75+ Security & Public Safety Jobs in San Francisco, CA

Observed agency recruiting pay is much higher than the broad category average. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office lists deputy sheriff starting pay at $57.00/hour, while SFPD recruitment materials show sworn officer pay from $119,262 to about $196,843, and reporting in March 2026 said lateral candidates could see a $5,000 bonus. Broader metro benchmarks are lower and role-specific: BLS estimated a May 2025 median of about $151,000 for police officers and about $143,000 for detectives, while a firefighter proxy source reports a $113,700 median.

Full August 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 73 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $52,218 at the 25th percentile, $62,400 at the median and $85,176 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 25, 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 83 openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

This is a good-paying but selective market. Local agencies are still actively recruiting: SFPD graduated its 289th recruit class on August 27, 2026, opened a Police Recruiter role in August, and the San Francisco Sheriff's Office advertises deputy sheriff starting pay of $57.00/hour. But statewide occupation signals are softer, with Revelio Public Labor Statistics showing California protective-services employment down 1.8% year over year and active postings down 15.3% year over year in August 2026, so applicants should expect fewer easy wins and longer hiring cycles than the salary headlines imply.

Best positioned: Candidates with direct public-safety or supervisory security experience, strong report-writing and emergency-response examples, de-escalation and crisis-intervention credibility, and full willingness to work on-site have the best odds right now.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is treating this as one uniform pay market: sworn city roles can start around $119,262 or $57.00/hour, while the broader hourly posting mix centers on about $22 to $25 / hour.

From the August 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 83 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AUS: 13 open roles
2. FailSafe Communications: 3 open roles
3. GardaWorld: 3 open roles
4. Armorous: 2 open roles
5. Bart: 2 open roles
6. BART: 2 open roles
7. California Transit Association: 2 open roles
8. City of Santa Fe Springs: 2 open roles
9. Mass Transit Mag: 2 open roles
10. Surefox Consulting, LLC.: 2 open roles

Where the openings are

• San Francisco: 19
• Oakland: 17
• San Rafael: 9
• Vallejo: 7
• South San Francisco: 3
• San Leandro: 3
• Redwood City: 3
• San Ramon: 3

Work arrangement

on-site 81 (99%), hybrid 1 (1%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is split between two very different lanes. In the Callings.ai job database, the metro showed more than 100 postings across more than 50 companies over the last 90 days, but hiring was fragmented rather than concentrated in one dominant employer. The industry mix leaned toward retail (about 25%), security & safety (about 20%), education (about 15%), government & public sector (about 10%), and security and investigations (about 10%), which means many openings look more like site security, loss prevention, campus safety, or hospital security than elite sworn public-agency jobs. The clearest high-upside pocket is sworn law enforcement. SFPD graduated its 289th recruit class on August 27, 2026, opened a Police Recruiter role in August, and outside law-enforcement job boards still showed multiple academy-graduate and lateral police openings in late August. Regional hiring attention also includes the San Francisco Sheriff's Office and Oakland Police Department, so applicants should think in Bay Area agency clusters rather than one employer at a time. A smaller but useful third lane sits in public-safety support and justice operations. San Francisco also had active city listings tied to digital forensics and other public-safety support work, and a separate law-enforcement platform showed police and adult probation leadership roles for the City and County of San Francisco.

• Sworn law enforcement (high): Best pay and strongest institutional demand, but also the longest screening process and the highest bar for background, fitness, and process-readiness.
• Private-site security, loss prevention, and access-control work (moderate): This is where the broader volume sits across retail, security firms, healthcare, hotels, and education. It is usually the fastest path to income, but the pay ceiling is lower than sworn public roles.
• Public-safety support, digital forensics, and probation-adjacent work (moderate): These roles are narrower in count but useful for candidates who want public mission and city experience without starting in frontline sworn work.

Where to focus: If you qualify for sworn agency work, prioritize that lane first and keep private-site or public-safety-support applications as your speed-to-income backup.

Roles worth searching next

• Public safety recruiting coordinator: SFPD opened a full-time Police Recruiter role in August 2026, showing that agencies also need talent on the recruiting and process side, not only in frontline positions.
• Digital forensics criminalist: San Francisco had an active Criminalist I, Digital Forensics opening with an application window into September 2026, which makes forensics a real non-sworn bridge for investigation-minded candidates.
• Justice-program specialist: San Francisco had active city public-safety support hiring running into mid-September 2026, signaling that justice-system operations roles can be a live alternative to frontline enforcement.
• Adult probation program roles: A late-August law-enforcement career platform showed police and adult probation leadership roles for the City and County of San Francisco, pointing to related demand in supervision and justice operations.

What postings ask for

• BSIS Guard Card (table_stakes | immediate): It is the most commonly named certification in the local posting sample, so it is the clearest fast-entry credential for private-security and site-protection jobs. Who: Entry-level applicants, career switchers, and anyone targeting retail, hotel, healthcare, or campus security.
• Report writing (table_stakes | immediate): It appears in about 30% of local postings, which makes it one of the clearest screening skills across both private security and agency support roles. Who: Everyone in this market, especially applicants coming from customer service, military, facilities, or operations backgrounds.
• Emergency response and first aid (differentiator | immediate): Emergency response shows up in about 30% of postings and first aid in about 25%, so employers want people who can act under pressure, not just observe and report. Who: Entry-level candidates and career switchers who need concrete proof they can handle incidents.
• Conflict resolution and de-escalation (premium | immediate): Conflict resolution appears in about 20% of postings, and California public-safety priorities explicitly emphasize de-escalation, community policing, crisis intervention, and incident investigation. Who: Sworn candidates, supervisors, and anyone targeting public-facing environments.
• Incident reporting, surveillance, and access control (table_stakes | immediate): These are recurring operational requirements in the local sample and are the easiest way to show day-one usefulness in site-security roles. Who: Applicants who need a quicker entry point while building toward higher-bar public roles.
• Digital evidence systems, body-worn cameras, and LPR familiarity (differentiator | near-term): Bay Area public-safety operations are leaning more on body-worn cameras, automated license plate readers, radios, and digital evidence management, so tool familiarity can separate similar candidates. Who: Mid-career applicants, investigators, supervisors, and candidates interested in forensics or evidence-heavy roles.

Questions about this market

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

Observed agency recruiting pay is much higher than the broad category average. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office lists deputy sheriff starting pay at $57.00/hour, while SFPD recruitment materials show sworn officer pay from $119,262 to about $196,843, and reporting in March 2026 said lateral candidates could see a $5,000 bonus. Broader metro benchmarks are lower and role-specific: BLS estimated a May 2025 median of about $151,000 for police officers and about $143,000 for detectives, while a firefighter proxy source reports a $113,700 median. This market is highly split. Revelio Public Labor Statistics put the mean offered salary on new protective-services openings in California at about $62,874 in August 2026, far below the Bay Area sworn-police numbers, which tells you the category mixes premium public roles with much lower-paid routine security work.

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

Opportunity is split between two very different lanes. In the Callings.ai job database, the metro showed more than 100 postings across more than 50 companies over the last 90 days, but hiring was fragmented rather than concentrated in one dominant employer. The industry mix leaned toward retail (about 25%), security & safety (about 20%), education (about 15%), government & public sector (about 10%), and security and investigations (about 10%), which means many openings look more like site security, loss prevention, campus safety, or hospital security than elite sworn public-agency jobs. The clearest high-upside pocket is sworn law enforcement. SFPD graduated its 289th recruit class on August 27, 2026, opened a Police Recruiter role in August, and outside law-enforcement job boards still showed multiple academy-graduate and lateral police openings in late August. Regional hiring attention also includes the San Francisco Sheriff's Office and Oakland Police Department, so applicants should think in Bay Area agency clusters rather than one employer at a time. A smaller but useful third lane sits in public-safety support and justice operations. San Francisco also had active city listings tied to digital forensics and other public-safety support work, and a separate law-enforcement platform showed police and adult probation leadership roles for the City and County of San Francisco.

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

Recent postings show the most activity from AUS (10 postings), Costco Wholesale Corp. (10 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: 885 open roles statewide
• General Manager: 351 open roles statewide
• Project Manager: 319 open roles statewide
• Product Manager: 293 open roles statewide
• Program Manager: 243 open roles statewide
• Senior Software Engineer: 202 open roles statewide
• Technical Program Manager: 192 open roles statewide
• Staff Software Engineer: 141 open roles statewide
• Engineering Manager: 126 open roles statewide
• Senior Manager: 98 open roles statewide
• Senior Product Manager: 80 open roles statewide
• Associate Director: 75 open roles statewide

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