Officer in Texarkana, TX? 

The position is new to the company and is responsible for the direction, development, and management of the Information Security and Cybersecurity program. Here are some of the roles highlights:

• Report to the board on various security items
• Work with the executives to prioritize security initiatives
• Develop, maintain, and publish security policies and guidelines and standards
• Implement a security awareness program for employees and contractors
• Develop, implement, and test the incident response plan
• Direct penetration testing, vulnerability scans and vulnerability management
• Develop appropriate identity and access management architecture
• Develop, implement, and test the business continuity and disaster recovery plans

This position reports to the company CEO. It seems as though this position is going to be their leader of information security, aka CISO, just not the exact title.

What do you think?

roninkai

Depends on the company size, but I would explore other similar titles/roles in the area. A simply Glassdoor search for 'CISO' in Texas shows a range of $150 - $200k. Might be a good ballpark...

LordQarlyn

It sounds like a CISO position and I agree with dragonsden. A Salary.com search for CISO in Texas returned for me a range between $193,342 and $255,432. But, a search for "Information Security Officer" salary in Texas returned for me, in Dallas at least, ranges from 91K to 120k.

Find out if it is CISO or ISO, as there's a big difference in salaries. A good indication if it's a C-level job is you're told you'll have a budget, you'll a department underneath you, it will be much more management and less so hands on. But find out for sure, so you don't sell yourself short or price yourself out.

mikey88

LordQarlyn said:

Find out if it is CISO or ISO, as there's a big difference in salaries. 

Maybe it's a CISO job with ISO pay

t93cobra

mikey88 said:

Maybe it's a CISO job with ISO pay

Let me ask this, what’s the difference between the two roles? They seem the same to me. 

LordQarlyn

You're absolutely right, they are very similar. And in the description you provided some of the tasks are C-level or at the least senior level functions, some would be delegate by a CISO. Things missing that keep me anyway from outright calling it a CISO job are no mention of staffing and budgets. While I suppose there can be companies and organizations with CISOs or CIOs that are the sole members of the department, rarely are they not given a budget to work with. This role is definitely a mix managerial and hands on duties, so I am inclined to agree with mikey88, they are trying to get a CISO level job at an ISO pay.

Let me ask you this, have you been offered the position? If you have, try offering a CISO salary and see how they react. If they push back, point out that some of the job duties look to be executive level responsibilities.

t93cobra

So…had the interview today and it is an executive position, aka CISO. All my research, also confirmed here, states the salary should be $160-$220k based on the position. They had a range of $80-100k. 

Just shocked me. They kept saying how cheap it is to live there. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be accepting any offer unless they re-evaluate the salary. 

LordQarlyn

t93cobra said:

So…had the interview today and it is an executive position, aka CISO. All my research, also confirmed here, states the salary should be $160-$220k based on the position. They had a range of $80-100k. 

Just shocked me. They kept saying how cheap it is to live there. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be accepting any offer unless they re-evaluate the salary. 

@mikey88 You called this one right!😂

Absolutely you should not accept. I can't imagine anywhere in the US being that much cheaper to live to justify that disparity of a salary range, especially for an executive position.

TechGromit

t93cobra said:

So…had the interview today and it is an executive position, aka CISO. All my research, also confirmed here, states the salary should be $160-$220k based on the position. They had a range of $80-100k. 

I think it's important to look at the COL index when looking at salary ranges, You can't make a blanket statement all CISO should be earning 220k regardless of location. based on the with a COL index of 76.8 for Texarkana, TX, you should multiply $160-220k x .768 = $122 - 168k range to give the area a fair assessment of salary range expectations. I also agree the salary range is too low for the position stated.     

t93cobra

TechGromit said:

I think it's important to look at the COL index when looking at salary ranges, You can't make a blanket statement all CISO should be earning 220k regardless of location. based on the with a COL index of 76.8 for Texarkana, TX, you should multiply $160-220k x .768 = $122 - 168k range to give the area a fair assessment of salary range expectations. I also agree the salary range is too low for the position stated.     

I provided a range of $150-160k. What COL index do you utilize?

LordQarlyn

I wasn't suggesting that he ask for $220K and I am very sure he wasn't either. I simply pointed out there is no place in the US with a COL index where $80K - $100K  has the same purchase power parity of $160K. I would not however offer a range even if you are willing to accept the low end, as more than likely that's exactly what the employer will offer. Instead ask for the high end of your range then negotiate from there.

I've used Numbeo.com myself to estimate COL and to get ranges for cost of apartments, real estate, services, utilities, etc. Has a large database of worldwide locations and all over the US and lets you compare locations side by side.