25+ Security & Public Safety Jobs in Raleigh, NC

Government wage data shows the broader protective-service occupational family in Raleigh-Cary had a $48,560 median, a $54,060 mean, and a $34,670-to-$66,090 middle range in 2025, with a 90th-percentile wage of $87,620; the metro BLS release also reported a $25.99 mean hourly wage for the protective-service group and did not break out police, detective, or firefighter pay by title. Proxy employer pay is higher for some sworn paths: Raleigh reported a $61,417 police starting salary and $100,500 top pay for Senior Police Officers in August 2026, while North Carolina raised annual pay for sworn state law enforcement officers by $7,500 and correctional officers by $8,000 effective July 1, 2026.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 24 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $40,128 at the 25th percentile, $41,600 at the median and $44,980 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of October 16, 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 33 openings.

Open all in AI Job Search

What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

Raleigh-Cary is still a workable market for Protective Services & Public Safety, but it is not an easy market across the whole category. Metro unemployment was 3.1% in August 2026 and Raleigh-Cary total nonfarm employment was up 2.2338% year-over-year, while Raleigh Police reported 96 vacancies and Wake Tech said all 22 recent fire-academy graduates had landed area jobs. The catch is that statewide protective-services postings were down 32.2% year-over-year in September 2026, so openings appear concentrated in specific agencies and structured entry pipelines rather than broad, rising demand across every sub-role.

Best positioned: The best odds right now belong to candidates who are already NC-certified or academy-ready—especially BLET candidates, laterals, and fire-academy entrants—because Raleigh and Cary are actively recruiting those profiles and the latest fire cohort placed all 22 graduates.

Main caution: Do not confuse high vacancy headlines with low hiring standards: local postings still cluster around required certifications such as North Carolina Basic Law Enforcement Certification and firearm certification, and public safety agencies nationally continue to report slow hiring and trouble finding qualified candidates.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 33 openings in this market. 4 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AUS: 14 open roles
2. Morrisville: 2 open roles
3. RATP Dev USA: 2 open roles
4. Smart Care Solutions: 2 open roles
5. A1 Consulting: 1 open role
6. AAA: 1 open role
7. Capital Auto Group: 1 open role
8. Compass Group: 1 open role
9. Crothall Healthcare: 1 open role
10. Faithful Companion: 1 open role

Where the openings are

• Raleigh: 13
• Durham: 8
• Morrisville: 4
• Cary: 4
• Smithfield: 1
• Garner: 1
• Selma: 1
• Holly Springs: 1

Work arrangement

on-site 31 (97%), hybrid 1 (3%)

Where the demand is

Most opportunity looks concentrated in three lanes rather than spread evenly across the whole category. First is sworn law enforcement: Raleigh Police reported 96 vacancies, about 11% of authorized staffing, and Cary Police was hiring for 29 positions, including 27 sworn, while Raleigh said it was recruiting both Basic Law Enforcement Training candidates and lateral officers. Raleigh Police also has a stated goal of adding 69 officer positions over three years. Second is fire-service pipeline hiring. Wake Tech and Wake County said all 22 graduates of the recent Career-in-a-Year Fire Academy had already landed jobs with area fire departments, and the next cohort is a 38-week paid training program. That is stronger-than-usual evidence that a local training path is turning into real placements. Third is fragmented private and institutional security. In the local posting sample, the most-active industries were software development at about 30%, government administration at about 15%, hospitals and health care at about 15%, retail at about 10%, and education at about 10%, with AUS the most consistently active named employer at around 15 postings. That mix suggests the non-sworn market is spread across campuses, hospitals, retailers, and security vendors rather than concentrated in one large hiring wave.

• Sworn law enforcement (high): The clearest local demand is in police hiring, especially for laterals and academy-ready entrants, with Raleigh and Cary both publicly highlighting open sworn positions.
• Fire-service academy pathways (high): Academy-linked fire hiring is a real local channel: all 22 recent graduates in the Wake Tech/Wake County cohort were placed with area departments.
• Institutional and contract security (moderate): Private and institutional demand exists, but it is more dispersed across hospitals, education, retail, and security vendors, which usually means more role variety but less pay consistency.

Where to focus: If you can meet screening requirements, focus first on structured police or fire pipelines; if you cannot, use hospital, campus, or contract security roles to build report-writing, incident-response, and shift-work credibility.

Roles worth searching next

• Public safety dispatcher / call taker: Cary's recruiting mix included dispatchers and civilian staff alongside sworn hiring, which makes this a realistic bridge into agency operations.
• Police records or evidence technician: Local demand emphasizes evidence collection and investigation skills, and agencies are adopting tools that automate report writing, transcription, and evidence processing.
• Physical security operations / video monitoring specialist: Local postings are spread across hospitals, education, retail, and software-related employers, and Raleigh Police is considering patrol technology that would send live video to a crime center. Nationally, 45% of end-users are prioritizing AI in physical security in 2026.
• Emergency management coordinator / disaster-response analyst: Public safety technology trends in 2026 emphasize drone-enabled situational awareness and AI-supported disaster response resource allocation.

What postings ask for

• North Carolina Basic Law Enforcement Certification (table_stakes | immediate): It is one of the most common local requirements, appearing in about 20% of postings, and Raleigh is actively recruiting Basic Law Enforcement Training candidates as well as laterals. Who: Entry-level sworn candidates and career switchers targeting police roles.
• Firearm certification (table_stakes | immediate): It appeared in about 20% of local postings, and North Carolina sheriffs' certification rule changes proposed in 2026 include annual firearms qualifications. Who: Sworn law-enforcement applicants and armed-security candidates.
• Emergency response (table_stakes | immediate): Emergency response was the most-requested hard skill in the local sample, showing up in about 55% of postings. Who: Anyone targeting police, fire, security, or public-facing protective roles.
• Conflict resolution (differentiator | near-term): Conflict resolution appeared in about 20% of local postings and travels well across sworn, hospital, campus, and retail safety settings. Who: Entry-level applicants who need a transferable strength and career switchers coming from customer-facing work.
• Evidence collection and investigation (differentiator | near-term): Evidence collection appeared in about 20% of local postings and investigation in about 15%, making these especially useful for patrol-to-detective, investigations-support, and loss-control ladders. Who: Mid-career candidates and applicants trying to move beyond front-line patrol or watchstanding.
• Data analytics and real-time intelligence (premium | near-term): Law-enforcement agencies are increasingly prioritizing data analytics and real-time intelligence in 2026, and only 17% of surveyed public safety agencies said they always used data and analytics to guide decisions. Who: Mid-career officers, analysts moving into public safety operations, and candidates aiming at crime-center or command-support work.

Questions about this market

What do Protective Services & Public Safety roles pay in Raleigh-Cary, NC?

Government wage data shows the broader protective-service occupational family in Raleigh-Cary had a $48,560 median, a $54,060 mean, and a $34,670-to-$66,090 middle range in 2025, with a 90th-percentile wage of $87,620; the metro BLS release also reported a $25.99 mean hourly wage for the protective-service group and did not break out police, detective, or firefighter pay by title. Proxy employer pay is higher for some sworn paths: Raleigh reported a $61,417 police starting salary and $100,500 top pay for Senior Police Officers in August 2026, while North Carolina raised annual pay for sworn state law enforcement officers by $7,500 and correctional officers by $8,000 effective July 1, 2026. This is a market where the category average understates the better-paying sworn tracks. The local occupational median sits near the national protective-services median of $50,080, but Raleigh's reported police starting pay already clears the metro occupational-family median, which tells you pay is segmented by credential and agency more than by the category label.

Where is demand for Protective Services & Public Safety roles in Raleigh-Cary, NC concentrated?

Most opportunity looks concentrated in three lanes rather than spread evenly across the whole category. First is sworn law enforcement: Raleigh Police reported 96 vacancies, about 11% of authorized staffing, and Cary Police was hiring for 29 positions, including 27 sworn, while Raleigh said it was recruiting both Basic Law Enforcement Training candidates and lateral officers. Raleigh Police also has a stated goal of adding 69 officer positions over three years. Second is fire-service pipeline hiring. Wake Tech and Wake County said all 22 graduates of the recent Career-in-a-Year Fire Academy had already landed jobs with area fire departments, and the next cohort is a 38-week paid training program. That is stronger-than-usual evidence that a local training path is turning into real placements. Third is fragmented private and institutional security. In the local posting sample, the most-active industries were software development at about 30%, government administration at about 15%, hospitals and health care at about 15%, retail at about 10%, and education at about 10%, with AUS the most consistently active named employer at around 15 postings. That mix suggests the non-sworn market is spread across campuses, hospitals, retailers, and security vendors rather than concentrated in one large hiring wave.

Which employers are hiring the most Protective Services & Public Safety talent in Raleigh-Cary, NC?

Recent postings show the most activity from AUS (15 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

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.

Explore related openings

Protective Services & Public Safety jobs in other metros

• Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
• Columbus, OH
• Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX
• Salt Lake City-Murray, UT
• Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
• Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
• Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN

Other roles in Raleigh-Cary, NC

• Software, IT & Cybersecurity
• Operations, Supply Chain & Logistics
• Sales, Customer Success & Account Management
• Engineering & Scientific
• Healthcare Practitioners
• Media, Journalism & Entertainment
• Finance & Accounting
• Education & Training

Browse all job openings | Browse jobs by title and state | Browse all job market reports