Security Jobs in Seattle, WA

Government wage data for the whole protective-services family show a mean hourly wage of $35.47 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue in May 2025, while the broader family had a $59,620 median annual wage, a $73,780 mean, and a $45,610 to $100,330 25th-to-75th percentile range. That is the best anchor for established roles. By contrast, hourly postings in the recent local sample centered on about $22 to $24 / hour, with a broader band of about $18 to $28 / hour, which better reflects entry security, recreation, and loss-prevention openings than sworn public-sector pay.

Full September 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 33 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $45,760 at the 25th percentile, $54,080 at the median and $59,030 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 41 openings.

Open all in AI Job Search

What our analysts see this month

Balanced market | next 3-6 months

Seattle is a split market: the metro employed 43,230 protective-service workers in 2025, but Washington-wide September 2026 signals showed employment down 2.8% year over year and active postings down 18.7% year over year for the occupation. The easier path is the large on-site entry market in retail, recreation, and contract security, while police and firefighter tracks remain slower and more competitive because postings skew about 80% entry level, retail and sports/recreation dominate the local mix, and police/fire hiring runs through training pipelines and class cycles. The broader Seattle economy is still stable rather than weak, with metro nonfarm payrolls up 0.9% year over year and unemployment at 4.8%, so this is not a collapse market; it is a selective one.

Best positioned: Your best near-term odds are if you can work on-site and already have a valid driver's license plus CPR/first-aid credentials, while staying open to retail loss-prevention, lifeguard, or contract-security roles.

Main caution: The biggest mistake is treating this as mostly a police-and-fire market; recent posting demand leaned far more toward retail, sports/recreation, and security, and Seattle police still drew more than 3,500 applicants for about 100 hires in 2026.

From the September 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 41 openings in this market. 4 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. AUS: 11 open roles
2. Strategic Security Corp.: 4 open roles
3. Evergreen Goodwill: 2 open roles
4. O'Brien Auto Group: 2 open roles
5. Airporttaxiseattle: 1 open role
6. Alaska Air Group: 1 open role
7. Astound: 1 open role
8. Bee's Plumbing & Heating: 1 open role
9. Brennan Heating: 1 open role
10. Diamond Line Delivery, Inc: 1 open role

Where the openings are

• Seattle: 11
• Bellevue: 5
• Mukilteo: 2
• Bothell: 2
• Lynnwood: 2
• Georgetown: 2
• Renton: 2
• Kirkland: 2

Work arrangement

on-site 37 (95%), hybrid 2 (5%)

Where the demand is

Real openings are concentrated less in classic sworn agencies than many job seekers assume. In the recent local posting sample, retail accounted for about 40% of openings and sports & recreation about 25%, ahead of security & safety at about 15%, while government administration and military/protective services were each about 5%. The most consistently active named employers were Seattle YMCA, Costco Wholesale Corp., and AUS, and the posting base was fragmented across more than 20 companies rather than dominated by one employer. The public-sector track is still important, but it moves on a different clock. Seattle Fire opened an entry-level Firefighter/EMT application window from October 6 to November 17, 2026 and expects two recruit classes from that register, while Tacoma Fire accepted entry-level firefighter/EMT applications through November 13. Seattle police recruiting also remained active, but city reporting said more than 3,500 people applied for police jobs and about 100 were hired in 2026, with training capacity identified as the bottleneck.

• Retail loss prevention and store protection (high): This is the largest visible lane in the local sample, with retail making up about 40% of postings and common asks including loss prevention, surveillance, inventory management, and report writing.
• Recreation, aquatics, and lifeguard safety (high): Sports & recreation accounts for about 25% of postings, and lifeguard certification, first aid, CPR/AED, and administering emergency oxygen appear regularly in requirements.
• Police and firefighter academy pipelines (moderate): This lane is visible but narrower in everyday postings; government administration and military/protective services were each about 5% of the local sample even as Seattle and Tacoma both ran firefighter recruiting windows and Seattle police kept hiring through a constrained training pipeline.

Where to focus: Run a two-track search: use retail, recreation, or contract-security roles for near-term income and experience, while separately entering the longer police or firefighter process if that is your end goal.

Roles worth searching next

• EMT or paramedic: It uses the same first-aid, CPR, and emergency-response base that shows up across firefighter- and lifeguard-oriented openings in this market.
• Recreation or aquatics coordinator: Sports & recreation makes up about 25% of local postings, and lifeguard, oxygen, CPR, and first-aid credentials are common asks.
• Asset protection or inventory-control analyst: Retail makes up about 40% of local postings, and the same openings often ask for loss prevention, surveillance, inventory management, and report writing.

What postings ask for

• Valid driver's license (table_stakes | immediate): It is the most common explicitly listed requirement in the local sample and signals immediate deployability for site-based roles. Who: Everyone in this category, especially entry-level and career-switching candidates.
• CPR/AED and first aid (table_stakes | immediate): These credentials line up directly with two of the most common local skill asks—emergency response and first aid—and appear frequently in stated requirements. Who: Entry-level candidates, lifeguard applicants, and anyone trying to prove hands-on readiness.
• Emergency response (table_stakes | immediate): Emergency response appears in about 30% of local postings, making it one of the clearest cross-role skills in this market. Who: All candidate types.
• Report writing (differentiator | near-term): Report writing shows up in about 25% of local postings and is one of the easiest ways to translate prior work into credible protective-services experience. Who: Career switchers and mid-career candidates.
• Surveillance and loss prevention (differentiator | near-term): These skills match the retail-heavy demand mix and appear in roughly one-fifth of local postings. Who: Candidates targeting retail security, asset protection, or contract security.
• Lifeguard certification and administering emergency oxygen (premium | near-term): These are role-specific credentials that map tightly to the sports and recreation slice of local demand. Who: Entry-level seekers who want the fastest bridge into the field through aquatics and recreation.

Questions about this market

What do Protective Services & Public Safety roles pay in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA?

Government wage data for the whole protective-services family show a mean hourly wage of $35.47 in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue in May 2025, while the broader family had a $59,620 median annual wage, a $73,780 mean, and a $45,610 to $100,330 25th-to-75th percentile range. That is the best anchor for established roles. By contrast, hourly postings in the recent local sample centered on about $22 to $24 / hour, with a broader band of about $18 to $28 / hour, which better reflects entry security, recreation, and loss-prevention openings than sworn public-sector pay. This is a decent-paying field by national protective-services standards—the Seattle family mean of $73,780 is above the national family mean of $60,720—but it still sits below Seattle's all-occupation average hourly wage of $44.13.

Where is demand for Protective Services & Public Safety roles in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA concentrated?

Real openings are concentrated less in classic sworn agencies than many job seekers assume. In the recent local posting sample, retail accounted for about 40% of openings and sports & recreation about 25%, ahead of security & safety at about 15%, while government administration and military/protective services were each about 5%. The most consistently active named employers were Seattle YMCA, Costco Wholesale Corp., and AUS, and the posting base was fragmented across more than 20 companies rather than dominated by one employer. The public-sector track is still important, but it moves on a different clock. Seattle Fire opened an entry-level Firefighter/EMT application window from October 6 to November 17, 2026 and expects two recruit classes from that register, while Tacoma Fire accepted entry-level firefighter/EMT applications through November 13. Seattle police recruiting also remained active, but city reporting said more than 3,500 people applied for police jobs and about 100 were hired in 2026, with training capacity identified as the bottleneck.

Which employers are hiring the most Protective Services & Public Safety talent in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA?

Recent postings show the most activity from Seattle YMCA (10 postings), Costco Wholesale Corp. (10 postings), AUS (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Protective Services & Public Safety roles in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 2% are remote and 3% 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.

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
• Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
• San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
• Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN
• San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

Other roles in Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

• Sales, Customer Success & Account Management
• Legal, Compliance & Risk
• Operations, Supply Chain & Logistics
• Healthcare Support & Healthcare Administration
• Data, Analytics & AI
• Media, Journalism & Entertainment
• Marketing, Communications & Content
• Education & Training

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