Security Jobs in Boston, MA

Observed local data says the broad protective-service group paid a $64,790 annual median and $69,990 annual mean in Boston-Cambridge-Newton in 2025, with a $33.65 mean hourly wage in the regional BLS release. Role-specific local numbers are spottier: BLS put police and sheriff's patrol officers at a $79,700 median in May 2023, while proxy summaries of 2025 data place police around $78,180 median and firefighters around $73,990 median. Posted-pay proxies run lower than realized wage data: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows a mean offered salary of about $53,768 on new Massachusetts protective-services openings in September 2026, based on n=100 postings.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 57 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $46,800 at the 25th percentile, $52,000 at the median and $56,160 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of November 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 66 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

This is a balanced market: visible public-sector recruiting is real, with Boston Fire running a hiring-process session on September 29 and Boston Police saying academy recruits were expected on the street in October. The broader backdrop is less exuberant, though, because Boston-Cambridge-Newton unemployment was 4.1% in August, metro nonfarm employment was up only 0.1824% year over year, and Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows Massachusetts protective-services employment down 1.0% and active postings down 5.5% year over year in September. In practice, the market is best for candidates who already meet screening requirements and can move quickly into either sworn/fire pipelines or credentialed on-site safety roles.

Best positioned: Candidates who already have academy eligibility, strong background-screening readiness, or current first aid/CPR/lifesaving credentials have the best odds right now.

Main caution: The category is not one market: it mixes high-barrier sworn jobs with lower-paid site and aquatic roles, so broad applying without choosing a lane usually produces weak results.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 66 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AUS: 16 open roles
2. Northeast Security, Inc.: 5 open roles
3. Securitas: 4 open roles
4. Securitas Security Services USA, Inc.: 4 open roles
5. Alliance Detective & Security Service Inc: 3 open roles
6. VPNE Parking Solutions LLC: 3 open roles
7. Cambridge Health Alliance: 2 open roles
8. Cambridge Health Alliance: 2 open roles
9. Crescent Hotels & Resorts: 2 open roles
10. Hebrew SeniorLife: 2 open roles

Where the openings are

• Boston: 21
• Everett: 6
• Cambridge: 6
• Burlington: 5
• Quincy: 4
• Wilmington: 4
• Dedham: 2
• Chelsea: 2

Work arrangement

on-site 64 (100%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is split between public-sector pipelines and private or nonprofit coverage roles. On the public side, the top named employers include Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, and Cambridge Police Department; Boston Fire held a hiring-process session on September 29; and Boston Police said academy recruits were expected on the street in October. Those are strong signs that hiring still exists, but they also point to structured, slower processes rather than instant-start jobs. Outside sworn tracks, the current posting sample is smaller and more fragmented: more than 75 postings were observed across more than 40 companies over the last 90 days, with industries led by non-profit organizations at about 30%, education at about 20%, retail at about 15%, military and protective services at about 10%, and sports and recreation at about 10%. The named employers that appear most consistently are Ymca Of Greater Boston, Inc. with around 20 postings and GetBadged with around 10, and the jobs are overwhelmingly on-site and entry-skewed. That mix makes Boston a decent place to find bridge work in security, aquatic safety, and site coverage, but not a market where one giant employer dominates.

• Sworn municipal and state law enforcement (high): Demand is most visible in Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police, Cambridge Police, and related municipal agencies, with current recruiting and retention signals showing these roles are active but selective.
• Fire-service pipeline roles (moderate): Boston Fire is actively explaining its hiring process and cadet or hybrid pathways, which points to openings but through structured entry routes rather than constant job-board volume.
• Nonprofit, education, retail, and recreation safety roles (moderate): In the current posting mix, non-profit organizations account for about 30%, education about 20%, retail about 15%, military and protective services about 10%, and sports and recreation about 10%; these roles are mostly entry-level and on-site.

Where to focus: If you already clear public-sector screens, prioritize municipal police or fire pipelines; otherwise use nonprofit, education, and recreation safety roles as your bridge into the field.

Roles worth searching next

• 911 dispatcher / public safety telecommunicator: It uses emergency response, calm communication, and CAD-style workflows that overlap with frontline public-safety work.
• Emergency management coordinator: It builds on emergency response planning and incident documentation rather than field enforcement.
• Environmental health and safety coordinator: Incident reporting, compliance habits, and emergency-response thinking transfer well into workplace safety roles.
• Facilities or access-control coordinator: Local postings repeatedly ask for access control, surveillance, and on-site reliability, which maps well to facilities-security operations.
• Campus operations or student-conduct coordinator: Education represents about 20% of the local posting mix, and many adjacent roles value incident handling, policy enforcement, and calm response under pressure.

What postings ask for

• First aid (table_stakes | immediate): First aid shows up in about 35% of listed certifications and about 50% of requested hard skills, making it one of the clearest screening items in local postings. Who: Entry-level candidates targeting lifeguard, site security, youth-program, or campus roles.
• CPR (table_stakes | immediate): CPR appears in about 35% of required certifications and about 35% of requested hard skills, so it is one of the fastest ways to look job-ready. Who: Anyone without sworn credentials who needs a quick credibility boost.
• Emergency response (table_stakes | immediate): Emergency response is requested in about 35% of hard-skill mentions locally and also appears in broader Boston-area law-enforcement skill signals. Who: All candidate types, especially career switchers coming from customer-facing or operations jobs.
• Incident reporting (differentiator | immediate): Incident reporting appears in about 30% of requested hard skills, which means documentation quality is a real hiring filter, not a back-office afterthought. Who: Mid-career applicants and switchers who have handled compliance, safety, or escalation logs.
• De-escalation (differentiator | near-term): Boston-area law-enforcement skill signals specifically call out crisis de-escalation as in demand, which matters for both public-facing safety roles and sworn tracks. Who: Police-track candidates, campus-safety applicants, and anyone moving from hospitality or human services.
• Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) (differentiator | near-term): Computer-aided dispatch systems appear in Boston-area law-enforcement skill signals, so familiarity helps in dispatcher-adjacent and operational public-safety roles. Who: Candidates targeting dispatcher, command-center, or coordination-heavy roles.

Questions about this market

What do Protective Services & Public Safety roles pay in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH?

Observed local data says the broad protective-service group paid a $64,790 annual median and $69,990 annual mean in Boston-Cambridge-Newton in 2025, with a $33.65 mean hourly wage in the regional BLS release. Role-specific local numbers are spottier: BLS put police and sheriff's patrol officers at a $79,700 median in May 2023, while proxy summaries of 2025 data place police around $78,180 median and firefighters around $73,990 median. Posted-pay proxies run lower than realized wage data: Revelio Public Labor Statistics shows a mean offered salary of about $53,768 on new Massachusetts protective-services openings in September 2026, based on n=100 postings. Boston pays above the U.S. broad-group benchmark—$33.65 an hour locally versus $29.19 nationally, and $64,790 median locally versus $50,080 nationally—but that premium has to be weighed against a high-cost metro where the home price index was up +2.1% year over year as of July 2026.

Where is demand for Protective Services & Public Safety roles in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH concentrated?

Opportunity is split between public-sector pipelines and private or nonprofit coverage roles. On the public side, the top named employers include Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, and Cambridge Police Department; Boston Fire held a hiring-process session on September 29; and Boston Police said academy recruits were expected on the street in October. Those are strong signs that hiring still exists, but they also point to structured, slower processes rather than instant-start jobs. Outside sworn tracks, the current posting sample is smaller and more fragmented: more than 75 postings were observed across more than 40 companies over the last 90 days, with industries led by non-profit organizations at about 30%, education at about 20%, retail at about 15%, military and protective services at about 10%, and sports and recreation at about 10%. The named employers that appear most consistently are Ymca Of Greater Boston, Inc. with around 20 postings and GetBadged with around 10, and the jobs are overwhelmingly on-site and entry-skewed. That mix makes Boston a decent place to find bridge work in security, aquatic safety, and site coverage, but not a market where one giant employer dominates.

Which employers are hiring the most Protective Services & Public Safety talent in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH?

Recent postings show the most activity from Ymca Of Greater Boston, Inc. (20 postings), GetBadged (10 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Protective Services & Public Safety roles in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 0% are remote and 4% hybrid, with 95% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

Browse Massachusetts openings by job title

• Associate Director: 111 open roles statewide

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