Entry Level Cyber Security Jobs in Insurance: The Back Door Into Tech Nobody Told You About

Q: Can I get an entry level cyber security job in insurance with no experience?

Yes, though no experience usually means no paid security experience. Employers still look for a certification, a home lab, an IT help desk background or a relevant degree. Tier 1 SOC and junior vulnerability roles are the most common starting points.

Q: How much do entry level cyber security jobs in insurance pay?

It varies by role and location. One remote junior vulnerability analyst listing advertised $45,000 to $65,000, while the BLS median for all information security analysts was $124,910 in May 2024.

Q: Is cyber insurance a good career?

The signs are strong. Premiums are projected to grow, much of the small and mid-sized business market is still underinsured, and industry leaders say talent supply has not kept pace.

Q: Which certifications help most?

Security+ and ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity are common entry points on the technical side. On the insurance side, risk management designations and, in the UK, CII qualifications add weight.

Researched and written by NittyBrain | Updated October 10, 2026 | 11 minute read

You have the certificate. Maybe two. You have applied to forty “junior” security roles that somehow ask for three years of experience, and your inbox answers with silence or a polite template.

Now let me tell you where the hiring managers are quietly struggling to fill seats: insurance companies. Not the glamorous tech giants everyone fights over. The insurers, the brokers, the underwriters. The people who get the phone call on the worst day of a company’s year, when ransomware locks every screen in the building.

That makes entry level cyber security jobs in insurance one of the least crowded doors into the industry, and this guide walks you through it properly. Which roles exist, what they actually involve, what they pay, what to learn, and how to get hired when your resume has no insurance history on it.

The short answer: Entry level cyber security jobs in insurance fall into two groups. The first is classic security work done inside an insurer (SOC analyst, vulnerability analyst, third-party risk, compliance). The second is cyber insurance work itself (underwriting support, broker account analyst, claims and incident response coordination). Both accept career changers, and several large carriers say openly that they want more people from outside insurance.

In this guide

Why insurance is quietly hungry for cyber talent
The two doors: cyber jobs at insurers vs cyber insurance jobs
9 entry-level roles you can actually apply for
What the money looks like
Skills and certifications that move your resume up the pile
The graduate programme route (with a real example)
Where to find the openings
Your 90-day plan
Mistakes that get good candidates ignored
Frequently asked questions

Why Insurance Is Quietly Hungry for Cyber Talent

Think about what a cyber insurer sells. It sells a promise: if you get hit, we pay. To price that promise without going bankrupt, the insurer has to understand attacks, controls, and weak spots as well as the people defending the network do. That is a security skill, and insurers are short of it.

Patrick Thielen, global head of cyber insurance at Liberty Mutual, put the problem plainly in a February 2026 Risk & Insurance feature. Worldwide, the demand for cybersecurity expertise outruns the supply. And he argued the real challenge isn’t that skilled people don’t exist. It’s getting them to look at insurance in the first place. The same piece makes a point worth underlining: hiring from outside the insurance world strengthens the talent pool, because cyber changes too fast for a purely traditional background to keep up.

Then there is the money flowing in. Swiss Re estimates global cyber premiums at roughly $16.4 billion in 2026, up from $15.6 billion in 2025, and Munich Re has projected that premiums could more than double between 2025 and 2030. S&P Global Ratings forecasts a 15% to 20% rise in cyber premiums in 2026 on the back of heavier claims and steady demand. And there’s room left to grow: according to figures reported by Insurance Business, 60% to 70% of large corporates carry cyber cover, but only 40% to 50% of mid-sized firms do, and as few as 10% to 20% of small businesses.

Every one of those uncovered businesses is a future policy. Every policy needs someone to assess it, service it, and handle the claim when things go wrong. That is where you come in.

The wider security market backs this up. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a 2024 median pay of $124,910 per year for information security analysts, and projects 29% growth from 2024 to 2034, which it calls much faster than average. About 182,800 people held those jobs in 2024. Insurance is one slice of a field that is simply growing.

The Two Doors: Cyber Jobs at Insurers vs Cyber Insurance Jobs

Here’s where most guides, and honestly most job boards, get muddy. When someone searches “entry level cyber security jobs insurance,” they usually mean one of two different things, and the careers look nothing alike.

Job site ZipRecruiter draws the same line: entry-level cyber insurance work is about assessing and underwriting cyber risk, while an entry-level cybersecurity analyst is about protecting systems from threats. One sits on the insurance side of the table, the other on the defense side. You can start in either and cross later.

	Door 1: Security job inside an insurer	Door 2: Cyber insurance job
You protect…	The insurer’s own systems and customer data	Clients’ risk, through policies and coverage
Typical titles	SOC Analyst, Vulnerability Analyst, Security Analyst I, Third-Party Risk	Cyber Practice Account Analyst, Underwriting Assistant, Claims or Incident Response Coordinator
Background that fits	IT help desk, networking, security certs	Anything analytical: IT, law, risk, audit, customer-facing work
Insurance knowledge needed on day one	Almost none	Some, but employers teach it
Long-term path	Security engineer, architect, CISO track	Cyber underwriter, broker, risk consultant

Not sure which to pick? Door 1 is the easier first step if you already have technical training. Door 2 tends to suit people who like talking to clients and weighing risk, and it often pays well once you pass the entry stage.

9 Entry-Level Roles You Can Actually Apply For

These come from real listings and employer pages we reviewed while researching this post, not from a wish list. Titles shift from company to company, so search the nearest match.

1. Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst, Tier 1

You watch alerts, decide what is noise and what is real, and escalate the dangerous stuff. Tier 1 listings we found describe working alongside Tier 2 analysts while you build your knowledge of threats. It’s the classic first rung, and insurers and their vendors hire for it.

2. Junior Vulnerability Analyst

You scan systems, track weaknesses, and help teams fix them in priority order. One remote listing we saw asked for vulnerability management basics, analysis skills, and some scripting, and was open to people with fairly light experience.

3. Third-Party Risk Analyst or Engineer I

Insurers rely on hundreds of vendors, and each vendor is a doorway. Entry-level third-party risk roles check how securely those vendors handle data. A Texas listing for an Engineer I in cyber third-party risk even asked for only entry-level knowledge of financial services or banking.

4. Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Analyst

Insurance is a heavily regulated business, so someone has to map security controls to rules and prove it. If you like documents, frameworks and being the calm person in an audit, this lane is real and often overlooked.

5. Privacy Analyst

Privacy analyst roles show up alongside cyber roles at big insurers. You help make sure personal data is collected, stored and shared the way the law requires. It leans toward policy and law more than hands-on keyboards.

6. Cyber Practice Account Analyst (Broker Side)

Brokers place cyber policies for clients. An account analyst supports the brokers: collecting security details from clients, preparing submissions, checking policy documents. We found this exact title in a listing from a broker-side firm in Pennsylvania. It is a genuinely good bridge for someone with IT experience who wants to move into the insurance business.

7. Cyber Underwriting Assistant or Trainee

Underwriters decide whether to insure a company and at what price. Assistants help pull together the technical picture: does the company use multi-factor authentication, how does it back up data, how fast does it patch? Fully fledged cyber underwriter roles ask for experience (one recruiter listing for a remote carrier role asked for four years), so the assistant or trainee route is how most people climb in.

8. Cyber Claims and Incident Response Coordinator

When a client reports an attack, someone coordinates the forensics firm, the lawyers and the recovery team. Entry-level coordinators help keep that process moving. It is stressful and fascinating in equal parts.

9. Cyber Analyst I / II at a Specialty Carrier

Some specialty insurers advertise straight “Cyber Analyst” ladders. Atlantic Specialty Insurance Company, for example, was advertising a Cyber Analyst II role in the listings we reviewed. Look for the lower numbers (I) when you’re starting out.

What the Money Looks Like

Let’s be straight about this: public salary data for entry level cyber security jobs in insurance is thin and messy. Job boards mix senior and junior roles, and the aggregator pages that quote tidy salary ladders rarely say where their numbers come from. So here’s what we can actually stand behind.

The ceiling reference: BLS puts the median for information security analysts at $124,910 (May 2024). That is a median across all experience levels, not a starter salary, so don’t expect it on day one.
A real junior listing: A remote Junior Vulnerability Analyst posting we found advertised $45,000 to $65,000 a year.
The jump after experience: A recruiter listing for a remote cyber underwriter (four-plus years of underwriting experience required) advertised $100,000 to $140,000.

Read those three together and a pattern appears. Starting pay is modest. But the climb from entry level into a specialist cyber underwriting seat is steep, and that is exactly why people with two years of solid cyber exposure are so valued. Treat the first job as an apprenticeship with a very good exit ramp.

Check the benefits, not just the base. Insurers tend to list health, dental, vision and retirement matching in their postings, and several offer tuition reimbursement or training support. Over a couple of years, free certifications and course funding can be worth thousands.

Skills and Certifications That Move Your Resume Up the Pile

Technical basics employers keep asking for

Core networking (how traffic moves, what a firewall does, DNS, ports)
Basic vulnerability management and how to read a scan report
Some scripting, usually Python or PowerShell, to automate boring tasks
Familiarity with a SIEM or log tool, even from a home lab
Knowledge of frameworks such as NIST and ISO 27001 at a “can explain it” level

The insurance-flavored extras that set you apart

Know the risk story. Be able to explain, in plain English, why ransomware, business interruption and data breach liability matter to an insurer.
Understand controls underwriters care about. Multi-factor authentication, backups that can’t be encrypted by attackers, patch speed, and endpoint detection come up again and again in cyber underwriting.
Write clearly. Account analysts and underwriting assistants write to brokers and clients all day. Clear writing is a hiring advantage.

Certifications worth considering

Entry-level security postings commonly mention CompTIA Security+, and ISC2’s Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) is built for newcomers. On the insurance side, a credential in risk management (the Institutes’ ARM designation, for example) helps show you speak the language. In the UK, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) qualifications matter, and some employers fund them. Always check the current exam requirements on the certifying body’s own site before you pay for anything.

One honest caution: a certificate on its own won’t land the job. A certificate plus a small project you can talk about for ten minutes will.

The Graduate Programme Route (With a Real Example)

If you are early in your career, or you live in the UK, look at structured graduate programmes. They exist for exactly this reason: the industry can’t hire experienced cyber underwriters fast enough, so it builds them.

Beazley’s Cyber Risks Graduate Programme is a clear example. It runs 24 months across three rotations: a first year in underwriting, then two six-month stints in Claims & Cyber Services and Cyber Support. Graduates are supported toward the CII Diploma and can move into a full-time Cyber Risk Underwriter role afterwards. Not everyone can apply to a UK scheme, but it shows you what a good path looks like, and similar early-career schemes appear at other carriers and brokers.

Where to Find the Openings

Indeed. When we checked, its “cyber insurance entry level” results showed 829 listings, and its broader “cyber insurance jobs” page showed over 12,500. Counts move daily, so treat these as a snapshot. See the Indeed entry-level cyber insurance page.
ZipRecruiter. It has dedicated pages for entry-level cyber insurance, with state and city filters. Browse ZipRecruiter’s entry-level cyber insurance jobs.
SimplyHired. Handy for junior analyst roles with visible salary ranges. Search SimplyHired.
Carrier and broker career pages. Insurers and brokers that appeared repeatedly in our research include AIG, Nationwide, The Hartford, Beazley, Liberty Mutual, Marsh, Willis, and cyber-focused names like Cowbell. Go directly to their career sites, because many early-career roles never reach the big boards.
Industry press. Reading Risk & Insurance and Insurance Business tells you who’s expanding, which is often who’s hiring.

A note for readers outside the US

Many of the listings above are US-based, and some, even the remote ones, require US work authorization. If you’re applying from Nigeria or another country, filter for roles that explicitly accept international candidates, look at UK and European graduate schemes, and check the work-authorization line before you spend an evening on a cover letter. It will save you real heartache.

Your 90-Day Plan to Get Hired

Days 1 to 30: Learn the vocabulary. Pick one door (security inside an insurer, or cyber insurance itself). Work through a beginner security certification path and spend a few evenings reading how cyber policies are structured. If you want a feel for the insurance side first, our breakdown of the top 10 cyber insurance companies shows you who the major players are, and is cyber insurance worth it explains the buyer’s view, which is what you’ll be supporting.

Days 31 to 60: Build one thing you can talk about. Set up a small home lab, run a vulnerability scan against your own test machine, and write a one-page report on what you found and how you’d fix it. Better still, write a short risk summary for an imaginary small business, the way an underwriter would. That one page does more for you than ten course badges.

Days 61 to 90: Apply with intent. Rewrite your resume around the target role. Not sure how to frame it? Our guide to a resume for insurance roles covers how insurance hiring managers read applications. Then apply to fifteen to twenty roles, and send a short, specific note to a recruiter or hiring manager at five of them.

If you’re curious how the wider insurance job market works beyond cyber, jobs in an insurance company is a good companion read. And if you ever want to see how another specialist career inside insurance is described, our piece on the medical insurance nurse job description shows how clinical skills turn into insurance roles in much the same way tech skills do.

Mistakes That Get Good Candidates Ignored

Applying to “Senior” roles by accident. Read the years of experience. A title with “Specialist” can still mean five years.
Writing a resume that screams “I want out of my old job.” Show what you can do for the insurer, not what you’re escaping.
Ignoring broker-side roles. Brokers hire from IT and law backgrounds and train them. It’s one of the friendliest ways in.
Skipping the insurance homework. A candidate who can say “ransomware is expensive because of the business interruption, not just the ransom” sounds ready. One who can’t sounds like they applied to everything.
Collecting certificates instead of proof. Employers hire people who can explain a project, not people who own the most badges.
Not asking about training. In the interview, ask what the first six months of learning looks like. Good employers have an answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I get an entry level cyber security job in insurance with no experience?

Yes, though “no experience” usually means no paid security experience. Employers still look for evidence: a certification, a home lab, an IT help desk background, or a relevant degree. Tier 1 SOC and junior vulnerability roles are the most common starting points, and some insurers openly prefer to train promising people from outside the insurance world.

What is the difference between a cyber insurance job and a cybersecurity job?

A cybersecurity job defends systems from attacks. A cyber insurance job assesses, prices, sells or pays out on the financial risk of those attacks. You can do cybersecurity work at an insurer, which is why the two overlap and why the search term confuses so many people.

Do I need an insurance license?

For most technical security roles inside an insurer, no. Roles that involve selling or advising on policies may require a licence depending on your country or state, so check the job posting and your local regulator.

How much do entry level cyber security jobs in insurance pay?

It depends heavily on role and location. We found a remote junior vulnerability analyst listing at $45,000 to $65,000, while the BLS median for all information security analysts is $124,910. Underwriting roles with several years of experience advertise well above $100,000. Treat any single number carefully and compare listings in your own market.

Is cyber insurance a good career?

The signs are strong. Premiums are projected to grow, large parts of the mid-market and small business segment are still underinsured, and industry leaders say the supply of talent hasn’t kept up. As with any career, the best outcomes go to people who keep learning.

Which certifications help most?

Security+ and ISC2 CC are common entry points on the technical side. On the insurance side, risk management designations and, in the UK, CII qualifications add weight. Pair any certificate with a small project so you have something real to discuss.

Can I work remotely in these roles?

Some are remote, but many require on-site or hybrid work, and several remote postings require authorization to work in the US. Always read the location and eligibility lines before applying.

The Bottom Line

Most people hunting for a first cyber role stand in the same overcrowded queue. Insurance is a side door that’s been sitting open the whole time. The industry needs people who can understand attackers and explain risk, and it is increasingly willing to train the right person from a different background.

So pick your door, learn the vocabulary, build one small project you’re proud of, and start applying. The first role won’t be your last. In this field, it’s rarely the title that matters. It’s the two years of real exposure that follow.