Security Jobs in San Francisco, CA

Observed metro wage data for the full protective-service family shows a May 2025 mean of $76,700 a year, a median of $54,990, a 25th percentile of $44,470, and a 75th percentile of $104,230. A separate BLS release puts the metro's mean hourly wage for protective-service occupations at $36.88 in May 2025. Directional posting data is lower: sampled hourly openings center on about $25 to $26 / hour, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $19 to $30 / hour.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 74 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $51,636 at the 25th percentile, $56,254 at the median and $67,959 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 85 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

This is a selective but still workable market, with the best odds in understaffed municipal law-enforcement pipelines and steady on-site security openings rather than a broad-based hiring boom. Metro unemployment was 4.6% in August 2026, a bit below California's 5.1%, but California protective-services postings were down 17.4% year over year, so employers have openings without hiring indiscriminately. Local demand is real: San Francisco agencies including the police, fire, and sheriff's office appeared together at a September 23 recruitment fair, while both San Francisco and Oakland continue to signal police staffing gaps and active recruiting.

Best positioned: The best odds right now belong to academy-ready or lateral public-safety candidates, plus on-site security applicants who can prove report writing, emergency response, first aid, conflict resolution, and de-escalation skills.

Main caution: Do not assume headline police or firefighter pay applies to the whole category; entry security and loss-prevention openings cluster much lower, and about 95% or more of sampled openings are on-site.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 85 openings in this market. 8 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AUS: 35 open roles
2. Blackstone Consulting, Inc.: 4 open roles
3. UCSF Health, AG: 3 open roles
4. BAART Programs: 2 open roles
5. GardaWorld: 2 open roles
6. Global Secure 3, Inc.: 2 open roles
7. San Rafael: 2 open roles
8. Transforming Age: 2 open roles
9. AACRE: 1 open role
10. Any Hour Group: 1 open role

Where the openings are

• San Francisco: 42
• Oakland: 7
• San Carlos: 6
• San Rafael: 5
• Redwood City: 3
• South San Francisco: 3
• San Mateo: 3
• Burlingame: 2

Work arrangement

on-site 82 (98%), remote 2 (2%)

Where the demand is

The clearest shortage signal is municipal law enforcement. San Francisco said it was nearly 500 officers short in May, later reports said detectives were being reassigned to cover events amid a shortage of about 500 officers, and Oakland remains well below desired staffing as well. For a job seeker, that means the strongest odds sit with agencies trying to rebuild staffing, especially if you are lateral, academy-ready, or comfortable with multi-step civil-service hiring. Outside government, the market is more fragmented than concentrated. The Callings.ai job database saw more than 75 postings across more than 40 companies in the last 90 days, with leading sampled employers including Costco Wholesale Corp., AUS, The TJX Companies, Inc., Surefox Consulting, LLC., UCSF Health, AG, and Marriott International, and industry mix led by retail, education, security and investigations, software development, and higher education. That creates more entry doors, but many of these roles are lower paid, heavily on-site, and operational rather than long-ladder career positions. Fire opportunities appear more episodic. San Francisco's fire department was reported as fully staffed in April, even though firefighter pay is strong and the metro had 3,450 firefighter jobs in the May 2025 wage data. Treat fire as a premium submarket with attractive pay but fewer openings at any given moment.

• Municipal law enforcement (high): San Francisco and Oakland continue to signal staffing gaps, recruiting events, academy activity, and pay tools aimed at police staffing.
• Private, campus, hospital, and retail security (moderate): Hiring is fragmented across more than 40 sampled employers, especially in retail, education, security and investigations, and healthcare-linked settings.
• Fire service (limited): Pay is strong, but recent local reporting described San Francisco Fire as fully staffed, so openings look more episodic than continuous.

Where to focus: If you need a job in the next 30-90 days, run a two-track search: municipal police pipelines if you are already eligible, and private/campus/hospital security if you need a faster landing spot.

Roles worth searching next

• Emergency management coordinator: It reuses incident command thinking, documentation, emergency response, and cross-agency coordination that overlap with public-safety experience.
• Environmental health and safety coordinator: It draws on emergency response, incident reporting, compliance habits, and workplace-risk awareness.
• Fraud or claims investigator: It uses investigation, report writing, interviewing, and evidence-handling strengths without requiring the same field exposure.
• Facilities or security operations coordinator: It keeps the access-control, incident-reporting, and site-operations parts of the skill set while moving closer to corporate operations.

What postings ask for

• Report writing (table_stakes | immediate): It is the most-requested hard skill in the local posting sample, and stronger written documentation becomes even more valuable as departments adopt AI-assisted report drafting tools that still need human judgment and cleanup. Who: Everyone, especially entry-level security candidates and career switchers.
• Emergency response and first aid (table_stakes | immediate): Emergency response and first aid appear near the top of local demand signals, making them core proof points for both private security and public-agency screening. Who: Entry-level applicants, campus or hospital security candidates, and anyone without prior public-safety experience.
• Conflict resolution, crisis intervention, and de-escalation (differentiator | immediate): Conflict resolution is common in local postings, and national protective-services guidance continues to emphasize crisis intervention and de-escalation communication skills such as active listening, rapport building, and use of time and distance. Who: Sworn-role applicants, hospital or campus security staff, and mid-career candidates trying to stand out.
• Incident reporting and investigation (differentiator | immediate): Local employers keep asking for incident reporting and investigation, which makes this one of the clearest bridges between entry security work and more specialized roles. Who: Career switchers, loss-prevention candidates, and mid-career applicants aiming for promotion.
• Access control and loss prevention (differentiator | near-term): These skills line up well with the area's retail, education, and security-and-investigations mix, where many non-sworn openings appear to cluster. Who: Entry-level and career-switching candidates who want faster-to-enter roles.
• California driver's license (table_stakes | immediate): It is one of the most commonly stated requirements in the local posting sample and can be an early filter even before interviews begin. Who: Anyone targeting patrol, mobile security, or field-based roles.

Questions about this market

What do Protective Services & Public Safety roles pay in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA?

Observed metro wage data for the full protective-service family shows a May 2025 mean of $76,700 a year, a median of $54,990, a 25th percentile of $44,470, and a 75th percentile of $104,230. A separate BLS release puts the metro's mean hourly wage for protective-service occupations at $36.88 in May 2025. Directional posting data is lower: sampled hourly openings center on about $25 to $26 / hour, with a broader 25th-75th band of about $19 to $30 / hour. This is a split-pay market. Sworn police and firefighter roles can sit much higher than the category average, while security, loss prevention, and other entry routes pull the overall median down. Police and sheriff's patrol officers had a reported local median of $132,000, and firefighters had a reported median of $113,700.

Where is demand for Protective Services & Public Safety roles in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA concentrated?

The clearest shortage signal is municipal law enforcement. San Francisco said it was nearly 500 officers short in May, later reports said detectives were being reassigned to cover events amid a shortage of about 500 officers, and Oakland remains well below desired staffing as well. For a job seeker, that means the strongest odds sit with agencies trying to rebuild staffing, especially if you are lateral, academy-ready, or comfortable with multi-step civil-service hiring. Outside government, the market is more fragmented than concentrated. The Callings.ai job database saw more than 75 postings across more than 40 companies in the last 90 days, with leading sampled employers including Costco Wholesale Corp., AUS, The TJX Companies, Inc., Surefox Consulting, LLC., UCSF Health, AG, and Marriott International, and industry mix led by retail, education, security and investigations, software development, and higher education. That creates more entry doors, but many of these roles are lower paid, heavily on-site, and operational rather than long-ladder career positions. Fire opportunities appear more episodic. San Francisco's fire department was reported as fully staffed in April, even though firefighter pay is strong and the metro had 3,450 firefighter jobs in the May 2025 wage data. Treat fire as a premium submarket with attractive pay but fewer openings at any given moment.

Which employers are hiring the most Protective Services & Public Safety talent in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Costco Wholesale Corp. (10 postings), AUS (5 postings), The TJX Companies, Inc. (5 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.

Browse California openings by job title

• Software Engineer: 960 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 528 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 392 open roles statewide
• Product Manager: 379 open roles statewide
• Program Manager: 326 open roles statewide
• Technical Program Manager: 265 open roles statewide
• Senior Software Engineer: 206 open roles statewide
• Staff Software Engineer: 156 open roles statewide
• Engineering Manager: 146 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 129 open roles statewide
• Associate Director: 92 open roles statewide
• Senior Product Manager: 84 open roles statewide

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