Also called: Game Security Engineer, Anti-Cheat Developer
Builds systems that detect and block players who use aimbots, wallhacks and hacked game files in online games.
A new cheat that lets players see through walls is spreading online, so you get a copy and take it apart to learn how it reads the game's memory. You write a detection and test it on thousands of matches to avoid banning innocent players. Then you plan a ban wave for Friday.
Estimated from game studio security engineer postings.
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 computer science or cybersecurity.
Ways in: 4-year college, Self-taught. Training cost: $15k – $60k.
Majors to look at: Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Software Engineering.
Growing faster than average. Online and competitive games keep growing, and so does cheating.
Medium risk for 10 years. AI spots odd player behavior, but reverse-engineering new cheats and avoiding false bans needs human experts.
Classes: AP Computer Science, Math, Physics.
Official data: O*NET occupation 15-1252.
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.