Also called: Cyber Extortion Negotiator, Threat Actor Negotiator
Talks directly with criminal hackers who have locked a company's files, buying time, checking their claims and pushing the ransom down.
A hospital's computers were locked overnight, and the hackers want $4 million. You open a chat on their dark-web site, demand proof they can unlock sample files, and stall while the recovery team checks backups. Meanwhile you check sanctions lists to make sure paying would even be legal.
Only a few hundred specialists; pay estimated from incident response firms.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
Bachelor's degree (4-year), about 4 years after high school. Bachelor's in cybersecurity, psychology or criminal justice, plus years in incident response or police work.
Ways in: 4-year college, On-the-job training. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Cybersecurity, Criminal Justice, Psychology, International Relations.
Growing faster than average. Ransomware attacks remain common, and insurers require expert help.
Low risk in 5 years, medium in 10. AI can translate chats and track gang habits, but reading criminals and making high-stakes calls stays human.
Classes: Psychology, Debate, A foreign language, Computer science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1212.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.