20+ Healthcare Cybersecurity Careers Your Facility Could Use

Global cybersecurity attacks are on the rise. According to a 2023 Cybersecurity Report by Check Point, the healthcare sector experienced 1,684 attacks per week during the first quarter of the year. This represented a sharp 22 percent year-over-year rise from 2022.

To counter incoming security threats, many healthcare organizations are looking to strengthen their cybersecurity program by hiring a variety of cybersecurity specialties. According to research by Cyberseek, the number of healthcare cybersecurity career openings has risen 80 percent from 2010 to 2023. This has made cybersecurity one of the most in-demand technical careers to pursue.

For those looking fill out their cybersecurity teams within the healthcare sector, what roles and specialties are out there? And which could your organization use? We have a list of over 20 cybersecurity careers that help protect healthcare institutions. You may already have some of these roles in place, or you might be looking to see how your cybersecurity team can grow. Let’s take a look at some of these careers!

Cybersecurity Careers by Job Function

Cybersecurity roles perform different functions within a healthcare organization’s IT program. When looking for a cybersecurity professional in healthcare, consider the daily tasks and outputs of the role. To narrow down specialties, let’s look at cybersecurity careers broken down by function:

Cybersecurity careers that maintain healthcare cybersecurity programs:

• Cybersecurity data analyst: This role offers security and privacy insight for healthcare organizations by cross-examining data sets and conducting analysis via data mining, mapping, or modeling. Data analysts help hospitals and healthcare facilities make better decisions around facility operations, patient care, patient intake, and supply management.
• Cybersecurity systems analyst: Within healthcare facilities, systems analysts maintain health information management (HIM) systems and are responsible for testing, maintaining, and troubleshooting the system against threats. They gather HIM data into dashboards, distribute reports, and identify areas for improvement in patient care and daily operations.
• Cybersecurity systems administrator: Systems administrators focus on the network of systems within a healthcare organization, such as the Internet, intranets, local-area networks, and wide-area networks. They maintain network security by installing, configuring, and updating all systems while overseeing healthcare system admin and user accounts for healthcare systems.
• Technical/cyber support specialist: Support specialists offer assistance for client-facing healthcare technology. As patients or other healthcare providers need to troubleshoot access to their accounts or have questions regarding the patient portal/system, they can connect with cybersecurity specialists who will mitigate their issues.
• Database administrator: This manager-level role is responsible for the technical administration of a facility’s cloud and on-premise data environment. They oversee the performance and security of all data management systems to ensure secure storage, access, and transfer of sensitive healthcare data.
• Identity and access management analyst: These professionals specialize in account access and password policies where employee or patient credentials are needed. They enforce how sensitive data is accessed within a healthcare organization.
• Cybersecurity trainers: Someone has to disseminate the information to your employees and make sure they are up to date on the latest healthcare cybersecurity training! This can be a crossover role that exists under cybersecurity but also reports to HR.

Cybersecurity careers that oversee and govern healthcare organizations:

• IT/cybersecurity program manager: This senior-level role is accountable for the success of a healthcare organization’s entire cybersecurity program. Program managers oversee IT project teams and work alongside key hospital/facility stakeholders to introduce new cybersecurity initiatives and align the program with enterprise-wide security goals.
• IT/cybersecurity project manager: Under the umbrella of a program manager, this manager-level role oversees IT project teams for a healthcare organization and ensures their projects support the overarching cybersecurity program. Examples of healthcare projects range from overseeing the implementation of a new physician training platform to setting up a patient portal. These last two roles are especially important when replacing legacy systems.
• IT/cybersecurity systems manager: This role is responsible for the security of a healthcare organization’s record management systems. They develop and maintain the cybersecurity of systems to ensure they securely process and store large volumes of medical data and protected health information (PHI).
• IT/cybersecurity auditor: Auditors routinely conduct comprehensive evaluations of IT infrastructures to detect vulnerabilities and assess the strength of an organization’s security program. They specialize in security risk assessments for healthcare settings where organizations need to protect and store electronic PHI and medical information.
• Healthcare cyber policy planner: A cyber policy planner creates, strategizes, and implements policies to align organizational cybersecurity programs with regulatory compliance. These individuals build relationships between local policymakers and healthcare stakeholders to ensure policy compliance and create health-related cybersecurity legislation.
• Cyber legal advisor: These are experts in cyber law who lend their legal advice and recommendations to healthcare organizations.

Cybersecurity careers that protect and defend healthcare organizations:

• Cyber defense analyst: Defense analysts collect data from cyber defense tools such as firewalls and traffic logs to detect and mitigate threats. Most often, defense specialists analyze medical intelligence data for military or government operations.
• Cyber defense infrastructure specialist: These professionals deploy, test, and maintain a healthcare organization’s defense-related hardware and software infrastructure against possible threats. As with other defense roles, this specialty will typically assist government or military programs with health-related infrastructure.
• Cyber defense incident responder: Incident responders investigate threats and reported incidents within a cyber defense network. They conduct digital forensics and deep system analysis to find the root cause of a reported incident against medical intelligence.
• Vulnerability assessment/management analyst: These analysts assess internal healthcare systems and networks for vulnerabilities or deviations from cyber policies. They also measure the effectiveness of in-house cybersecurity architecture against known vulnerabilities.

Careers that provision cybersecurity to healthcare organizations:

• Cybersecurity software developer: This is a software engineering role with a focus on cybersecurity. These individuals develop and maintain computer software code, programs, and applications that protect healthcare organizations from cybersecurity threats.
• Cybersecurity systems developer: Similarly, these engineers develop healthcare IT systems and imbed cybersecurity functions throughout the development lifecycle.
• Cybersecurity architect: A cybersecurity architect is a manager-level IT role that curates healthcare cybersecurity systems and oversees them, altering the system’s security requirements to match the organization’s cybersecurity mission.
• Software assessor: Assessors carefully analyze healthcare IT software, applications, and hardware to assess the strength against cyber threats and offers solutions against vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity analyst careers:

• Cyber threat/threat intelligence analyst: These are cybersecurity experts who create “threat indicators” within an organization’s IT infrastructure to alert for emerging cyber threats. These specialists often work within a healthcare facility’s main operations center to guard against malicious activity.
• All-source analyst: These analysts parse data from disparate sources to prepare reports that healthcare organizations use to formulate strategies for their cybersecurity programs.

Find Your Perfect Cybersecurity Role

As the second-largest IT staffing company in the United States, we know how important it is for organizations to fill out their cybersecurity teams. The healthcare industry is no different. Patients’ data, security, and well-being is vital to providing top-notch care. We can help make sure your organizations stay ahead of the curve.